The Word ‘Nakba’ Is Now Banned In Israel

Israeli Arab advocacy groups on Sunday reacted sternly to an announcement from Israeli occupation Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar that the phrase Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic and is used by Arabs to describe the formation of the Zionist entity, would be dropped from textbooks for the new school year, which begins on Tuesday.

While Sa’ar had previously said he was mulling such a move, an official announcement of the change came during an extensive briefing the minister gave to the cabinet on Sunday morning regarding the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

“What Israeli Arabs experienced during the [1948 War of Independence] was certainly a tragedy,” Sa’ar said. “But the word ‘Nakba,’ whose meaning is similar to ‘Holocaust’ in this context, will no longer be used. The creation of the State of Israel cannot be referred to as a tragedy, and the education system in the Arab sector will revise its studies [regarding this] in elementary schools.”

The specific textbook in question was approved for third graders in the Arab sector just over two years ago by then-education minister Yuli Tamir and described the events surrounding the war as catastrophic, as Arabs had been expelled from their homes and became refugees after their lands were confiscated by Israel. More