Description:
The history of Palestine is one written by others, Roman and Arab conquerors, Ottoman and British rulers, and today a Zionist shadow looms. As if finally realizing that claims to territory demand a claim to history, following the defeat of 1967 some individuals began to write down their memories, a trend that has gathered apace in subsequent decades. These authors are not historians and they do not venture into the archives; they rely solely on their memory and many of them do not even live in Palestine. They share one thing: the hope that they will one day return. This hope is however not to be understood as a concrete physical relocation but rather a hope for the return of a Palestinian state. And this marks the second key date of this work: the year 2000, when these hopes were dashed.
Review Quotes: "Die Verfasserin hat ein umfangreiches Quellenmaterial bearbeitet, um ihr Thema zu entwickeln, das durch zahlreiche Textbeispiele illustriert wird. Die Fülle an Informationen macht das Buch zu einem Nachschlagewerk über palästinensisches Leben im weitesten Sinn.
Ein besonderes Verdienst der Autorin ist die immer objektive Präsentation der konfliktreichen israelisch-palästinensischen Situation."
In: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. 94 (2004). S. 354-356.