Nakba is an Arabic word that means “catastrophe.” The Nakba was the destruction, expulsion, looting, massacres and incidents of rape of the Palestinian inhabitants of this country. It was keeping refugees out by force at the end of the war, in order to establish the Jewish state. And it is the ongoing destruction of Palestinian localities, the disregard for the rights of refugees and displaced people, and the prohibition against teaching and commemorating the Nakba in schools and civic groups.

Zochrot ("Remembering") seeks to raise public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba, especially among Jews in Israel, who bear a special responsibility to remember and amend the legacy of 1948. The principal victims of the Nakba were the Palestinians, especially the refugees, who lost their entire world. But Jews in Israel also pay a price for their conquest of the land in 1948, living in constant fear and without hope.  

The Nakba destroyed the fabric of relations that existed between Jews and Palestinians before 1948. In recognizing and materializing the right ofreturn lies the possibility for Jews and Palestinians to live in this country together.

Zochrot carries out different projects to advance understanding of Nakba and its legacy.This website is one of those projects. The site presents information about thePalestinian localities that Israel destroyed in 1948 and about the Nakba's place in our lives today. The Nakba is spoken in different voices on this site — in photographs, testimonies, maps, prose, and more. Zochrot's is one of these voices, a voice that seeks recognition for injustice and new paths toward change and repair.

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