The National Post published an opinion piece engaging in anti-Palestinian racism through Nakba denial, historical erasure, and victim-blaming. In his column, David Bercuson reframes the mass displacement, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians during Israel’s establishment in 1948 as a simple consequence of war.
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Title of Piece: David Bercuson: “The simple truth behind the ‘Nakba’”
Media Outlet: National Post
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(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):
The National Post published an opinion piece engaging in anti-Palestinian racism through Nakba denial, historical erasure, and victim-blaming. In his column, David Bercuson reframes the mass displacement, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians during Israel’s establishment in 1948 as a simple consequence of war.
Here are some optional angles for a media response:
- Bercuson writes that “Throughout history, wars — declared or not — have dispossessed people.” This framing minimizes the specific and ongoing nature of Palestinian dispossession by equating the Nakba into generic wartime displacement. Palestinians were not merely displaced temporarily by conflict. Hundreds of Palestinian communities were depopulated or destroyed, refugees were systematically denied return, and exclusion was institutionalized through Israeli state policy. Unlike many wartime refugee crises, Palestinians remain stateless and displaced generations later because Israel prevented their return despite international legal frameworks such as UN Resolution 194.
- The article also repeatedly casts doubt on the historical reality of the Nakba itself. Bercuson writes that Palestinians “claim” the Nakba included the expulsion of some 700,000 Palestinians, framing these events as disputed political campaign slogans rather than a well-documented historical fact. The expulsions and depopulation campaigns of 1948 have been extensively documented by historians across the ideological spectrum, including Israeli historians such as Benny Morris, whose own work is selectively cited later in the article.
- Perhaps most troublingly, the article rationalizes Palestinian dispossession through blatant victim-blaming. Bercuson argues that “If the Palestine Arabs and the Arab states had accepted the new Jewish state of Israel, there would have been no civil war.” This framing suggests Palestinians themselves bear responsibility for the Nakba because they resisted the partition of their homeland.
- While opinion writers are entitled to their views, opinion journalism should not be used to erase documented historical events or legitimize discriminatory narratives. The Nakba is a historical reality recognized by historians, human rights organizations, and the United Nations. Minimizing or rationalizing it constitutes a form of anti-Palestinian racism that should not be normalized in Canadian media.
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