Nakba: Jewish voices are challenging the stories Israel tells about itself A film director, historian and Holocaust survivor speak to Al Jazeera as opinions shift.

Stephen Kapos and Gillian Mosely at the London screening of Planet Israel [Beardvoyage]

By Indlieb Farazi Saber

Published On 15 May 202615 May 2026

London, United Kingdom – The lights come up slowly inside a cinema in London’s buzzy Soho district, but nobody rushes for the exit.

As the credits roll, one woman lowers her face into her hands. A couple sit motionless. In the row ahead, someone exhales and says “Free Palestine”.

This screening of Planet Israel: A Cautionary Tale took place on the eve of Nakba Day, the annual commemoration of the 1948 forced displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians and the killing of thousands more during the creation of the Israeli state.

The documentary, set for UK-wide release from 5 June, explores how trauma, nationalism and militarisation have shaped Israeli society after October 7, 2023, and during the war on Gaza. Featuring interviews with historians, academics, former soldiers and everyday Israelis, the film arrives at a moment when old political certainties around Israel are fracturing — increasingly among Jewish and Israeli intellectuals, artists, rabbis and historians themselves.

“The media has not reported this,” the film’s director Gillian Mosely told Al Jazeera from her London home, days before the screening. “British Jews are being treated as a monolith, which I think is fuelling anti-Semitism.”... READ MORE   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/5/15/nakba-jewish-voices-are-challenging-the-stories-israel-tells-about-itself

Screenshot from Planet Israel, featuring historian Avi Shlaim discussing Israel and shifting public perceptions [Planet Israel] Historian Avi Shlaim, who is featured in Planet Israel, spoke of a rupture between Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

   [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Britain and the Nakba: A history of betrayal- An unbroken thread of duplicity, mendacity and chicanery connects British foreign policy from Balfour to the Nakba to the present day

A demonstrator holding an umbrella with colours of the Palestinian flag stands by an Israeli flag during a protest against a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 24 March 2023 (Reuters)

Avi Shlaim

10 May 2023

Britain created the conditions that made the Palestinian Nakba possible.

In 1948, the Palestinians experienced a collective catastrophe of monumental proportions: some 530 villages were destroyed; more than 62,000 homes were demolished; about 13,000 Palestinians were killed; and 750,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of the Arab population of the country were driven out of their homes and became refugees.

This was the climax of the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

In its essence, Zionism had always been a settler-colonial movement. Its ultimate aim was to build an independent Jewish state in Palestine on as much of the land as possible and with as few Arabs within its borders as possible. Zionist spokesmen constantly reiterated that they meant no harm to the Arab inhabitants of the country, that they wanted to develop the country for the benefit of both communities.

But this was largely rhetoric, kalam fadi in Arabic, empty talk.... READ MORE  https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/nakba-britain-history-betrayal 

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"The moral and political degradation of Israel is the subject of this remarkable book. The author, Omer Bartov, has impeccable credentials for writing it: he was born on a kibbutz, he served as an officer in the IDF, and is currently professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University in the US." Avi Shlaim in The Guardian

Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings following Israeli evacuation orders for Gaza City in September 2025. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov review – the long view

An erudite account of the foundation of the state and its subsequent moral and political decline

Avi Shlaim

Sat 9 May 2026

Israel’s attack on Iran is only the most recent example of its degeneration in recent decades, coming on top of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, genocide in Gaza, invasion of Syria and relentless bombardment of Lebanon. The fact that the US joined in this illegal war confirmed to many in the region what they have long suspected: that the country is an outpost of western imperialism in the Middle East.

The state of Israel, which arose from the ashes of the Holocaust 77 years ago, has received an unprecedented degree of international sympathy and support ever since. This support was partly due to western guilt and partly due to the perception of the Jewish state as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. The country’s Declaration of Independence promised to uphold “the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex”. In the early years of statehood, Israel was seen in the west as an icon of liberal, progressive and egalitarian society.

Today, it is widely regarded as an immoral, violent, cruel and oppressive apartheid state... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/09/israel-what-went-wrong-by-omer-bartov-review-the-long-view

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]