Palestine And The Palestinians [Paperback]

Samih Farsoun (Author), Christina E. Zacharia (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813327733 | ISBN-13: 978-0813327730 | Publication Date: July 30, 1998

Following the historic Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel, the future status of the Palestinian population living under Israeli occupation since 1967 has taken center stage. Effectively negotiated out of the agreement is the right of return or of compensation for almost four million Palestinians in exile. This book argues that because these Accords formally sever the Palestinians’ historical claims from the present, it is crucial to understand the larger historical and ideological context in which the claims arose.In this broad and richly textured analysis, the authors examine the social, economic, and political development of the people of Palestine from antiquity to the present. The book opens with an overview of Palestine’s place in regional and global history. Subsequent chapters discuss Palestinian society before and after the catastrophic division of Palestine in 1948 and explore the forces and constraints affecting the formation of Palestinian national identity, as embodied in popular institutions, the PLO, and resistance movements. The final chapter considers the prospects for Palestinian self-determination and statehood despite the limitations imposed by the Oslo Accords, as well as Palestine’s future viability.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant achievement. This is by far the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of Palestine and Palestinians in the twentieth century, based on original material rarely used by English-language scholars. Here, finally, is the transparent picture of the Arab-Israeli conflict given in full, fascinating detail." Hisham Sharabi, Times Literary Supplement" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Samih K. Farsoun is chair of the Department of Sociology at American University and is a member of the executive committee of the Center for Policy Analysis of Palestine. Christina E. Zacharia is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at American University. Christina E. Zacharia is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at American University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (July 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813327733
• ISBN-13: 978-0813327730
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gained insight., August 24, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Wisconsin in USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palestine And The Palestinians (Hardcover)

This book is excellent. Through the reading I gained insight from the perspective of the Palestinians who were displaced from their homeland. I have personal friends in Jordan and this book helped me to understand what their families suffered through. Very comprehensive, covering many areas of this subject.

15 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best work on Palestine and the Palestinians!!, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Palestine And The Palestinians (Paperback)

Really superb! I couldn't put it down!

22 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book, But From One Point of View, April 26, 2002

By 

Redmund K. Sum (Los Altos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Palestine And The Palestinians (Paperback)

Palestine and the Palestinians is a unique source of valuable information about the people of Palestine. The authors told a compelling story with a tremendous amount of information. In addition to the usual political and military litany, the book also places special emphasis on the social and economic aspects of the poignant Palestinian existence. It is hard not to develop sympathy for the Palestinian people after reading this exposition of what they have gone through, and how much they have suffered in the 20th century.

I will also point out that this book presents a decidedly one-sided view. Although the authors pointed out, and documented in considerable detail, the inherent problems within the Palestinian cause: deeply fractured leadership lacking consensus in regard to goals and means, embrace of violence, conflicts with the nationalist Arabic regimes, the incompetent and self-serving acts of their leader Yasser Arafat, etc., they (the authors) nonetheless put the lion's share of the blame on Israel. They insisted on holding Israel to high standards of well-established Western democracies while Palestinian transgressions were given a gentle touch and often with historic and contemporaneous excuses.

I don't know if it is the Arab people, the Muslim culture, ideology, or just the desert wind, but even as the book's authors are high educated, cool-headed and analytical, they, and most vocal Palestinian supporters, seem to lack a few commonsense elements in their framework of thought and analysis: a) When you are in a position of weakness, you don't hold on to a wish list and demand 100% satisfaction immediately. b) In this time and age, violence, especially terror visited on civilians will arouse anger and contempt rather than sympathy. c) Jews also suffered greatly historically, in fact much more than Palestinians. Israeli leadership will not let stand any development that could jeopardize their security or diminish their ability to defend their country and their people. Consider this:

In a conversation in between Benjamin Netayahu and Chinese premier Jiang Zemin, they noted that the Chinese, the Indians and the Jews are the three oldest peoples in the world. Netayahu pointed out that there are 1.2 billions Chinese today, 1 billion Indians and only 12 million Jews, and asked the Chinese premier why. The latter had no answer. Netayahu then said, "...but they all boil down to one big thing. You, the Chinese kept China; the Indians kept India. But the Jews lost our land and were dispersed into the four corners of the earth... culminating in our greatest catastrophe in the twentieth century..."

The similar tragedies of the two peoples (one historic and the other contemporary) suggest that rather than regarding Jews as their mortal enemy, the Palestinians may do well to emulate Jews instead: to educate their young, to build human capital in marketable skills (rather than martyrdom,) to be respectful of other people and cultures, and to work realistically with what you have. Will the Palestinians ever see this kind of leadership vision? The unfortunate fact is that most Middle East Muslims are still not done fighting the Crusaders.

Back to the book: it is exceedingly informative, but you must also get the other point of view (and their selection of data) to understand the whole picture. I might add that many books on this controversial and emotional subject tend to be unavoidably one-sided or otherwise incomplete. The book is well written with a lucid style, and one of the best in presenting the Palestinian view, and deserves to be read by those who want to go beyond sound-bite politics.