The Palestinians

Book excerpt: Focusing primarily on Palestinians who are in exile in Lebanon, describes a typical camp of refugees who, like many of those in Lebanon, come from Galilee. Examines the progressive stages of their dispossession: the British Mandate that encouraged the development of a Jewish National Home; the brutal repression, in 1936-38, of Arab resistance to this scheme, in consequence of which the Zionist disciples of the British were armed for the next two phases of Jewish terrorism against their sponsor, now weakened by World War II, and then against the native Arab population, as the British prepared to depart. Next, traces the equally bitter story of Palestinian resistance in exile; its success in Jordan, leading to the bloody expulsion of Fatah by Hussein's army in 1970; its renewed success in Lebanon from 1970 to 1976, when the Syrians turned against them, exposing them not only to the brutal siege of Tell el-Zattar, but to a particularly virulent form of internal dissent in consequence of that massacre. This entire history is documented by large, black and white photographs.