June marks the anniversary of the 1967 War. While the Nakba – or “catastrophe” – of the 1948 War, with the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland, stands as the defining moment of modern Palestinian history, the 1967 War was yet another key turning point that would prefigure the subsequent decades of conflict and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
In six days of war, Israel routed Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian forces and bestrode the region as the unparalleled power, stamping its flag over the rest of historic Palestine (East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza), Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights. The war was dubbed the "Setback" – the Naksa – a misfortune that pointed up the need for a new strategy for confronting Israel and redeeming Palestine.
