Description
Book SynopsisThe authors offer a balanced, authoritative account of the history of the Palestinian people from their modern origins to the Oslo peace process and beyond. They unravel what went right—and what went wrong—in the process, and what lessons we can draw about the forces that help to shape a people.
Trade ReviewThis remarkable book recounts how the Palestinians came to be constituted as a people. The authors offer perceptive observations on the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel, the successes and failures of the Oslo process, and the prospects for both Palestinians and Israelis of achieving a peaceful future together. A dispassionate and balanced analysis that provides essential background for understanding the complexities of the Middle East. -- Rashid Khalidi, University of Chicago
A fine general history of the Palestinians now usefully updated with a history of the decade after Oslo. -- L. Carl Brown * Foreign Affairs *
This new history updates [Baruch Kimmerling's and Joel S. Midgdal's] 1993 book,
Palestinians: The Making of a People, with two new analyses, one judging the effect of the Oslo peace talks and another focusing on the difficult situation of the Palestinians in Israel
In their preface, the authors immediate reject both the common claim by Palestinians that their history as a "singular people" reaches back to ancient times and the Israeli denial of any such entity before it was created by Zionist successes. Instead a "self-identified Palestinian people" evolved only in the last two centuries, as a result of European economic and political pressures and of Jewish settlement
An excellent chronology and full notes enhance a book that deserves the widest possible readership. -- Frank Day * Magill's Literary Annual *
Table of ContentsMaps Preface Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction PART ONE FROM REVOLT TO REVOLT:THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEAN WORLD AND ZIONISM 1. The Revolt of 1834 and the Making of Modern Palestine 2. The City: Between Nablus and Jaffa 3. Jerusalem: Notables and Nationalism 4. The Arab Revolt, 1936-1939 PART TWO DISPERSAL 5. The Meaning of Disaster PART THREE RECONSTITUTING THE PALESTINIAN NATION 6. Odd Man Out: Arabs in Israel 7. Dispersal, 1948-1967 8. The Feday: Rebirth and Resistance 9. Steering a Path under Occupation PART FOUR ABORTIVE RECONCILIATION 10. The Oslo Process: What Went Right? 11. The Oslo Process: What Went Wrong? Conclusion Chronological List of Major Events Notes Index
