This chapter describes Palestine at the very end of the nineteenth century. It is a pastoral country with an emerging middle class and a strong urban notable society able to cope with the political changes in Istanbul and the region. It is also the time Zionism appears but at that stage does not make much of an impression.

The war fragmented the Palestinians into three different groups: the Palestinians in Israel,in the Jordanian West Bank and in the Egyptian Gaza Strip. The rest were refugees scattered in refugee camps in the Arab world and exilic communities around the globe.

The period of the British mandate can be divided into two. Until 1929, there were relatively few clashes between the settlers and the local community and were even areas of joint living based on one’s socio-economic class or interest and not just national identity. However, the Zionist plan of turning Palestine into a Jewish state led to an aggressive policy of taking over the labour market and as much of the land as possible. This led to a Palestinian revolt in the 1930s and double pressure on Britain that decided eventually to leave Palestine in 1947

In the 1990s, a cultural movement of Israeli Jews began questioning the basic truisms of Zionism and revisited Israel’s history. The narrative they spun was very close to the Palestinian one. But the shift of the Israeli society to the right and the outbreak of the second Intifada have marginalized this critical impulse.

In the 1990s, a cultural movement of Israeli Jews began questioning the basic truisms of Zionism and revisited Israel’s history. The narrative they spun was very close to the Palestinian one. But the shift of the Israeli society to the right and the outbreak of the second Intifada have marginalized this critical impulse.

The end of the British Mandate created a vacuum. The Zionist leadership was better prepared and Britain betrayed its obligations under the mandate and disregarded the Palestinian quest for independence. The result was a free hand to the Zionist movement to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that led to the expulsion of half of its population and the destruction of half of its villages and most of its towns.

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the end of Ottoman rule in Palestine. It was also a period of urbanization and modernization cut for a while by the outbreak of the war. The war caused famine, expulsion by the Turkish governor but also brought hope for a different future under the new rulers. These hopes were shattered when the British gave the Balfour Declaration in November 1917. Such clear support gave a new focus to the already existing Palestinian national movement.

From my classroom at Haifa University, up on the Carmel Mountains, there is seldom a clear view of the city below. On a rare day, when smog and pollution are miraculously absent, I can see the Jewish and Palestinian neighbourhoods of Haifa. The city stretches from the seacoast to the Carmel Mountains. The Palestinians live below, in the areas adjacent to the harbour, but in recent years have moved up to the slopes of the mountains, to parts of the town in which they lived before 1948. In Haifa, the standard of living improves as one moves up the slopes; poverty decreases with altitude.

Socio-economic well-being is closely entwined with national and ethnic affiliations and topography. This forms a pyramid that encapsulates the stratification of Israeli society and, more importantly, the history of the land.

Politics are back in force and impacting people lives like never before. This is the time of the reawakening of the Palestinian national movement and the making of the mini-empire of Israel. The whole Palestine is now under Israel’s control. A false peace process will begin would lead to nowhere, and the Israeli military establishment and political leadership destroyed the PLO presence in Lebanon, and the resistance moved into the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

These were the years of Netanyahu’s reign in power. The Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. Israel went to another was in Lebanon in 2006 and assaulted repeatedly the Gaza Strip as a retaliation for the Hamas war of liberation. The West Bank was domiciled; the peace process dead; and the Knesset passed a number of racist laws against the Palestinian minority in Israel. Israel’s international image was damaged, but it still had the support of governments all around the world.