Forced Migration: The 1948 Palestinian Refugees

Abstract

During the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, accounting for roughly half of prewar Palestine’s Arab population. The exodus was a central component of the Palestinian society’s cracks, disempowerment and displacement, known as the Nakba, during which between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were damaged and others were exposed to the Hebraization of Palestinian place names, and it also relates to the wider period of the conflict itself and the subsequent oppression up to the present day. The main aim of this research is to define the causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, which led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. It also seeks to show the ways that the Nakba has influenced Palestinian history. This study explores the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, a UN (United Nations) agency that supports Palestinian refugees’ relief and human development.