The author was one of those Palestinians expelled from Jerusalem, and in this work he describes in vivid detail the nakba (tragedy, or catastrophe) that his people faced. His story is of the dissolution of his homeland and the systematic effacing of his cultural roots and history. He explores the events leading up to the establishment of a Zionist state and looks to the future as a time for change.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Toubbeh's thoughtful and penetrating essays bespeak a cultured and widely informed intellect... He offers his readers a rare perspective, dealing authoritatively with the societies of both his homeland and his adopted land, bringing a relevancy not only to recent history but also to current and evolving issues of importance to peoples of the United States and the Middle East.
Day of the Long Night is not a textbook history of Palestine, nor of the Palestine-Israel question. It is, rather, a page from its history meticulously swept under Madison Avenue fallout, biblical circumlocutions, pseudo-prophetic fanaticism, ignorance, and self-serving politics. Not one people has ever been dispossessed of heritage and property on the basis of a vague promise made millennia ago; no society has ever experienced the devastating consequences of one nation's passionate attachment to another. This, then, is the essence of the book: not a sterile recounting of historical fact, but, rather an account of people, living their lives, at times oblivious of their fate, but more often trapped between the Scylla of Zionism and the Charybdis of Western political pandering.
Here are some passages that define the uniqueness of this well-documented, disarming and entertaining book:
"Katamon fell on April 29, 1948... Only madmen would attack Jerusalem in April. And madmen attacked Katamon in April when its hills, strewn with the munificence of nature, were celebrating rebirth and freedom--not conquest and subjugation. The echoes of machine gun blasts must have surely surprised the Infinite Mind, Jerusalem's first gardener. Will He ever forgive them?"
"It is diffucult to understand how Palestinians were able to communicate with each other and present the semblance of a united front in the face of so much diversity of education, cultural and linguistic shocks and political indoctrination."
"I still believe that the signature tune of the Voice of America, "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean," would not only have been a more appropriate national anthem for the Jewish State, but less funereal."
"No visitor to our refugee home could escape the gauntlet of my mother's flower pots without experiencing the indestructibility of the Palestinian will and the permanency of the Palestinian soul."
"[The Mukhtar] was the first head of an Eastern Orthodox Christian Arab community to experience the commnity's rapid growth under both Turkey and the British mandate, then its very rapid demise under the Zionists. These newcomers efficiently and effectively erased two millennia of Christianity in a Jerusalem that had had a predominantly Muslim population for over twelve centuries.
"No Palestinian I know has ever left Palestine, his city, or his village. To Palestinians, the idea, Palestine, is primeval."
"The options for Zionism and/or the Jewish state have always been, and will continue to be limited, and none is palatable: to survive in a state of perpetual conflict; to buy time, while giving the world the impression that it seeks peace; or to strive to make the best of a potentially precarious peace with justice. Non-Zionist Jews understand these options well. They have always favored peace with justice."
Day of the Long Night is directed at individuals interested in the Israeli-Palestinian question; academicians whose disciplinary focus is the Middle East; and readers who enjoy history but would rather learn about historical events through the experiences of those who lived through them. -- George Luecker, activist, humanitarian, and a political analyst
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A moving personal account of being ethnically cleansed,
By Giant Panda (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Day of the Long Night : A Palestinian Refugee Remembers the Nakba (Hardcover)
Some people today argue that the causes of the Palestinian refugee problem are "controversial" or up for debate. Some would question whether there was a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing. Revisionist historians with Zionist sympathies deny that key events ever took place. However, for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had to endure that period in 1948, there is no controversy. What happened was a part of their own personal lives - a traumatic part of their lives. Jamil Toubbeh is one of those Palestinians, a Christian, and his autobiography is an eloquent description of what happened in 1948 and how it affected his life forever. Since the author is a Palestinian American, his autobiography contrasts his life in America with his life in Palestine, so it is very interesting from that perspective. "Day of the Long Night" also compares the Palestinian issue with the author's first-hand experience in Native American Affairs. "Day of the Long Night" is a very well-written, thoughtful, and evocative book, that kept me up for several nights in a row. A friend of mine once reviewed this book and said that the only flaw in this beautiful autobiography is that the author addresses some political issues in the second half of the book. When I read it, though, I found this criticism to miss the point. If anything, this book shows that Palestinian lives cannot be divorced from politics - external politics manipulate ones life and affect their destiny in so many ways that it becomes impossible to write an Palestinian biography without touching on politics. "Day of the Long Night" is recommended reading for anyone curious (and brave) enough to want to see faces behind the headlines. I dare you to read it! Also recommended: "I saw Ramallah", by Mourid Barghuthi.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revealing and thought-provoking,
By A Customer
This review is from: Day of the Long Night : A Palestinian Refugee Remembers the Nakba (Hardcover)
"Day of the Long Night" seems a perfect title in reference to experiencing first hand, upon reading the book, the referenced Nakba (catastrophe). We experience this both through the author's teenaged perspective and through the lens of his subsequent 50 years of accumulated wisdom, eloquently expressed with insight and humor.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful personal tale of dispossession,
By
This review is from: Day of the Long Night : A Palestinian Refugee Remembers the Nakba (Hardcover)
This book is a "must-read" for those seeking to better understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the personal affect of oppression, in general. The author is a Palestinian who shares poignant personal stories of what it means to be Palestinian, while interweaving insightful political and policy comments concerning Israel, Zionism, and U.S. foreign policy. Toubbeh tells his story powerfully, with sensitivity, honesty and at times,scathing humor, and stinging sarcasm. Additionally, this is a well-researched, well-documented informative offering.
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