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Gaza: A History

2015 winner

Publisher: Hurst Publishers

Published Date: June 2015

ISBN-13: 978-1849045490

This is the first comprehensive history of Gaza in any language, a region that for millennia has been bitterly disputed - from the Pharaohs and Persians, to the Crusaders and Ottomans - while has simultaneously endured prolonged neglect.

In 1948, 200,000 Palestinians sought refuge in Gaza, a marginal area neither Israel nor Egypt wanted. Palestinian nationalism grew there, and Gaza has since found itself at the heart of Palestinian history. It is in Gaza that the Fedayeen movement arose from the ruins of Arab nationalism. It is in Gaza that the 1967 Israeli occupation was repeatedly challenged, until the outbreak of the 1987 intifada. And it is in Gaza, in 2007, that the dream of Palestinian statehood appeared to have been shattered by the split between Fatah and Hamas. The endurance of Gaza and the Palestinians makes the publication of this history both timely and significant.

Winner of the Palestine Book Awards 2015: Academic Prize

Review(s):

Reviewed by: Diana Alghoul

Written by historian Jean Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East Studies at Paris School of International Affairs, this book gives an in-depth account of Gaza’s ancient history and shows that many people have sought to occupy it over millennia. Professor Filiu puts the history of Gaza into the context of its geographic significance, which...

Author(s):

Jean-Pierre Filiu

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Winners of the Palestine Book Awards