Britain Palestine Project
The Ongoing Nakba: Palestinian refugee politics from 1948 to now with Dr Anne Irfan
What does it mean to describe the Nakba as ongoing ? In this episode, historian and author Dr Anne Irfan joins Britain Palestine Project podcast host Diana Safieh to trace the history of Palestinian displacement from the Nakba of 1948 to the present day. Anne begins with the events of 1947–49, when at least 750,000 Palestinians became refugees, and explains why the Nakba should be understood not only through the original expulsions, but through the subsequent denial of return and repeated displacement of Palestinian communities. She explores the central role Palestinian refugee camps have played in political organisation, resistance and sumud (steadfastness), from the Palestinian revolutionary movement of the late 1960s and 1970s to the First Intifada and later movements centred on the right of return. The conversation also examines the particular place of Gaza within this history. More than 200,000 Palestinian refugees arrived in Gaza following the Nakba, transforming its population and landscape and creating a refugee population whose descendants have experienced repeated displacement. Anne connects this history to the destruction and displacement witnessed in Gaza today. Dr Anne Irfan is a historian and lecturer at University College London, researching the history and politics of Palestinian displacement. She is the author of Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System (Columbia University Press, 2023) and A Short History of the Gaza Strip (Simon & Schuster, 2025). Her academic work has appeared in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, Journal of Refugee Studies and Jerusalem Quarterly . She has also contributed to media outlets including Al Jazeera, The Nation, +972 and Jewish Currents .
