About this episode

This episode discusses the Nakba and its implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featuring historian Mark LeVine.

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! Every May, Israelis celebrate the anniversary of their independence. For Palestinians, their memories are of dispossession and displacement. Beginning in late 1947, months before the official creation of the Jewish state, Jewish forces expelled Palestinian Arabs and destroyed their homes and villages. By the time the Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, was over, some 750,000 Palestinians had been expelled in one of the first ethnic cleansing operations of the post-WWII era. Yet it took generations for this story to receive the attention it deserves — an alarming erasure because today's conflict cannot be understood without this "other half" of Israel's origin story. Historian Mark LeVine of the University of California-Irvine is our guest. Further reading: Art Beyond the Edge: Creativity and Conflict in the World on Fire by Mark LeVine Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948 by Mark LeVine

People in this episode

Host: Martin Di Caro

Guest: Mark LeVine

Topics covered

• Nakba
• Israeli independence
• Palestinian displacement
• ethnic cleansing
• historical memory
• Middle East conflict

Keywords

• Nakba
• 1947
• Palestinians
• Israel
• ethnic cleansing
• Mark LeVine
• history
• displacement
• conflict

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of California-Irvine

Books & works: Art Beyond the Edge: Creativity and Conflict in the World on Fire, Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948

Places: Israel, Palestine

More episodes of History As It Happens

• The Meteorologist Who Saved D-Day · June 12, 2026 · 49 min
• Everyday Watergate · June 8, 2026 · 58 min
• Cold War Liberalism Redux · June 5, 2026 · 46 min
• Dealing with Iran, Obama to Trump (Bonus) · June 3, 2026 · 31 min
• America250! Lincoln and the Declaration · June 2, 2026 · 46 min
• America250! Civics and Conflict · May 26, 2026 · 33 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the History As It Happens podcast page.