In the flood of commentary on Gaza, displacement and Israel's expanding settlement enterprise, one fundamental truth is often obscured: the Nakba did not end in 1948. It continues, and the law has been one of its most powerful instruments.

That is the central argument of Stolen Nation: The Right to Reparation of Palestinian Refugees, a deeply researched and compelling new book by Dr Lena El-Malak. Rather than treating Palestinian dispossession as a tragic historical episode, El-Malak shows how it has been sustained and normalised through legal systems that convert forced displacement into permanent, state-sanctioned ownership.

El-Malak is a commercial technology and data-privacy attorney and an independent expert in international and refugee law. Before entering private practice, she worked as a legal and development consultant in the Middle East, including with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Amman. She also writes as a descendant of Palestinian refugees — a perspective that gives the book both analytical depth and moral urgency. "I discovered over the years that the Nakba is ongoing," she writes, reflecting on her encounters with refugee camps and the enduring trauma of displacement.

One of the book's great strengths is its refusal to treat land loss as symbolic or abstract. El-Malak traces how Palestinian land ownership was systematically undermined through........

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