June 2026 marks the 59th anniversary of the Naksa, the Arabic term meaning “setback” or “defeat”, used by Palestinians to describe the events of June 1967. More than a war between states, the Naksa represented a new stage in a colonial process that had begun decades earlier and continues to this day.

The dominant narrative presents the so-called Six-Day War as a conventional conflict between Israel and neighbouring Arab states. This interpretation, however, ignores the central dimension of the Palestinian question: Palestine has been the site of a settler-colonial project based on land seizure, the displacement of the indigenous population, and the establishment of settler communities on occupied territory.

The Nakba of 1948 expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and destroyed hundreds of villages. The Naksa of 1967 deepened that process. In just six days, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights, bringing almost all of historic Palestine under its control.

This was not a temporary occupation. Since then, colonisation has become a permanent policy.

Illegal settlements have been built on Palestinian land, natural resources have come under the control of the occupying power, communities have been fragmented by walls, checkpoints and military barriers, and East Jerusalem has been subjected to an accelerated process of........

© Middle East Monitor