Presenting the Nakba as a fight “over control” of “what is now Israel” misleads audiences about the nature of the violent forced expulsion and uprooting of Palestinians at the hands of Zionist paramilitary groups.
Dear CTV Radio and Canadian Press,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (www.cjpme.org) regarding the radio segment that aired on Friday, June 19, 2026, at 7:00:26 AM on CIVI-DT.
The segment, read by John Kennedy of the Canadian Press, states that “the exhibit [at the Canadian Human Rights Museum] opens June 27 and focuses on people affected by the ‘Nabka,’ [sic] Arabic for catastrophe, when 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 1948 during fighting over control of what is now Israel.”
First, I would like to flag an error in the segment. The term referring to the violent mass displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was incorrectly referred to as “Nabka.” The correct Arabic term is Nakba (النكبة), meaning “catastrophe.”
I therefore respectfully ask that future reporting use the correct spelling and pronunciation: Nakba, not “Nabka.”
Second, the segment describes the Nakba as a period in which “750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 1948 during fighting over control of what is now Israel.”
This framing is problematic for several reasons, even for a brief segment. The Nakba was a deliberate and systemic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Portraying the Nakba as a “fight over control” of territory is inaccurate, because in reality the Nakba was entirely asymmetrical. Zionist paramilitary groups systematically ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, including carrying out dozens of massacres. These are historical facts supported even by Israeli scholars.
Further, it is Zionists themselves who self-identified as colonizers and viewed the Palestinians as natives:
- Theodore Herzl himself described Zionism as “something colonial” while referring to Palestinians as “the indigenous population.”
- In his seminal essay “The Iron Wall”, the Israeli right’s intellectual godfather Vladimir Jabotinsky refers repeatedly to Palestinians as “the native population” and to Zionists as “the colonists” (and to “our colonising aims”).
- The first Zionist bank, founded by the Second Zionist Congress, was named the “Jewish Colonial Trust.”
- The 19th century societies created by Jewish philanthropist Maurice de Hirsh to further Zionism were named the “Jewish Colonization Association” and the “Palestine Jewish Colonization Association.”
Presenting the Nakba as a fight “over control” of “what is now Israel” misleads audiences about the nature of the violent forced expulsion and uprooting of Palestinians at the hands of Zionist paramilitary groups. We therefore ask that future reporting not portray the Nakba as a struggle over control, but rather as a campaign of ethnic cleansing that resulted in the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this feedback.
Lynn Naji
Media Analyst
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East