Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood

In Tasting the Sky, the Six-Day War occurs when Ibtisam is just three and a half years old, but it leaves a lifelong impact on her and all Palestinians.

Known variously as the Six-Day War, the June War, and the 1967 Third Arab-Israeli war, to Palestinians it is known as the Naksah, or Naksa which means “setback or defeat” in Arabic. (Al Tahhan, Zena. “The Naksa: How Israel occupied the whole of Palestine in 1967.” AlJazeera, 4 June 2018). The war between Israel and the allied forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, lasted from June 5 through June 10, 1967. Although short, the war had a devastating impact on Palestinians. The Wilson Center, a non-partisan think tank, sums up the war’s effects: “In those six days, Israel defeated three Arab armies, gained territory four times its original size, and became the preeminent military power in the region.” (Cohen, Avner. “The 1967 Six-Day War” Wilson Center). As for the Arab alliance, “the war brought the loss of vast territories and crushing humiliation, all the more so for the Palestinians” (Cohen, “Six-Day War”).

In six days, Israel captured the remaining Palestinian territories that were left after previous wars, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and territory from Syria and Egypt. Three hundred thousand Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homeland. In Ibtisam’s memoir, the pastry seller’s comment sums up the catastrophic loss, saying “We lost Palestine…The pastries are nothing” (66).

Although opinions about the cause of the Six-Day war are sharply divided, multiple factors contributed to the conflict. Palestinian refugees continued to fight with Israeli forces after the 1948 war as they tried to return to their homes, escalating tensions between Palestine and Israel. The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 also played a part in the growing hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The rising Feyadeen movement in the 1950s and 1960s, in which Palestinian resistance groups made attacks on Israel, and contention over water rights of the Jordan River, were other factors contributing to the war. Tensions came to a head in May 1967 when the Soviet Union, inaccurately, told Egypt that Israel was going to invade Syria. Nasser blocked Israel’s shipping access on the Straits of Tiran. Jordan and Iraq allied with Egypt and Syria.

On June 5, 1967, Israel’s air force launched a preemptive attack on Egyptian airbases and destroyed essentially Egypt’s entire air force before it could get into the air. Israel went on to also eliminate the rest of the Arab coalition’s air forces. Israel launched a ground attack on the same day, capturing the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. The next few days, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. On June 7, 1967, the UN Security Council urged a cease-fire, and by June 10, all the nations had agreed.

History.com observes that an estimated “20,000 Arabs and 800 Israelis had died in just 132 hours of fighting.” (History.com editors. “Six-Day War.” History.com, 21 August 2018). Over one million Palestinian Arabs were now under Israeli rule in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and hundreds of thousands continued to flee Israeli occupation, seeking refuge in other countries.

Following the war, Israel was exultant, having increased its size and proved itself a significant presence and military power in the region. The Arab collation was stunned and demoralized. After Egypt’s loss, Nasser tendered his resignation, but an outpouring of popular support made him stay on as president. The war increased animosity between the Arab states and Israel. From August 29-September 1, 1967, Arab leaders met at a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, and signed a resolution known as “the three no’s” in which they vowed “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiation with Israel” (Meital, Yoram. “The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy After the 1967 War: A Reexamination.” JSTOR, Middle East Journal, Winter 2000). The Arab states later accepted UN Resolution 242, which allowed Israel the right to exist in peace if Israel withdrew from the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. This resolution has not been fully carried out, and at the time of writing this guide, contention over returning all the territories is an ongoing cause of tension and hostility between the Arabs and Israelis.

Ibtisam comments on this continued division in her opening Historical Note, writing that a large barrier in peace between the Arabs and Israelis is the “inability to find a common ground that would allow both sides to understand and accept each other’s history and to become partners in achieving their similar goals of living in freedom and peace” (x).