According to some historians and academics, there exists a form of historical negationism pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and its accompanying effects, which Palestinians refer to collectively as the "Nakba" (). The denial of the Nakba is central to Zionist narratives of 1948 and was largely facilitated by Israeli historiography. Beginning in the 1980s, Israel's history began to be reviewed and rewritten by the New Historians and significant volumes of Israeli Jewish literature have emerged intent on "demystifying the past".
Nakba denial has been described as still prevalent in both Israeli and US discourse and linked to various tropes associated with anti-Arab racism. In 2011, Israel enacted the Nakba Law which authorized the withdrawal of state funds from organizations that discuss the Nakba. Israel also hosts grassroots movements, such as Zochrot, that have aimed to combat Nakba denial through direct memorial action. In May 2023, following the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made the denial of the 1948 expulsion a crime punishable by two years in jail.
Allegations of historical negationism
In Zionist and Israeli statehood narratives
According to some historians and academics, there exists a form of historical negationism pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and its accompanying effects, which Palestinians refer to collectively as the "Nakba" (). The denial of the Nakba is central to Zionist narratives of 1948 and was largely facilitated by Israeli historiography. Beginning in the 1980s, Israel's history began to be reviewed and rewritten by the New Historians and significant volumes of Israeli Jewish literature have emerged intent on "demystifying the past".
According to Middle East researcher Mariko Mori, Israel, in its official narrative justifying the establishment of the Jewish state, has "rarely mentioned the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem and the destruction of over 400 Palestinian villages in 1948, thus deliberately denying Palestinian memories of the Nakba." She states that the mainstream narratives justifying the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight rest on a number of assumptions, including that Palestine was a "barren, uninhabited land"; that Palestinian Arabs were part of a "greater Arab nation" and were not a nation, disputing Palestinian Arab nationalism; that Palestinian Arabs were "rioters and pogromists"; that Jews were returning home (the negation of the Diaspora); and that population transfers were a "justifiable, universal solution to minority questions".
According to the University of Arizona history professor Maha Nassar in an article criticizing the historicity of the narratives presented in Leon Uris' 1958 novel Exodus, the denial of Zionists' responsibility for the 1948 expulsion and flight of Palestinians, combined with the claim that Arabs themselves were to blame (that rests on anti-Arab racist tropes present in the novel), constitutes a form of historical negationism, that she names "Nakba denialism". Among the anti-Arab racist tropes, according to her, are the notion that Palestinians lack religious attachment to Palestine, that they lack "modern feelings of national identity", and are easily induced to violence by their leaders. Within the paradigm of Zionism as settler colonialism, she states that such narratives blame the victims of settler colonial violence for their expulsion.