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| Lebanese hotel that hosted the UN Palestine committee in1947 |
A lot.
Everything that happens to them is the worst injustice or tragedy or catastrophe in human history. Any other news story must be subsumed under or hijacked to their eternal victimhood.
The word "nakba" is a perfect example. It obviously was bad for 600,000 Palestinian Arabs to become suddenly stateless, but coming on the heels of World War II - when some 40-60 million people were displaced - this is a footnote.
The partition of India, the same year as the "nakba," displaced some 20 million people and resulted in the deaths of as many as 2 million people. Some 100,000 women were kidnapped or raped.
The "nakba" narrative was made up afterwards to make Palestinian suffering appear to be one of the worst human rights catastrophes in history, and the people who created that narrative were quite aware that this was not close to true.
But another example, which is quite comical, of Palestinian exaggeration for their suffering came in 1947, before their displacement.
Speaking on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs at a UN meeting in Lebanon in July 1947, Saudi Arabia delegate Fouad Hamza said, "Never in the history of human conflicts have any people or country suffered an injustice so grave as the injustice and calamities suffered by the Arabs of Palestine. "
The idea of a Jewish state existing - even a tiny one - was considered to be one of the worst tragedies in human history.
He said this before a single Palestinian Arab left their home.
While this appears humorous now, it points out what the real "nakba" is according to Palestinians and their allies in the Arab world. It has nothing to do with losing homes, or property or becoming refugees. No, the "nakba" was - and is -that the weak, dhimmi Jews carved out a small country in what they considered Arab lands. .
The very existence of Israel is a reminder that the Arabs were humiliated. In the Arab world, that is the worst fate possible, worse than death. All the other reasons given for calling it a "nakba" fall apart with the slightest scrutiny of comparing it against real catastrophes that happen every year. Muslims and Arabs have lost lots of wars in the centuries beforehand and the decades afterwards, but no one called them "nakbas." They'd become refugees before and since - 5.5 million Syrians were displaced in the past decade - but no one calls that a "nakba."
The reason why Palestinian refugees have not been absorbed in neighboring countries is because of that humiliation. Palestinians remind the Arabs of the victory by the dhimmi Jews.
The "nakba" is driven by shame. Everything else is window dressing.
