In 1947, Arabs made up two-thirds of the population of Palestine, and they owned most of its cultivable land. Why then, did they lose their homes and land to a relatively small Jewish community just emerging from the shocks of World War II? Did the Palestinians lose their homeland because they were backward, primitive, and reactionary? Or was Israel the product of persistent victimization of Palestinian Arabs by an imperialist power which supported Zionist colonization? Did the Palestinians sell each other out? Or were they helpless sufferers in the face of a sophisticated enemy with endless resources? Too often discussions of Palestine are couched in such rhetorical language, based on the assumption that either Jews or Arabs are morally to blame for historical realities. This study seeks to go beyond attributions of responsibility to investigate the concrete conditions which determined and limited Palestinian Arab actions between 1920 and 1948. It was during that period, while Great Britain governed the area under a League of Nations mandate, that Palestine both emerged and disappeared as a modern political entity. Many studies of Palestinian Arab nationalism have looked to Zionism as the primary agent of change in the region. Miller assumes the impact of Jewish settlement but goes beyond these earlier studies to explore the way in which policies of the Palestine government affected the daily lives of villagers-the majority of the population-and their understanding of the changes occurring around them. In this way, what emerges is a detailed analysis of the influence, for good or ill, that government policy had on village community life. Based largely on archival sources never before used, this work allows the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of the internal life of the rural community, which had previously received relatively little attention. Understanding the experiences of Palestinians before 1948 helps us to comprehend immeasurably better the continuity of movements for Palestinian statehood as well as the continuing tensions and problems on the West Bank today.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Texas Press
ISBN-13
9780292769144
eBay Product ID (ePID)
208862247
Product Key Features
Author
Ylana Miller
Publication Name
Government and Society in Rural Palestine, 1920-1948
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
History
Publication Year
2014
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
232 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
229mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
590g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Ylana Miller
Series Title
Cmes Modern Middle East Series
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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