An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba

A definitive study of the Palestinian Nakba, interweaving oral testimony from 1948 and the present day to reveal an ongoing process aimed at the erasure of Palestinian history and memory.

Apart from its prestige as an academic work that stays authentic to the voice of the Palestinian people, the book is also home to a simple truth…: “I am Palestinian, and I do not have another land".'

A passionate and ambitious work of politically engaged scholarship that positions itself as an actor in the fight to change the world. This is cultural activism at its best.

A landmark intervention, this cross-disciplinary book provides innovative analytical frameworks for studying the persistent erasure of Palestine. This insightful and comprehensive work proposes alternative ways of knowing and telling, rearticulating the Nakba as an ongoing process of dispossession.

An impressive collection and a very significant contribution to the scholarly work on the oral history of the Nakba.

Reveals the full magnificence of Palestinian responses to Israel’s systematic post-1948 programme of memoricide. Abdo and Masalha are here establishing a new interdisciplinary field, Nakba Studies, in which Palestinians become subjects and agents in their own history.

A wide-ranging collection by leading oral historians, its moving first person narratives confirm the reparative force of listening to voices which have been silenced in the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

Moving and acutely observed, this timely and necessary anthology is an indispensable addition for all readers concerned with the Israeli colonisation of Palestine.

Breathtaking in scope, its compelling essays complicate our understanding of the Nakba, rendering it both more visceral and historically profound. It is an invaluable contribution to oral history, gender studies and the broader genre of genocide studies.

Nahla Abdo is professor of sociology at Carleton University, Canada. She has previously worked as a consultant on gender and women’s rights for the United Nations, the European Union, and the Palestinian Ministry for Women’s Affairs. Her previous books include Captive Revolution (2014) and Women in Israel: Gender, Race and Citizenship (Zed 2011).

Nur-eldeen (Nur) Masalha is a Palestinian historian and a member of the Centre for Palestine Studies at SOAS, University of London. He was previously a professor of religion and politics at St Mary's University, and a research fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington D.C. His previous books include The Palestine Nakba (Zed 2012) and T he Bible and Zionism (Zed 2007).