05 · Ḥisāb

The British Mandate ended at midnight on 14 May 1948. Between December 1947 and 1949 roughly 700,000–750,000 Palestinians — about half the Arab population of Mandate Palestine — were expelled or fled and were not allowed to return; some 400–600 towns and villages were depopulated and most were destroyed [1]. Palestinians call it the Nakba, the catastrophe, and mark it on 15 May; the UN General Assembly held its first official commemoration in 2023, on the seventy-fifth anniversary [2].

In December 1948 the General Assembly resolved that refugees wishing to return to their homes should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date [3]. The resolution has been reaffirmed every year since. It is still on the agenda.

This is that promise set out as homework: the current year, minus 1948, with the borrow marks a child writes, the answer underlined twice. It is seventy-eight years old. Next year the sum is solved again.

For every T-shirt sold, FREE PALESTINE MEDIA S.R.L. gives €5 to a medical charity working in Gaza and the West Bank — named here once the written agreement is signed. The €5 is given by us from our own revenue; it is not a payment by you to the charity and is not tax-deductible for you. Transfers are made monthly and published on the ledger.