On NPR’s “Morning Edition” (May 19, 2026), Leila Fadel introduced the segment “One Palestinian man’s life of survival” by describing the experience of the Palestinians at the time of Israel’s founding as the “Nakba” – Arabic for catastrophe. She then said “mass expulsion, flight and killings” of Palestinians have continued since Israel’s War of Independence 78 years ago.
In just 33 words, Fadel’s narrative of the “Nakba” inverted historical reality. She presented a picture of Israelis committing “mass expulsion, flight and killings” on helpless Palestinians in 1948, when in fact, Israel’s Declaration of Independence was met by Arab declarations of war. The Arabs had rejected the U.N.’s proposed partition plan, which would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state, opting instead for war to try and take it all.
NPR’s narrative omits that Israel’s Declaration of Independence appealed to Arab residents to remain – the opposite of “mass expulsions.” In fact, approximately 150,000 Arabs stayed in Israel during the war. The descendants of those who remained make up about 20 percent of today’s Israeli population. There was no policy of expulsions, though a few occurred, mainly due to military operations in specific locations.
Many Arabs fled at the direction of their leadership, believing they would run the Jews out and be able to return to their homes. CAMERA’s excellent historical primer explains the different circumstances under which those Arabs left Israel at that time – including for reasons unrelated to Israeli policies or military action. It also details the massacre and hostage-taking of Jewish villagers who did not flee before Arab forces took over their towns, making them judenfrei.
Social media post on “X” by Arab-Israeli entrepreneur Nuseir Yassin in response to the New York City mayor’s post about Nakba Day.
Palestinian experiences during the war are newsworthy. But NPR’s presentation of a one-sided narrative, highlighting only Palestinian victimhood and not Palestinian responsibility, is activism, not journalism.