From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine [Paperback]

Joan Peters (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963624202 | ISBN-13: 978-0963624208 | Publication Date: February 1, 2001

This monumental and fascinating book, the product of seven years of original research, will forever change the terms of the debate about the conflicting claims of the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East.

The weight of the comprehensive evidence found and brilliantly analyzed by historian and journalist Joan Peters answers many crucial questions, among them: Why are the Arab refugees from Israel seen in a different light from all the other, far more numerous peoples who were displaced after World War II? Why, indeed, are they seen differently from the Jewish refugees who were forced, in 1948 and after, to leave the Arab countries to find a haven in Israel? Who, in fact, are the Arabs who were living within the borders of present-day Israel, and where did they come from?

Joan Peters's highly readable and moving development of the answers to these and related questions will appear startling, even to those on both sides of the argument who have considered themselves to be in command of the facts. On the basis of a definitive weight of hitherto unexamined population and other historical data, much of it buried in untouched archives, Peters demonstrates that Jews did not displace Arabs in Palestine-just the reverse: Arabs displaced Jews; that a hidden but major Arab migration and immigration took place into areas settled by Jews in pre-Israel Palestine; that a substantial number of the Arab refugees called Palestinians in reality had foreign roots; that for every Arab refugee who left Israel in 1948, there was a Jewish refugee who fled or was expelled from his Arab birthplace at the same time-today's much discussed Sephardic majority in Israel is in fact composed mainly of these Arab-born Jewish refugees or their offspring; that Britain, the Mandatory power, winked at and even encouraged Arab immigration into Palestine between the two World Wars; that by disguising the Arab immigrants as "indigenous native Palestinian Arabs," the British justified their restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement, dooming masses of European Jews to destruction in the Nazi camps.

Joan Peters also unfolds a historical record to shatter the widely held belief that Arabs and Jews harmoniously coexisted for centuries in the Arab world-the fact is that the Jews, along with other non-Muslims, were second-class citizens, oppressed in the Muslim world for more than a millennium. And this continuing prejudicial tradition of hostility underlies, as well, every Arab action toward the state of Israel.

In addition to her pioneering archival researches, Joan Peters has frequently traveled in the Middle East, conducting numerous interviews and gathering the personal observations of the first-rate reporter she is. The result is a book that has already had a major impact on policy discussions of one of the most vital and intractable of the world's problems, shrouded until now in a fog of misinformation and ignorance.

Distributed exclusively by Jonathan David Publishers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...will change the mind of our generation. If understood, it could also affect the history of the future." -- New Republic

"A remarkable document in itself. . . . The refugees are not the problem but the excuse." -- Washington Post Book World

"Contains much valuable information...deserving the attention of anyone seriously concerned with the Palestinian problem." -- S.D. Goitein, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"This book is a historical event in itself..." -- Barbara Tuchman

About the Author

Joan Peters has written and lectured widely on the Middle East, Central America, and the Soviet Union. She has contributed to Harper's, Commentary, The New Republic, The New Leader, and other periodicals, and has served as White House consultant on the Middle East.

Product Details

• Paperback: 622 pages
• Publisher: J K a P Pubns (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963624202
• ISBN-13: 978-0963624208
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > History > Middle East > Palestine

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 141 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flaws in Scholarship and Craftsmanship Hurt a Valid Thesis, May 7, 2002

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dougrhon "dougrhon" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (Paperback)

This book has engendered an enormous amount of criticism since its publication in 1984. My review of the reviews reveals that some of the criticism is warranted. The book does contain a certain amount of sloppy scholarship. In particular, Peters' apparent misapplication of certain statistics regarding population growth in Palestine in the early 20th century is questionable. Enemies of Israel and historical revisionists have used these errors to condemn and discredit the book. In my experience, virtually all scholarly work contains errors of the kind Peters' is accused of. I have not checked her footnotes nor do I expect have most of her readers. The reader has a right to rely on the accuracy of footnotes.

As I see it, Peters has been accused by the revisionists and enemies of Israel of misusing quotes, taking them out of context and over-relying on anecdotal evidence. I find this ironic since this is exactly what the revisionists have been revealed to have done. I suppose they should be familiar with their own technique. This does not excuse the action. I reject the "revisionist technique" which smacks of Marxist "correctness". The goal of the historian should be the revelation of the truth. The mis-application of evidence is one of the worst sins an historian can commit. I do not excuse Peters.

And yet...And yet...the real question is whether the errors in her scholarship discredits her thesis. If one eliminates the problematic sources and quotes, does the argument fall apart? To this I offer a resounding no.

Peters an American non-Jew, with no ax to grind for either side set out to research the history and discovered that what she was finding was the exact opposite of what she believed to be true. As her research continued she became more and more outraged as she realized that what she had thought was the truth was a deliberate hoax, fostered by the Arab world to maintain a perpetual conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. This book was the result.

Peters first sets out to demonstrate the true history of historical Palestine. She shows, quite accurately, the Roman destruction of "Judea", the invention of the term "Palestine", the continued presence of Jews in Palestine throughout the ages, despite intense persecution, the constant migrations in and out by assorted Moslem peoples (not Arabs primarily) and the severe under-population of the land in the 19th century. She then demonstrates the horrendous treatment of the Jews of the Moslem world, historically and in modern times as well.

This is the most original part of her book. Few sources have focused on the Jewish refugees of the Arab world even though entire populations were forced to flee without any of their material belongings. Because they were quickly absorbed into the Israeli population, their plight has never seemed important but it is vitally important when considering the moral "claims" of the Arab refugees.

Peters' gravest sin, in my opinion is that she becomes overwhelmed by her passions for her side of the story. It is hardly necessary for her to prove precisely how many Arabs lived in Palestine in 1880. To prove her point she merely needed to show the trend of Arab immigration and the restrictions on Jewish immigration. Any litigator or debater will concede that to ignore evidence which contradicts your thesis is deadly. Since in Peter's case, the contrary evidence or weaknesses in her own evidence are so readily explainable, her failure to present opposing points and refute them is particularly inexcusable. It just lends false credence to her adversary's claims. Peters is guilty of over-exuberance for her subject. But this kind of argument in the face of hostile opposition calls for cool reason. Extensive footnoting is no substitute for properly constructed argument. Ironically Peters, who had no personal devotion to Zionism and thus no need to justify it, ends up tarred with the brush of partisanship. One need not be "neutral" in thought to write a logical analysis defending Zionism and refuting its detractors. Benjamin Netanyahu did it in his book "A Durable Peace" where he does not shrink from responding to revisionist arguments. To the contrary he revels in it.

Again let me make it clear that I support Peters' thesis 100 percent. Those who condemn her are almost exclusively from the revisionist/anti-Israel camp. As they always do, they seek to obstruct the truth by throwing up a smokescreen. Peters did not need to provide them with the smoke. Not one critic has genuinely attacked her premise. Indeed, it is the revisionists who have been largely discredited by legitimate historians. This does not excuse these errors. Am I surprised to learn that the supporters of this book are Americans while Israeli and European academics have rejected it? Of course not. The Israeli academy is in thrall to the revisionists despite the fact that their works have been largely proven false and ideologically driven. The European academy is even more in thrall to the leftist ideology that utterly rejects Zionism. The European academy has become worse than useless. Of course individual exceptions apply. Two good British historians who wrote of the Arab-Israeli conflict are Paul Johnson and Martin Gilbert. American historians are an independent and diverse lot. I trust them more than European or Israeli academics.

Peters makes a number of cogent and important points about the conflict. Much of it is a rehash of previously known facts which have become largely forgotten in today's climate of relentless Arab propaganda. Her most original contribution to the debate is her contention that in any accounting of Arab suffering, the vast suffering of the Jews of the Muslim world needs to be considered as well. The book is not riveting, but is instead scholarly and at times pedantic. Peters could have lopped off several hundred pages and presented a stronger case for her clearly valid observations. For this reason, I would say there are better books than this one available.

115 of 159 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise and comprehensive, January 4, 2001

By 

Human (Frankfurt, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (Paperback)

Being a neutral outsider with regards to this conflict, I found that the book was an interesting read. Many of the author's findings were well researched and many of the points raised were valid and relevant to the conflict.... I did not find this book to be biased towards any side, considering that the amount of factual information presented by the author gave many of her arguments strong factual credibility.

Another interesting read is A travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker. This book illustrates such truths as that even when the Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled the region, the Muslim population in the city of Jerusalem was minimal. Many of the facts that we get today have been greatly distorted and works such as these, especially the 1906 book outline quite clearly the statistics of that era and how we can interpret these facts and figures to be relevant in todays Mideast conflict.

264 of 372 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hired to write propaganda, wrote the truth, September 25, 2001

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J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (Paperback)

Joan Peters, a professional writer and researchers, received a grant from an Arab Foundation to write a history of the ancient roots of the Arab population in historic Palestine. The problem was that, when she actually began doing her research, she found that most of the common beliefs about the long history of that population are just inaccurate. In fact, she found that the majority of the current population descended from waves of migration beginning in the 19th century and peaking in the early 20th.

Peter's uses considerable primary source data, including the ottoman and British censuses and the travel journals of western visitors like Mark Twain, all of which prove that the area compromising modern day Israel and the West Bank were largely unpopulated in the 19th century and experienced waves of immigration from people looking for work. Even more controversial, she documents the existence of ancient Jewish communities on both sides of the Jordan River, in places like Jerusalem, Gaza, Hebron, Safed, Nablus, and others. Sadly, many of these communities were forced to flee Arab violence at the turn of the century. Thus Hebron, which has boasted a continual Jewish community for over 2,500 years, had no community between 1930-67 because the Jews had to flee for their lives. Yes, tPeters' book contains substantial flaws, particularly in her use of statistics in what can be called a "number's game" (the quote from the often maligned Daniel Pipes who demonstrates the greater intellectual honesty of pro-Israel intellectuals in his dissection and dismissal of Peters' work, a thing sadly seemingly always lacking from the Israel haters). Nonetheless, the central thesis is well worth considering.

Arieh Avneri's Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the Arabs 1878-1948 adds considerable documentary evidence to this thesis and is also worth examination. Readers would also do well to review the works of the fine historian Benny Morris.