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Media Can’t Contain Excitement as ‘Nakba Day’ Brings New Opportunity for Absurd Analogie
Members of Israel’s Arab minority take part in a rally marking the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”, when Palestinians lament the loss of their homeland in the 1948-49 war, that caused the creation of Israel, near the abandoned village of Khubbayza, northern Israel May 9, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad.
Another 15th of May, and another Nakba Day has come and gone.
Naturally, this year, the media had a field day. How could they not? The headlines proclaiming a “second Nakba” as Israel continues its war against Hamas in Gaza practically wrote themselves.
And while historical revisionism isn’t a new phenomenon on Nakba Day, this year saw journalists take a sledgehammer to the facts, rewriting the entire history of the Palestinian people.
Spoiler alert: Palestinians did not and cannot do any wrong. Whether Hamas terrorists are massacring Jews or firing rockets at the nearest Israeli target, Palestinians are eternal victims for Western journalists.
“A Brand New Catastrophe”
There are numerous contenders for the worst Nakba Day article, but two in particular stand out: an “explainer” from Sky News, and a CBS news article that frankly belongs in the opinion section.
First, Sky News. Opening its live page of Israel-Hamas war updates, the outlet published a piece titled, “Explained: What is Nakba Day?”
.@SkyNews‘ attempt to explain “Nakba Day” is a shocking piece of historical revisionism.
For example, Arab states rejected a UN partition plan & invaded the nascent Jewish state. Yet, Sky News says “Jewish paramilitaries swept in.”
And there’s more. https://t.co/vspSxvUZDq pic.twitter.com/QRxRZAW1NU
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2024
Unfortunately, the only thing the piece explained or revealed is the disturbingly limited knowledge of history possessed by the journalists at Sky.
The writer of the piece was, for example, unaware that the fledgling Jewish state was attacked by surrounding Arab states immediately after it declared its independence in 1948. Instead, the journalist mistakenly thought that “Jewish paramilitary forces swept in” and started fighting for the next 10 months.
The journalist was also under the impression that some historians had described Israel’s creation as “ethnic cleansing.” But because legitimate historians with that view don’t exist, none are named. Otherwise, someone would have to track down the historians and ask them how the 160,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained within the newly-formed Israel and gained full citizenship qualify as “ethnic cleansing.”
The Nakba explainer quickly fast-forwards to the 1967 Six-Day War, which readers are told was the result of a “festering territorial conflict” and “saw some 20,000 Arab troops die compared to fewer than 1,000 Israelis, [and also] saw the Jewish State claim further land.”
Once again, there is no mention that it was a defensive war in which Israel fought for its survival against multiple armies that had declared their intention to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. Instead, it seems that an uneven death toll on the two sides is indicative of who is right and who is wrong.
Nor is there any explanation that it was Jordan who was occupying eastern Jerusalem when the war broke out. The Jordanian occupation included the historical “Jewish Quarter” of the Old City, and Jewish holy sites.
Now, onto CBS News. Critiquing their article would be a waste of time, considering the primary problem with the piece is its complete absence of facts. It’s a few hundred words, doesn’t say much about Nakba Day, and appears to just be an excuse to take a few potshots at Israel.
But the headline of the article is another prime example of how too many media have made an inappropriate analogy between the events of 1948 and today.
Sky and CBS weren’t alone on the Nakba bandwagon.
The Associated Press fretted over a “potentially even larger catastrophe” than Israel’s founding, while CNN boasted about how “from one generation to the next, Palestinians aim to keep the history of al-Nakba alive,” among others.
A more accurate summary would have been, “From one generation to the next, Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism prevent them from ever achieving statehood.”
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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