Welcome to a bibliography of the most significant English-language books on the Palestinian struggle. The site takes its inspiration from British Writers in Support of Palestine (www.bwisp.wordpress.com), co-ordinated by the novelist-poet Naomi Foyle. Your compiler was a curator at The British Library for twenty years and the titles included here have been confirmed by held copies at the BL, various university libraries, and from online booksellers. In almost every book with a lengthy bibliography, I have found spelling mistakes and so have cross-checked with the British Library catalogue (and others) to correct them. This said, the BL’s cataloguing isn’t perfect and couldn’t be, but on balance it’s more reliable than any author, book indexer, or publisher.
SEARCHING : These are splayed out into several categories, to make it easier for browsing, what people used to do in physical libraries. So, if you don’t find quite what you want in one list, check another one. Keyword searches from this Home Page will direct you to a specific list.
PALESTINIAN BOOKS’ listings are not intended to be complete, and could never be anyway. A very few “Liberal Zionist” works are included, but these are not emphasised here; however, the changing nature of Zionist thought is important, and so you’ll find the landmark works. Book titles can be misleading and, if there’s a doubt about a given publication’s relevance to Palestinian history, I’ve consulted it at the British Library. The Christian movement for Palestinian rights is, hopefully, well-represented, but Christian Zionists will have to look elsewhere. Uncredited comments about individual titles are mine, otherwise they’re credited to an author, critic, or source publication. NOTHING, nothing at all is for sale on this site, and listings do not indicate my endorsement, only significance in the long canon of Palestinian titles. This resource is updated and amended regularly, so your corrections and suggestions are appreciated : palestinebooksnet@gmail.com.
OTHER SOURCES : This website solely suggests books, what librarians call ‘monographs’ (single-topic printed publications, even weighty pamphlets).
There are many magazines / journals in existence, the best of which, specifically focused on Palestine, is the Journal of Palestine Studies, which picked up the torch lit by Walid Khalidi’s Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS), in Beirut. The IPS has published many individual book titles (palestine-studies.org). A great many magazines, journals, and worldwide newspapers (such as al-Difa, aka Ad-Difaa, from 1934, and Filastin, La Palestine / raʾīs al-taḥrīr Yūsuf al-ʿĪsá, from 1911) are held at the British Library and numerous university libraries. If using a university library that subscribes to a wide range of electronic resources, don’t overlook such titles as Diaspora : A Journal of Transnational Studies; The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies; Middle East Critique; Arab Studies Journal; Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies; The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communications; Meridians : Feminism, Race, Transnationalism; and publications by MERIP – The Middle East Research and Information Project. A volume of selected articles from the Palestinian press is Fred Pragnell’s Palestine Chronicle, 1880-1950, listed in the OLDER PALESTINE HISTORY section of this site. The British Library holds many United Nations resolutions and reports, plus much vintage ephemera (thin pamphlets), which aren’t included here; you can search their main catalogue : http://www.bl.uk.
Also valuable are other periodicals, with the best being Journal of Palestinian Refugee Studies [JPRS], published by The Palestinian Return Centre (£25-35 – jprs@prc.org.uk). The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has a dedicated focus on Palestinian struggle; subscriptions from $10 online – wrmea.org). With a more regional focus and an occasional nod to the Palestinians are : Middle East Report, published from Washington DC by the Middle East Research & Information Project/MERIP (from £42 online – merip.org); The Middle East, published by Alliance Media (enquiries to : institutions@exacteditions.com); The Middle East in London, from the School of Oriental and African Studies / SOAS at the University of London (soas.ac.uk/lmei/meil/); the Los Angeles-published al-Jadid aka Aljadid : A Record of Arab Culture & Arts (Nagam Cultural Project, 1995-); and the Arab News Bulletin, published by the Arab Office in London (1946-1949) and Washington DC (1946-1948). The Palestine Police Old Comrades’ Association has published its News Letter, from issue no. 1 (March 1950) to at least no. 244 (Winter 2013), and this run is held at the British Library. And the Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture has been published in Jerusalem, from 1994 : http://www.pij.org.
Online-only :
British Forces in Palestine (britishforcesinpalestine.org) – The focus is on the last years of the Mandate but also included are memories of Egypt and some war service, as well as experiences of non-British participants and a little background to give context.
Cage (cage.ngo) – Independent advocacy group assisting communities targeted by the so-called war on terror. Campaigns against censorship of public events, hence the overlap with books. See also : MEND (mend.org.uk), non-profit UK organisation encouraging Muslim engagement in electoral politics and mass media.
Colonialism in Destru(A)ction – Mapping the Colonial Project (de-colonizer.org) – Eitan Bronstein Aparicio’s modern adjunct to Salmon Abu Sitta’s Atlas of Palestine (see below). Colour-coded map shows destroyed locales before the Nakba, during it, and since 1967.
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (eappi.org) Offers newsletter and numerous online reports to do with the Occupation and religion, education, settler relations, etc.B’Tselem (btselem.org) – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories offer many downloadable reports and statistics.
Electronic Intifada – online journal – (electronicintifada.net) News website.
Free Speech on Israel (freespeechonisrael.org) – Mainly Jewish anti-Zionist activist organisation.
Friends of Al-Aqsa (foa.org.uk) – Non-profit UK organisation lobbying for Palestinian rights, organising lectures, conferences and numerous online publications. Their Aqsa News newspaper was published approximately 2001-2015.
al-Hakawati Arab Cultural Trust (al-hakawate.net) – site intermittently functional.
Al-Haq Centre (alhaq.org) – “Defending Human Rights in Palestine since 1979” – numerous downloadable reports on topics including settler violence and Israel’s resource-pillage of the Dead Sea.
Jews for Justice for Palestinians (jfjfp.com) – Activist organisation that endorses select books.
King-Crane Commission Digital Archives at Oberlin College –(oberlin.edu/library/digital/king-crane) – includes manuscript materials, including photographs, plus reports and ephemera.
Mondoweiss – online journal – “The war of ideas in the Middle East” (mondoweiss.net) News website.
Palestine Briefing – online journal – (palestinebriefing.org), which documents the British and European Parliaments’ discussions on Palestine; it is published by Martin Linton, politics author, operator of Labour2Palestine, and former Labour Party MP.
Palestine Land Society (plands.org) – Salman Abu Sitta’s monumental work, mapping every acre that was lost in 1948. See also de-colonizer.org
Al-Shabaka – The Palestinian Policy Network (al-shabaka.org), part of the Middle East Policy Network, based in California.
Welcome to Palestine (welcometopalestine.com), an online encyclopaedia aimed at humanising the Occupied Palestinian Territories, revealing the people and places behind the headlines.
Keep up with current fiction in the wider Arabic world via Lynx Qualey’s exciting Arabic Literature in English site, arablit.org
thetanjara.blogspot.co.uk / en.qantara.de
