A WIRED report on the occupied West Bank opens with the 1948 Nakba, the "catastrophe" in which Zionist forces expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. The article notes that hundreds of villages were depopulated or destroyed, driving people into exile. This historical displacement, the report implies, is the foundation for the Israeli checkpoint regime that now chokes Palestinian life and economic activity in the West Bank.
The report's framing suggests that the checkpoints are not a temporary security measure but a continuation of a longer process of territorial control that began in 1948. By linking the Nakba to the present-day infrastructure of occupation, WIRED points to the deep roots of Palestinian economic immobility. The destruction of villages and the expulsion of their inhabitants in 1948 created a refugee population whose descendants still face restricted access to land, resources, and markets.
Because the source focuses on the historical backdrop, it does not provide specific figures on checkpoint-related economic losses. But the implication is clear: the checkpoints are a direct descendant of the Nakba, and their impact on Palestinian business and daily life cannot be separated from that origin.