The state of Israel was created on the Palestinian peoples’ home in May 1948. For the Palestinians it is remembered as Yawm an-Nakba meaning “Day of the Catastrophe” or just Nakba Day. During the 1948 Palestine War an estimated 750000 Palestinians fled or were expelled and hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated and destroyed. These refugees and their descendants number several million people today divided between Jordan (2 million) Lebanon (427057) Syria (477700) the West Bank (788108) and the Gaza Strip (1.1 million) with many more around the world. Later a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented them from returning to their homes or claiming their property. They along with many of their descendants remain refugees. The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing.
