This ambitious compilation of information surpasses normal tourist
books. It is a comprehensive guidebook to Palestine, providing a
high level of professional research and information. It provides
concise historical facts, easy contact information, where to eat
and stay, and details of important cultural activities. The book
enables access to groups largely hidden or unknown to the visiting
foreigner: these local organizations provide the foreigner with
points of entry for comprehending the current predicament of
Palestinians.
Palestine & Palestinians is divided into three main sections.
The first provides concise introductory information about geography
and history, population and culture, and Jewish colonization. The
central and most substantial section is divided into five
sub-chapters of tours to Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip,
the "Territories of 1948" (Israel) and the occupied Syrian Golan.
The final section gives practical information about visas and
customs, transportation and communication, national and religious
holidays, medical precautions and the media. An appendix
complements the book with relevant expressions and phrases in the
Palestinian Arabic dialect, a glossary of important terms and a
reading list about Palestinian geography, history and society.
Palestine & Palestinians is interspersed with poems and texts
from prominent Palestinian writers such as Mu'in Bseiso, Mahmoud
Darwish, Ghassan Kanafani, Emile Habibi and Tawfiq Zayyad. It also
includes short biographies of important figures such as the noted
female activist Hanan Ashrawi; the most popular Palestinian
intellectual in the West, the late Edward Said; the pivotal
nationalist Khalil Sakakini; and the late President Yasser Arafat.
It contains historical maps depicting the various partition plans
for Palestine from 1937 to 2000 and maps of the main Palestinian
cities. Paintings and color photographs convey the reality of daily
life.
There are a few omissions and discrepancies that could be revised
for a future edition. The transliterations are made from the spoken
Palestinian dialect, not from the written Arabic. This may add to
the usefulness of the book in the street, but also takes away from
the correct Arabic spelling. Every Palestinian place mentioned is
accompanied by a map, but in some instances like East Jerusalem the
key to the map is missing. Moreover, while maps depict the proposed
partition plans, there is no general map of contemporary Palestine:
a larger and more detailed map showing road numbers and more cities
would be useful.
While increasing awareness of the Palestinian perspective of the
ongoing conflict with Israelis, Palestine & Palestinians
manages to transmit a generally objective point of view. In a
matter-of-fact manner, it sketches a succinct history from the time
of the land of Canaan through the contemporary Palestinian nakba
(catastrophe) to the ongoing struggle for national sovereignty; it
avoids any broad sweeping political comments about Israeli
injustices. The focus on Palestinian culture and tourist travel
adds to the book's validity and usefulness for the uninformed
foreigner.