Palestine: The Reality

“Who would think that a 748-page book on the diplomatic history of the Balfour Declaration and its aftermath could be a page-turner, but this book definitely is. It’s a truly remarkable achievement and a fascinating read in many ways ‘ Regarding the significance of the book for us, I think it’s important for people to read an account by an honest observer of the formative events early on, someone who hasn’t yet had time to grow accustomed to the reality of the Jewish State in Palestine. I keep reading in lots of liberal venues about how the two peoples each have their narrative and claims and a way forward must be found that takes legitimate account of both sides. What Jeffries shows so dramatically is that there may be two narratives, but only one of them, the Palestinian one, has much connection to reality. As we see from his vantage point so clearly, the land of Palestine was stolen from its people by a major world power and given to another group of people who had no claim to it whatsoever. That last quote from Jeffries near the end of the book says it all. Of course there is now a Jewish community in Palestine that cannot be ignored or just sent back to where they came from, so one cannot undo the original sin. But so long as we don’t properly acknowledge that original sin ?? and this is what Jeffries’s book helps us do so well ?? I don’t see that genuine peace with justice is possible. – Professor Joseph Levine, Mondoweiss“British journalist Jeffries (1880- 1960) combines the skills of an investigative reporter, a scholar’s assiduity in pursuing available documents, and an engaging writing style in this long-unavailable 1939 expose of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which underwrote a “national home” for the Jewish people in Palestine. Jeffries covered WWI in the Middle East and emerged as a committed anti-Zionist. For the next quarter century he focused on the Balfour Declaration, drawing three principal conclusions: First, its real authors and supporters were Jewish, British, and international Zionists who shaped the document and lobbied for it in London and at Versailles (Jeffries unflatteringly portrays both the Jewish Zionists and their gentile counterparts). Second, Britain lied and broke promises to both its Arab and French allies on every aspect of the Palestine question. Third, Britain callously dismissed Palestinian Arabs’ rights and welfare. Jeffries’s work received significant prepublication support, but his publisher’s warehouse and most of the existing copies were destroyed during the 1941 German blitz. The centennial of the Balfour Declaration occasioned this new edition, and though Jeffries’s narrow focus underplays Britain’s desperate wartime situation in 1917, the book will be welcomed by critics of Britain and Israel. Maps & illus.” ??

Joseph Mary Nagle Jeffries (1880-1960) was a war, foreign, and political correspondent for The Daily Mail in London from 1914 until the 1930s. He covered the fighting in the First World War, the struggles in Palestine, and the “Troubles” in Ireland.

Ghada Karmi is a doctor of medicine by training and a specialist in the history of medieval Islamic medicine—a background that enabled her to research the period of the novel, using the original historical sources, and create the novel’s main characters, the caliph’s physician, and the medicine he practised. Karmi has held a number of academic posts in Middle East history and politics, most recently at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. She has published six books to date, including two memoirs of life in Palestine.