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What it Means to be Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood
Author(s): Dina Matar (Author)
- Publisher: I.B. Tauris
- Publication Date: 30 Oct. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 224 pages
- ISBN-10: 1848853637
- ISBN-13: 9781848853638
Book Description
"What It Means to be Palestinian" is a narrative of narratives, a collection of personal stories, remembered feelings and reconstructed experiences by different Palestinians whose lives were changed and shaped by history. Their stories are told chronologically through particular phases of the Palestinian national struggle, providing a composite autobiography of Palestine as a landscape and as a people. The book begins with the 1936 revolt against British rule in Palestine and ends in 1993, with the Oslo peace agreement that changed the nature and form of the national struggle. It is based on in-depth interviews and conversations with Palestinians, male and female, old and young, rich and poor, religious and secular, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Occupied Territories. Presented as remembered personal narratives and as 'social' histories, these conversations provide a deep & intimate account of what it means to be Palestinian in the 21st century.
Editorial Reviews
Review
""These are accounts of ordinary people who have striven through the harrowing experience of war and futile negotiation, searching for a life and a place that the rest of the world will respect and protect."" -- Jon Snow ""Dina Matar's book presents fragments of memory: of self, people and a vanishing landscape from a lost past whose voices ring painfully in the present. This is a book of discovery, conviction and a labour of love that will appeal to a wide readership."" -- Yasir Suleiman, King's College, Cambridge ""[a] fine book"" -- Ian Black, guardian.co.uk
""[T]his is a rich narrative woven together by expert hands...Behind the success of this book are three main strengths: the well-balanced spectrum of Palestinian interviewees, Matar's solid grasp of Palestinian history and the lively and interesting stories of the interviewees themselves...These stories demand to be read by a wider English audience. This is a book the reader will dip into over and over again. It is to be hoped that more Western publishers will follow I. B. Tauris in allowing Palestinian voices to speak for themselves in such a powerful manner"" -- Asa Winstanley, The Electronic Intifada
""[T]his is a rich narrative woven together by expert hands...Behind the success of this book are three main strengths: the well-balanced spectrum of Palestinian interviewees, Matar's solid grasp of Palestinian history and the lively and interesting stories of the interviewees themselves...These stories demand to be read by a wider English audience. This is a book the reader will dip into over and over again. It is to be hoped that more Western publishers will follow I. B. Tauris in allowing Palestinian voices to speak for themselves in such a powerful manner"" -- Asa Winstanley, The Electronic Intifada
About the Author
Dina Matar is lecturer in Arab Media and International Political Communication at the Centre for Film and Media Studies, the School of Oriental and African Studies. She was formerly a foreign correspondent and editor covering the Middle East, Europe and Africa. She is also a co-editor of the 'Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication'.
