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| 1948 and Before |
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Atlas of Palestine, 1948 | |
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by Salman H. Abu-Sitta
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Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948 | |
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by Meron Benvenisti, Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta (Translator)
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Magnificent account of a human tragedy by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This book presents a highly interesting and somewhat personal account of one of the lesser-known tragedies of the last century. In "Sacred Landscape", Meron Benvenisti, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, recounts to us the story of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the lands that became Israel in 1948. The tone of the book is at times remorseful, for example as Benvenisti recalls how his own father took part in the mapping of the Negev - an exercise of claiming ownership to the land by giving it a Hebrew name. As we learn in later chapters, this mostly symbolic act of renaming the map is just the beginning of an organized policy to expel Palestinian natives and destroy the evidence in order to prevent their return. The book is very well-written, clear, and easy to read, which are rare traits for such a well-researched scholarly book. Many little-known facts are revealed, such as the working of Jewish intelligence agencies at the time and the accumulation of "Village Dossiers" on every Arab village. The research relies much on primary sources and recently de-classified Israeli documents, and is impeccably thorough. At the same time, Benvenisti never shies from presenting a human perspective to these events, recounting his own personal encounters with Arabs prior to 1948. The book also covers the period after Israel came into being, illuminating the reader on many widespread topics: how the evacuated Palestinian property was managed; what agencies and by what laws were it expropriated; the fate of the religious sites and the legal battles for their restoration, etc. "Sacred Landscapes" is jam-packed with accurate information, information that is crucial for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is therefore worth every penny. There is much in here to satisfy every kind of reader: the detective story, the human story, the historical account, and a study of political machinations. Whatever one's background is, one cannot read this book without sharing its author's regret about the things that were lost forever beneath that sacred landscape. | ||
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Folklore of the Holy Land (1935 ed.) | |
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by J.E. Hanauer
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Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 | |
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by Walid Khalidi
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Desolation is in the Eye of the Beholder by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Zionist propaganda is typically based on the assumption that before the advent of the Zionist colonizers from Europe, Palestine was a desolate piece of land empty from but a few inhabitants. "Before Their Diaspora" presents a powerful collection of photographs from pre-1948 Palestine in order to dispel the Zionist claim. What we get as a result, however, is much more than a simple argument that "there were people in Palestine". We are transported to Palestine, and back in time, to nearly re-live the story of its inhabitants. We get to see these people's faces, join in on their weddings and celebrations, climb their trees with them to pick olives or oranges, and survey their blooming countryside and thriving cities. We get to see and feel a living nation of human beings, with roots and traditions as ancient as civilization itself. A useful feature of this book is a thorough timeline at the beginning of each chapter, so we can follow their story and see how the arrival of more and more Zionist immigrants and the resulting conflict affected their lives. The book also provides extensive maps and statistics indicating the proportions of land and population, by region at each point in the story. Thus this book is as useful for the researcher as it is fascinating for the average reader wanting to know about Palestinians. I highly recommend getting this book along with "All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel", by the same author, which uses meticulous research and hundreds of photographs to show us the sad conclusion the 1948 war brought upon the people we get to meet in this book. | ||
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All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 | |
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by Walid Khalidi (Editor)
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Ignorance of Past Ethnic Cleansing = Complicity in the Present. Never again! by a Reader from Maryland, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Though expensive, this monumental work is well worth every cent. It is a thoroughly researched account of one of the worst and least known human tragedies since world war II - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. The book provides a thorough account of the systematic depopulation and destruction of each of 418 Palestinian villages in order to pave the way for the creation of Israel. The work is illustrated by hundreds of photographs and gives a moving and evocative picture of how much have been lost. The book is divided into sections by district. Each village has few pages devoted to it, listing: (a) statistical data about population / location / land ownership; (b) known history before 1948 taken from various accounts; (c) descriptions of how the village was depopulated in 1948, again collected from various references with no attempt to integrate conflicting reports; and (d) a description of the village site today, how many buildings remain standing, what is it used for, whether or not Israeli settlements were built on the ruins etc. I particularly like this format and find it very useful. I also like how in part (c) the author presents all the different accounts and leaves us the choice to think for ourselves and integrate the material from our own perspectives. The depopulation accounts for many of the villages are rather chilling, with descriptions of massacres and threatened massacres. The author is sensitive enough to distinguish between actual occurrences and exaggerated accounts used for psychological warfare. The data contained in this book is based on comparison of at least 20 different sources (including official Zionist sources and contemporary newspaper reports, such as the New York Times), as well as available British Mandate census figures and extrapolations. While many Americans conditioned by years of Zionist propaganda will be shocked by the material in here, this book is vindicated by most modern Israeli historians who - based on research from recently de-classified Israeli documents, prove conclusively that the exodus of 800,000 Arab Palestinians from their homes and lands was deliberate and systematic Zionist policy at the time. For example, see Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, by Meron Benvenisti. This book is a timely study of a relevant and crucial event from the last century, whose effects and repercussions are still felt today. While remembering the injustices of the past can evoke many unpleasant emotions, it is important not to forget the past and to come to terms with it. The story contained in this book is particularly relevant today, since the ethnic cleansing has never stopped, but continues in slow-motion in the form of daily collective punishment and economic strangulation in areas under Israeli occupation. | ||
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Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians | |
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by Staughton Lynd, Sam Bahour, and Alice Lynd (Editors) facts cannot be doubted, this is a real good read, gives a great overview on the whole problem of the MiddleEast. | ||
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The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine | |
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by Ilan Pappe
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Palestine: A Personal History | |
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by Karl Sabbagh
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Jerusalem and I | |
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by Hala Sakakini Hard to find, this memoir of life in Jerusalem before 1948 can be obtained from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center. | ||
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The most vivid depiction of the 1948 "war" by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Many people around the world claim some attachment to Jerusalem - Holy City for 3 faiths. Few people really know Jerusalem as this author once did. Here we read this very personal story of one family, through the eyes of the youngest daughter, that lived in Jerusalem that city's most pivotal years. Hala Sakakini grew up in the then new West Jerusalem neighborhood of Katamon, under the British Occupation of Palestine. The first half of this book concentrates on her early life and personal story, an interesting account of what seems on the surface to be a normal childhood, marred only by a few tragedies such as the loss of her mother at an early age. Several incidents however betray what is to come. The pace quickens considerably as one gets nearer to the second half of the book - a collection of letters and pages from her diary. Suddenly, one is drawn into an accelerating succession of extraordinary events: random bombings, explosions, shootings, bodies on the street. These facts of the 1948 "war", reduced to mere lines or bullet points in the history books, come alive on the pages of this very personal memoir. I have read many books about the 1948 events, but never before have I seen such a vivid account. The bombing of the King David Hotel, for instance, in which the Jewish terrorist groups blew up the British military headquarters in Palestine killing scores of people, is usually glossed upon in the history books as an "act of war". But never before have I read of the significance of this then unprecedented act - one that can justly be termed the Palestinian September 11 - on the lives of Jerusalemites. Only reading this book was I able to understand the fear this cruel act inspired in the hearts of unarmed Arab civilians, many of whom lost relatives or acquaintances among the victims, or of the pivotal role of that event in the exodus of Palestinian refugees a few months later from West Jerusalem. This exodus, Sakakini dwells upon in great detail, day by day, hour by hour. By the time the Arab armies came to the rescue on May 15, Israel's official start of the "war for independence" [from whom one wonders], West Jerusalem was fully in Jewish hands. It was history for most people. It was a major personal tragedy for those who had to live through it. This book contains a lot of wisdom, in the author's own reflections as well as her quotations of her father's saying's (the famous educator Khalil Sakakini) and her brother's letters. It tries to achieve a balance between amusement and tears, though the latter part of the book is mostly tears. The author doesn't analyze events too much, she just describes what she went through, in great detail. In some parts of the book I wish she engaged in more self-criticism - for example her family's idea of political action was to gather around the fire for long nights with friends and neighbors, talking politics. Meanwhile, their Jewish adversaries were spending long nights in military training. But past is past. It cannot change but ought to be recounted over and over, and this book happens to be one of the best renditions of that period in Jerusalem's history! | ||
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The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village | |
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by Susan Slyomovics
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