But beneath his astonishing plan were echoes of forced displacement that have shaped Palestinian society since 1948. The establishment of Israel that year in the Arab-Israeli war is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” because of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday there was nothing wrong in Donald Trump's idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza after the U.S. president's proposal drew international criticism.

Since its establishment, Israel has rejected the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their historic homeland, as this would have left the Jewish people as a minority within its borders. Today, there are about 5.9m Palestinians registered by the UN, with most living in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.