The current events and uprising in the Arab world inspired us to write this article on Al Naqba, a term used to refer to the Palestinian loss of the 1948 war and the fleeing of Palestinians to surrounding Arab lands. In Arabic naqba means catastrophe or disaster, a name they attached to the occurrence of losing the war in 1948 with Israel. Much to their humiliation, Israel won! Translated into psychological terms – saving face and redeeming honor to the defeated Arab world becomes a more pervasive force than life itself.
Arabs are predestined to be poor losers, not because they want to be but because of severe childhood deprivation, abuse and the lack of early healthy childrearing practices, which all contribute to create a weak collective group ego that can not succumb to admit defeat in a shame honor culture. In fact, even when they lose, they tweak and twist to say they won and reassert themselves for a comeback in order to ward off shame, or will do anything to save face even at the sacrifice of their own lives, their children or their needs. Defeat gets repackaged and recycled under the guise of a new narrative--Al Naqba.
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