Palestinian People

In a timely reminder of how the past informs the present, Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal offer an account of the history of the Palestinian people from their modern origins to the Oslo peace process and beyond. Palestinians struggled to create themselves as a people from the first revolt of the Arabs in Palestine in 1834 through the British mandate to the impact of Zionism and the founding of Israel. Their relationship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel has been fundamental in shaping that identity, and today Palestinians find themselves again at a critical juncture. In the 1990s cornerstones for peace were laid for eventual Palestinian-Israeli coexistence, including mutual acceptance, the renunciation of violence as a permanent strategy, and the establishment for the first time of Palestinian self-government. But the dawn on the 21st century saw a reversion to unmitigated hatred and mutual demonization. By mid-2002 the brutal violence of the Intifada had crippled Palestine's fledgling political institutions and threatened the fragile social cohesion painstakingly constructed after 1967. Kimmerling and Migdal unravel what went right - and what went wrong - in the Oslo peace process, and what lessons we can draw about the forces that help to shape a people. The authors present a balanced, insightful and sobering look at the realities of creating peace in the Middle East.

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This new history updates [Baruch Kimmerling's and Joel S. Midgdal's] 1993 book, "Palestinians: The Making of a People", with two new analyses, one judging the effect of the Oslo peace talks and another focusing on the difficult situation of the Palestinians in Israel...In their preface, the authors immediate reject both the common claim by Palestinians that their history as a "singular people" reaches back to ancient times and the Israeli denial of any such entity before it was created by Zionist successes. Instead a "self-identified Palestinian people" evolved only in the last two centuries, as a result of European economic and political pressures and of Jewish settlement...An excellent chronology and full notes enhance a book that deserves the widest possible readership. -- Frank Day "Magill's Literary Annual" (06/01/2004)

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BARUCH KIMMERLING is George S. Wise Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Toronto JOEL S. MIGDAL is Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies, University of Washington.

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