May 15th, 1948, was the Palestinian Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), or what Israel refers to as the "Day of Independence". To Palestinians, it symbolizes the dispossession, displacement, and uprooting of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in what then became Israel. Many of these refugees and their descendants, who now number more than 4 million, still languish in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding Arab countries. While Al-Nakba embodies the first major wave of forced expulsion of Palestinians from their land, Israel's premeditated campaign of ethnic cleansing continues to this very day.

Read more here:  http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/2007/12/2008-calender-60-years-of-nakba-ongoing.html