“That they may not forget us”
This book by Dr. Nur Masalha deals with the so-called ‘internal refugees,’ those that did not flee the 1947-48 war in mandatory Palestine, but who sought refuge in another part of the country (without crossing the international borders), when the state of Israel was formed. The book consists of a compilation of essays and ‘interviewer and interviewee narratives’ with former refugees who were often settled in a part of Israel, different, but often close to their former (and rightful) places of abode. Contributors include several distinguished authors and scholars such as William Dalrymple, Prof. Naseer Aruri, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Prof Isma'il Abu Sa'ad and Nur Masalha himself. Dr. Masalha is senior lecturer at St Mary's College, Twickenham, and University of London where he is the director of the Holy Land Research Project as well as associate editor of Holy Land Studies, a multi-disciplinary journal published quarterly by Edinburgh University Press. He is a native Palestinian Galilean, born in the state of Israel in 1957. The Author expresses his admiration for the late Prof. Edward Said by dedicating the volume under review to him.
Just 160,000 out of almost a million Palestinians remained as a result of the 1948 “War of Independence” (as it’s known among Jewish Israeli’s or as the Palestinian Nakba-‘catastrophe’ among the Arabs). This was just over 10% of the pre-war Palestinian population. The troops of the Yishuv (the pre-‘state of Israel’ Jewish fighting forces known as the Palmach and the Hagannah) often discriminated based on the religion of the people that they were trying to force out from the land. It’s interesting to note in this context, that in the Galilee, which had a high density of Arab population (Muslim, Christian as well as Druze), many Christians and Druze were allowed to remain, while a large proportion of Muslims were expelled. Historic towns with emotional links to worldwide Christianity like Nazareth were spared an evacuation, while historically Arab-majority towns like Haifa, Safad and Tiberias were almost totally ‘cleansed’ of non-Jews. Most Palestinian Arabs were expelled across the borders of the then ‘provisional’ state of Israel to neighbouring Arab countries. Those that remained became second-class citizens in Israel, subject to discrimination in all aspects of daily life as well as a crippling military administration that restricted individual and personal movement. In addition, the Arabs of Israel lost the bulk of their lands to the State authorities. Arab Palestinians, within and without Israel, have been active in campaigning for restitution rights as well as petitioning the Israeli judicial system to be allowed to return to their former villages and lands.
An important aspect of this endeavour has been the compiling of oral and narrative history by intrepid Palestinian historians (and interested foreigners) as well as film makers and the holding of annual remembrance services to uphold the memory of the ‘Nakba.’ Much of the Palestinian documentary evidence to support their claims to the land has been confiscated and destroyed or is in the form of Ottoman era deeds, that the state of Israel refuses to recognise (though they recognise British Mandate as well as ‘trans-Jordanian’ land records). In such a situation, oral history as well as interviews with internally displaced people (IDP’s) form a valuable source to construct a clearer picture of what actually happened to the Palestinian people in the chaotic years from 1947-1949. The book under review examines this issue from different angles such as Palestinian identity, memories of the Naqba and the immediate period of military rule, continued cross-border expulsions of people, native Palestinian rights, international ‘human rights laws’ as well as UN mandated protection, the ‘right of return, not only for the Jews, but also for the native Palestinians’, and a just solution (like the establishment of a secular bi-national state) in Palestine/Israel. Refugee restitution rights are also discussed in some detail in the light of international conventions that seek to address the worldwide issue of displaced people. The editor cum part Author has managed to get a large and diverse group of contributors for his book which is one in a series that has been focussing on Palestinian related topics, over the last ten-fifteen years.
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