Israel as a Rogue State 301

The Palestinian Narrative: Presenting a People’s History

A 2009 photographic commission I undertook for Palestinian academic Dina Matar has recently been published as the front cover of her excellent new book ‘What it means to be Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood’ (I.B. Tauris).

“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. It conveys these stories within a chronological order that corresponds to particular phases of the Palestinian national struggle, and pulls them into a composite autobiography of Palestine as a landscape and as a people. The phases begin with the 1936 revolt against British rule in Palestine and end in 1993, when the Oslo peace agreement was signed between Israel and the PLO, changing the nature and form of the national struggle.” - (Book cover text).

This important new book follows other books released this year that portray the often unheard Palestinian narrative, the understanding of which is essential for anyone wanting to understand Palestine - its people, culture, history, and politics. Ramzy Baroud, when reviewing my book ‘Behind the Wall: Life, Love and Struggle in Palestine’ (Potomac Books) described this growing genre as “a people’s history of Palestine”. Baroud’s ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ (Pluto Press) also provides an excellent example of such works.

Veteran journalist Jon Snow described Dina Matar’s new book as ‘structural to any understanding of the Palestinian struggle’.

The imagery I produced for the front cover is a contemporary photographic play on ‘Handala’, the indomitable character created by legendary Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali. Even after al-Ali’s assassination in London over 20 years ago, Handala lives on in the hearts and minds of Palestinians around the world, and Dina Matar’s new book, alongside these other aforementioned works and other notable examples, defend the Palestinian narrative and struggle to ensure that it will be heard amongst and above the Zionist propaganda oft-portrayed by the world’s politicians and mass media.

‘What it means to be Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood’ by Dina Matar (I.B.Tauris – December 2010).
http://www.amazon.com/What-Means-Palestinian-Stories-Peoplehood/dp/1848853637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292924717&sr=8-1

‘Behind the Wall: Life, Love and Struggle in Palestine’ by Rich Wiles (Potomac Books – February 2010)
http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Wall-Life-Struggle-Palestine/dp/1597974390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292925003&sr=1-1

‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story’ by Ramzy Baroud (Pluto Press – March 2010)
http://www.amazon.com/My-Father-Was-Freedom-Fighter/dp/0745328814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292924932&sr=1-1


Rich Wiles.
www.richwiles.com