A key that no longer fits a lock.
A map of roads that changed their names.
A thread that carries a village home.
THE NAKBA, VISUALIZED
1947-1949: Displacement, Memory, and the Making of a Refugee Question
Between 1947 and 1949, over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes. This is what happened—and how we know.
Palestine, 1946
BEFORE 1948: A LIVING MOSAIC
A morning in Jaffa. The smell of bread and sea air. A vendor calls in Arabic; another responds. Newspapers print opinions; unions organize workers; municipal councils meet. In the hills, olive groves silver under morning light. On the coast, oranges ripen for export. Twenty-nine towns, over eight hundred villages, 1.3 million lives—each with a name, a story, a place. This was not empty land. This was home.
The World Before
Mandate Palestine in 1946 was a functioning society. British census data documented approximately 1.3 million Arabs living in 29 towns and over 800 villages. Major cities—Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa—were centers of commerce, culture, and political activity.
The economy centered on agriculture: olive groves in the hills, orange groves on the coastal plain. Jaffa's famous oranges were exported across the Mediterranean. Ports at Haifa and Jaffa connected Palestine to global trade routes.
Institutions flourished: Arabic-language newspapers debated politics and culture; labor unions organized workers; municipal governments managed civic affairs. Cafés in Jaffa and Jerusalem hosted intellectual life; cinemas showed films.
Evidence
British Mandate census data documenting the Palestinian population distribution across towns and villages.
British Mandate Government, Village Statistics 1945, Government Printer, Jerusalem, 1945.
Comprehensive British government report prepared for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, documenting Palestinian society, economy, and institutions.
Government of Palestine, A Survey of Palestine, 2 vols., Government Printer, Jerusalem, 1946.
Over 23,000 photographs documenting daily life in Palestine from 1898-1946, housed at the Library of Congress.
G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Digitized Mandate-era survey maps showing villages, roads, and topography in high resolution.
Palestine Open Maps, https://palopenmaps.org. Public domain.
British Mandate records, census data, photographs, and institutional documentation show a complex, functioning society with towns, villages, agriculture, trade, and cultural institutions.
So What?
Understanding displacement requires seeing what existed. Homes were not abstractions—they had addresses, neighbors, and morning routines. The scale of loss becomes real only when the world-before becomes visible.
August 1948 and after
THE WORD: NAKBA (النكبة)
August 1948. In Beirut, a professor sits with his pen. Constantin Zurayk has watched the Arab armies falter, watched refugees stream across borders. He writes quickly—not a history but a reckoning. He chooses his word carefully: not naksa (setback), but nakba (catastrophe). In every sense of the word. Within weeks, his pamphlet circulates. A term is born. Over decades, it will shift from Arab self-criticism to Palestinian memorial. The word nakba now carries the weight of dispossession itself.
Constantin Zurayk
The Man Who Named the Catastrophe
- Born Damascus, 1909; Greek Orthodox Christian family
- PhD Princeton; Professor at American University of Beirut
- Published Ma'na an-Nakba (The Meaning of the Disaster), August 1948
"The defeat of the Arabs in Palestine is not a small downfall—naksa... It is a catastrophe—nakba—in every sense of the word."
The Naming
The term "Nakba" was coined by Constantin Zurayk in his 1948 pamphlet Ma'na an-Nakba(The Meaning of the Disaster). Zurayk, a Syrian-born historian and professor at the American University of Beirut, wrote it as a work of Arab self-criticism—an analysis of why the Arab states had failed to prevent the establishment of Israel.
Over subsequent decades, the term shifted. It became less about Arab failure and more about Palestinian displacement. Today, "Nakba" is the central term Palestinians use to describe the events of 1948. May 15—the day after Israeli independence is declared—is observed as Nakba Day.
Contested Naming
The same events carry different names. Israelis call 1948 the "War of Independence" (Milchemet Ha'atzma'ut). Palestinians call it the Nakba. The choice of term reflects perspective: one emphasizes birth; the other, dispossession. Both refer to the same historical events.
Evidence
Constantin Zurayk's pamphlet published in August 1948, first using the term 'Nakba' to describe the events.
Zurayk, Constantin. Ma'na an-Nakba (The Meaning of the Disaster). Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm lil-Malayin, 1948.
Annual commemoration on May 15, the day after Israeli independence, marking the displacement.
United Nations, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People documentation.
Scholarly analysis of how the term evolved from Arab self-criticism to Palestinian commemorative term.
Academic historiography; multiple sources.
The term was coined in 1948 by Constantin Zurayk. Its meaning has evolved, but its historical origin is documented.
So What?
Naming is not ornament—it shapes what people remember, mourn, and demand. Understanding why Palestinians call 1948 'the catastrophe' requires understanding how that name emerged and what it carries.
1917-1947
MANDATE YEARS: PROMISES, MIGRATION, REVOLT
November 2, 1917. Sixty-seven words change everything. Arthur Balfour writes to Lord Rothschild: His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. Thirty years later, ships arrive. Streets tense. A revolt is crushed. A committee investigates. Another partition is proposed. The British, exhausted by war and empire, announce they are leaving. They turn the problem over to the United Nations. The fuse is lit.
The Balfour Declaration
Arthur Balfour
Author of the Balfour Declaration
- British Foreign Secretary 1916-1919
- Signed the declaration that shaped Mandate policy
- 67 words that launched decades of conflict
Chaim Weizmann
Architect of British Support
- President of World Zionist Organization
- WWI chemistry contributions gave access to British officials
- Lobbied for Balfour Declaration
- Later: First President of Israel
The Mandate Period
The British Mandate (1920-1948) attempted to fulfill contradictory promises. Jewish immigration increased, especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933. Arab resistance grew, culminating in the Arab Revolt of 1936-39, which the British suppressed with significant force.
The Peel Commission (1937) first proposed partition. The White Paper of 1939 limited immigration just as European Jews faced Nazi persecution. After World War II, Holocaust survivors sought entry; the British tried to limit it. UNSCOP (1947) recommended partition. The British announced withdrawal.
Evidence
The 67-word letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, November 2, 1917.
British National Archives, FO 371/3083. Public domain.
First official proposal for partition of Palestine, following the Arab Revolt.
Palestine Royal Commission Report, Cmd. 5479, London: HMSO, 1937.
British policy limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine, issued as WWII approached.
British Government White Paper, Cmd. 6019, London: HMSO, 1939.
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine report recommending partition.
United Nations, Report of the Special Committee on Palestine, A/364, September 1947.
The events of 1948 emerged from thirty years of British Mandate policy, immigration, revolt, and international pressure. The Nakba did not appear from nowhere.
So What?
The Nakba emerges from a collision of imperial withdrawal, competing nationalisms, and postwar crisis. To understand 1948, you must understand 1917-1947.
November 29, 1947
PARTITION: THE VOTE THAT SPLIT THE MAP
November 29, 1947. At Lake Success, New York, delegates vote. The board lights up: 33 for, 13 against, 10 abstentions. The United Nations has recommended partition—a Jewish state, an Arab state, Jerusalem under international control. In Tel Aviv, crowds dance. In Palestinian cities, dread settles. The plan allocates 55% of the land to the Jewish state, though Jews are a third of the population. Arabs reject it. Jews reluctantly accept. Within hours, shots are fired. The civil war has begun.
UN General Assembly Resolution 181
What the Plan Proposed
Resolution 181 recommended dividing Palestine into a Jewish state (55% of land), an Arab state (44%), and an international zone for Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Jewish state would include most of the coastal plain, the eastern Galilee, and the Negev desert. The Arab state would include the western Galilee, the hill country, and Gaza.
The Jewish Agency accepted, despite internal reservations about boundaries. The Arab Higher Committee rejected it, arguing that the majority population should not have its land divided by the minority. Violence began immediately.
Evidence
The complete text of the UN partition resolution, including territorial provisions.
UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II), 29 November 1947. Avalon Project, Yale Law School.
33 in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions. Analysis of voting patterns and lobbying.
UN Archives, General Assembly Official Records, 1947.
Jewish Agency acceptance (with reservations) and Arab Higher Committee rejection.
Multiple contemporary sources; Morris, Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.
Analysis of the gap between the partition recommendation and what emerged from war.
Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press, 2008.
The UN recommended partition but had no mechanism to implement it. The partition plan was never implemented as written—what emerged came from war.
So What?
A line on a map can become a trigger—especially when people live on both sides of it. The vote did not create peace; it accelerated conflict.
November 1947 - May 1948
CIVIL WAR, COLLAPSE, FLIGHT
December 1947. The buses stop running. Snipers control the roads between neighborhoods. A woman in Haifa hears that a village was attacked. She packs what she can carry. In Jerusalem, a convoy is ambushed. In Jaffa, mortars fall on the city center. No one is in charge. The British are leaving. By April, Haifa's Arab population—60,000 people—will leave in two days. By May, Jaffa will fall. The Nakba is already underway before Israel is declared.
The Unraveling
The civil war phase (November 1947 - May 1948) saw intercommunal violence escalate rapidly. Key developments included:
- Operation Nachshon (April 1948): Haganah offensive to open the road to Jerusalem
- Deir Yassin (April 9, 1948): Attack that spread fear and accelerated flight
- Haifa evacuation (April 21-22): ~60,000 Arabs left in 48-72 hours
- Jaffa siege: Irgun mortars; city fell by May 13
This section discusses a massacre. It focuses on documented evidence and historical impact, not graphic details.
Menachem Begin
Irgun Commander
- Commander of Irgun Zvai Leumi
- Irgun conducted mortar campaign on Jaffa
- Irgun participated in Deir Yassin attack
- Later: Prime Minister of Israel
Evidence
Haganah offensive to open the road to Jerusalem, April 1948.
Morris, Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, pp. 163-180.
Red Cross reports and casualty estimates from the April 9, 1948 attack.
International Committee of the Red Cross reports; Morris; Pappé. Casualty estimates: 100-120.
Documentation of the mass evacuation of Haifa's Arab population, April 21-22, 1948.
Morris, Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, pp. 191-209.
Irgun mortar campaign and refugee flows from Palestine's largest Arab city.
Morris; IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding) resources.
Haganah operational plan. Interpretation debated between Morris and Pappé.
Original plan in IDF Archives; interpretations in Morris and Pappé.
Major urban evacuations (Haifa, Jaffa) and significant village depopulations occurred BEFORE May 14, 1948. The displacement began during the civil war phase.
So What?
Displacement often begins as a slow unraveling before it becomes a stampede. Understanding the civil war phase shows the Nakba was a process, not a single moment.
May - December 1948
1948 WAR: DISPLACEMENT AS A PROCESS
July 1948. A family in Lydda hears the soldiers coming. They have minutes. What do you take? The key. The deed. The photograph. A loaf of bread. They join thousands on the road—on foot, in summer heat, toward Ramallah. Some will collapse. The soldiers have orders: "The residents of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age." This is not flight. This is expulsion. Elsewhere, causes differ: fear, combat, collapse. One event, multiple mechanisms. This is displacement as process.
The Numbers
Displacement estimates range from approximately 520,000 to over 1,000,000, with scholarly consensus exceeding 700,000. Why do numbers differ?
- Different counting methodologies
- Inclusion/exclusion of Bedouin populations
- Political motivations in early estimates
- Archive access limitations
The uncertainty is itself meaningful. We present ranges, not false precision.
The Causes
Displacement was not a single mechanism. Causes varied by locality, time, and circumstance:
- Direct expulsion: Documented in Lydda/Ramle; expulsion orders exist in archives
- Fear of violence: Widespread after Deir Yassin; psychological impact documented
- Military operations: Evacuations during/after attacks
- Economic/social collapse: Supply disruption, service breakdown
Yitzhak Rabin
IDF Commander
- Palmach officer during 1948 war
- Signed Lydda/Ramle expulsion order
- Reported Ben-Gurion's gesture: "Drive them out"
- Later: Prime Minister, Oslo Accords, assassinated 1995
David Ben-Gurion
Israel's Founding Prime Minister
- Declared independence May 14, 1948
- Ordered Lydda/Ramle expulsion according to Rabin's account
- Historians debate degree of central planning
The Lydda/Ramle Expulsion
The Lydda/Ramle expulsion (July 1948) is the largest documented mass expulsion of the war. 50,000-70,000 people were expelled. A written expulsion order exists in IDF archives. Yitzhak Rabin later wrote: "The residents of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age."
This was not flight from fear. This was explicit expulsion, documented in primary sources.
The Historiographical Debate
Historians disagree about the degree of central planning. Benny Morris argues that "the most important single factor in the exodus of April-June was Jewish attack," but stops short of calling it planned ethnic cleansing. Ilan Pappé argues for deliberate, centrally coordinated ethnic cleansing. Both use the same archives but interpret them differently.
Evidence
Range: 520,000 to over 1,000,000. Scholarly consensus exceeds 700,000.
UNRWA; Morris; Britannica. Methodology differences explain range.
Documentary evidence of explicit expulsion order, signed by Yitzhak Rabin.
IDF Archives; Rabin memoirs; Morris, pp. 423-436.
"The most important single factor in the exodus of April-June was Jewish attack."
Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge, 2004.
Argues for deliberate ethnic cleansing through centrally coordinated planning.
Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld, 2006.
Why single-cause explanations fail: causes varied by time, place, and circumstance.
Historiographical consensus across multiple scholars.
Open questions about degree of central planning and proportions of different causes.
Ongoing academic debate; Morris vs. Pappé.
Displacement resulted from multiple causes varying by time and place. Some localities saw documented expulsion; others saw flight from fear or combat. The multi-causal model is the scholarly consensus.
So What?
How we interpret causality affects justice claims, moral narratives, and policy today. Understanding the complexity prevents both denial and oversimplification.
1947-1948
CASE FILES: SIX PLACES, SIX DIFFERENT STORIES
The Nakba was one event but not one script. Each locality experienced displacement differently. These six case studies demonstrate the variation in causes, timing, and mechanisms.
Haifa (حيفا)
Major Port City
Jaffa (يافا)
Major Cultural/Economic Center
Lydda & Ramle (اللد والرملة)
Twin Towns, Inland
Safed (صفد)
Ancient Galilean City
Lifta (لفتا)
Village Near Jerusalem
Al-Birwa (البروة)
Rural Agricultural Village
Case studies show significant variation. Lydda/Ramle was documented expulsion; Haifa was military operations plus evacuation; Lifta was gradual flight from violence. Different mechanisms, same outcome.
So What?
The Nakba is one event, but not one script. Understanding local variation prevents both oversimplification and denial.
1948-1950
AFTERMATH: REFUGEEHOOD AND THE BIRTH OF UNRWA
December 1949. The war is over. The armistice lines are drawn. But the refugees remain—in tents, in camps, in neighboring countries. The United Nations establishes UNRWA: relief and works for Palestine refugees. A three-year mandate. Seventy-five years later, UNRWA still operates. The camps became cities. The tents became concrete. The ration cards became identity. Five million registered refugees. The question remains: what does "return" mean when decades have passed and the doors remain closed?
UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Paragraph 11
Count Folke Bernadotte
First UN Mediator
- Swedish diplomat; WWII rescue hero
- Appointed UN mediator May 1948
- Achieved initial truce
- Assassinated September 17, 1948 by Lehi
- His report documented refugee situation
Ralph Bunche
Second UN Mediator
- Succeeded Bernadotte after assassination
- Negotiated 1949 armistice agreements
- First African American to win Nobel Peace Prize (1950)
UNRWA
UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) was established in December 1949 with a three-year renewable mandate. It was intended as temporary. 75+ years later, it continues to operate.
UNRWA registers descendants of original refugees. Today, 5.9 million people are registered as Palestine refugees. The camps became permanent communities—cities within cities.
Evidence
Resolution establishing right of return/compensation for refugees.
UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III), 11 December 1948.
Resolution establishing UNRWA as temporary agency (now 75+ years old).
UN General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV), 8 December 1949.
UN Mediator's final report documenting refugee conditions before his assassination.
Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, September 1948.
Maps showing distribution of refugees across Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan.
UNRWA maps and statistics, 1950-present.
UNRWA exists because the political deadlock has never been resolved. The agency was created as temporary; political circumstances made it permanent.
So What?
Refugee status becomes a long corridor of time when politics blocks the exit. Understanding UNRWA requires understanding the political failure to resolve the underlying question.
1948-1950s
THOSE WHO REMAINED
Not everyone left. Some stayed—in Nazareth, in the Galilee villages, in the mixed cities. They became citizens of the new state. But citizenship did not mean equality. Some were "present absentees"—physically present but legally absent from property they could see from their windows. Villages emptied around them. Names changed. Roads rerouted. To remain was to witness transformation. The Nakba is not only exile. It is also survival inside a landscape that no longer recognizes you.
Inside the New State
Approximately 150,000 Palestinians remained inside what became Israel. They became citizens, but lived under military administration until 1966. Some were internally displaced—unable to return to homes visible from their new locations.
The legal category of "present absentee" applied to those who were inside Israel but absent from their property on specific dates. They could not reclaim their land even though they remained in the country.
Evidence
Analysis of Palestinian citizens inside Israel after 1948.
Academic sources on Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Legal category for internally displaced persons inside Israel.
Israeli Absentee Property Law (1950); legal scholarship.
Post-war policies regarding abandoned/confiscated property.
Morris; legal analysis of Israeli land law.
Approximately 150,000 Palestinians remained inside what became Israel. Their presence does not negate the displacement of 700,000+. Survival and dispossession coexist.
So What?
The Nakba is not only exile. It is also living among transformed geographies—seeing your village from a distance, walking roads with changed names, existing in a landscape that no longer recognizes you.
1948-Present
MEMORY AS EVIDENCE
In a refugee camp in Lebanon, an elderly woman embroiders. Each stitch follows a pattern passed from her mother, who learned it from her mother, who learned it in a village that no longer exists on any map. The pattern is specific: these colors, this geometry, this village.Tatreez carries identity across generations. When archives are incomplete, memory becomes a second archive—imperfect but essential. How do historians use oral testimony? How does culture preserve what documents cannot?
Tatreez: Stitching Identity
In 2021, UNESCO inscribed Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Traditional patterns encoded village identity: specific motifs indicated origin, status, and regional affiliation.
When villages were depopulated and archives scattered, embroidery preserved what paper could not. The patterns continue in diaspora, transmitted across generations.
Oral History as Method
Oral history is a recognized methodology in academic historiography. Historians triangulate testimony with documents, maps, and multiple accounts. Memory is imperfect—but so are archives. The question is not "is memory reliable?" but "how do we use multiple sources together?"
Evidence
Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2021.
UNESCO, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2021.
How historians verify and triangulate oral testimony.
Oral History Association guidelines; methodology literature.
Documentation projects preserving refugee narratives.
Various oral history projects and archives.
When memory and documents align (and when they diverge).
Historical methodology literature.
Oral history is a recognized methodology. Historians triangulate testimony with documents, maps, and multiple accounts. Memory is imperfect but essential—especially when archives are incomplete or closed.
So What?
When archives are closed or incomplete, memory becomes a second archive—imperfect, but essential. Understanding how historians use testimony teaches readers how knowledge is built.
Present Day / Methodology
WHAT WE STILL DON'T KNOW
In the Israeli Defense Forces archives, files remain classified. In a refugee camp, an elderly witness dies before her story is recorded. In a village registry, pages are missing. History is not a completed puzzle—it is an ongoing reconstruction with pieces still being found. What would newly declassified documents reveal? What testimony remains uncollected? Responsible history does not mean neutral feelings—it means transparent methods. What we don't know matters as much as what we do.
Open Questions
- What do classified Israeli archives contain?
- What oral history remains uncollected as witnesses age and die?
- How should we weigh competing interpretations of the same evidence?
- What evidence would change scholarly consensus?
The Morris/Pappé Debate
Benny Morris and Ilan Pappé represent two poles of interpretation. Both are "New Historians" who used Israeli archives opened in the 1980s. Morris documents extensive violence and expulsion but argues against a master plan. Pappé argues for systematic ethnic cleansing. They use similar sources but draw different conclusions.
This is how scholarship works: disagreement is productive. What matters is methodology, evidence, and transparent reasoning.
Epistemic Humility
Responsible history acknowledges uncertainty without claiming that nothing is knowable. Historians agree on much:
- Displacement happened
- Numbers exceed 700,000
- Documented expulsions occurred (Lydda/Ramle)
- Fear played a significant role
- The discredited "Arab orders" claim lacks evidence
They debate interpretation: degree of planning, proportions of causes, moral framing. Disagreement is productive, not paralyzing.
Evidence
What remains classified in Israeli and other archives.
Academic discussion of archive accessibility.
How Morris, Pappé, and others interpret the same evidence differently.
Comparative historiography; academic debate.
What evidence would change consensus; what we still need to learn.
Methodology and historiography literature.
Disagreement is how scholarship works. Historians agree on much (displacement happened, numbers exceed 700,000, documented expulsions occurred). They debate interpretation (degree of planning, proportions of causes). Disagreement is productive, not paralyzing.
So What?
Responsible history does not mean neutral feelings—it means transparent methods. Understanding what we don't know is as important as understanding what we do.
The Nakba is history. It is also present. Over five million people are registered as Palestine refugees. The villages exist as ruins, as memories, as stitches in fabric. The keys are still kept.
This essay has not told you what to think. It has shown you evidence, methodology, and uncertainty. It has distinguished established facts from contested interpretations. It has centered human dignity without sensationalism.
Understanding does not require agreement. But it does require engagement with evidence. A map is not a home. A document is not a life. But they are where understanding begins.
What you do with this understanding is yours to decide.
Glossary
Bibliography
Primary Documents
- British Government. A Survey of Palestine. 2 vols. Jerusalem: Government Printer, 1946.
- British Government. Palestine Royal Commission Report (Peel Commission). Cmd. 5479. London: HMSO, 1937.
- United Nations. General Assembly Resolution 181 (II). 29 November 1947.
- United Nations. General Assembly Resolution 194 (III). 11 December 1948.
- United Nations. General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV). 8 December 1949.
Academic Books
- Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press, 2008.
- Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications, 2006.
- Khalidi, Walid. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
- Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine. Metropolitan Books, 2020.
- Segev, Tom. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate. Metropolitan Books, 2000.
- Shlaim, Avi. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. W.W. Norton, 2000.
- Zurayk, Constantin. Ma'na an-Nakba (The Meaning of the Disaster). Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm lil-Malayin, 1948.
Archives & Collections
- G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/collections/g-eric-and-edith-matson-photographs/
- Palestine Open Maps. https://palopenmaps.org
- United Nations Archives. https://archives.un.org
- UNRWA. https://www.unrwa.org
- Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu
Image Credits
- Historical photographs: G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication.
- Map data: Palestine Open Maps (palopenmaps.org). Public domain.
- Figure portraits: Wikimedia Commons. License verified per image.