A series of interviews with Jews, Palestinians, Arabs, and English political figures who were central to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.
Hadara Lazar, a prominent Israeli journalist, has been interviewing witnesses to the historic events of 1948 for a quarter of a century in an effort to understand the sources of this intractable enmity. Her book, a series of in-depth conversations with Israelis, Arabs, and British political figures who lived through the end of the British Mandate and the founding of the Jewish state is less a work of history than a chorus of distinctive voices: among Hadara's subjects are lawyers, policemen, intellectuals, soldiers, teachers, and housewives. She visits her subjects in their offices and homes, evokes their personalities, and brings them alive as characters in a drama with no last act. Out of Palestine is the most vivid, comprehensive account we have of how Israel became Israel.
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 "You are half a Palestinian" 9
Chapter 2 "That gorgeous man who was Haj Amin" 33
Chapter 3 "I'll have some fun with the parrot" 47
Chapter 4 "Everyone does his best to be a gentleman" 65
Chapter 5 "I suppose you met him in Jerusalem" 79
Chapter 6 "We were never airborne in Palestine" 97
Chapter 7 "The nuisance value" 117
Chapter 8 "There are two Englands" 137
Chapter 9 "A twenty-inch stick, a knife, and empty hands" 157
Chapter 10 "A sporting chance" 183
Chapter 11 "We lived very slowly" 207
Chapter 12 "We simply vanished" 230
Epilogue 261
Participants 269
Chronology 279
Acknowledgments 289
Overview
A series of interviews with Jews, Palestinians, Arabs, and English political figures who were central to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.
Hadara Lazar, a prominent Israeli journalist, has been interviewing witnesses to the historic events of 1948 for a quarter of a century in an effort to understand the sources of this intractable enmity. Her book, a series of in-depth conversations with Israelis, Arabs, and British political figures who lived through the end of the ...