Thursday, April 16, 2009

"Under the Cover of War" -- the Palestinian Nakba

60 years since Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1948
Arabicus Books & Media presents an important new book.

Under the Cover of War
The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians

Rosemarie M. Esber

“Helps to balance documentation and diaries by one side . . . the suffering of those
who fled is all too evident.” -- Robert Fisk, The Independent

Ø Under the Cover of War explains in detail how the Jewish Agency used the cover of war to expel more than 400,000 Palestinian men, women and children from some 220 villages, towns, and cities before May 15, 1948 when the British relinquished the Palestine mandate and Israel became a state.

Ø Incorporates a Palestinian narrative of their expulsions by including some 130 new interviews with refugees from Jordan, Lebanon, and the United States.

Ø Provides an invaluable case study for U.S. military planners on how not to end a military occupation by describing how the scuttled British withdrawal from Palestine, in just six months, contributed to civil war and the creation of Palestinian refugees.

A MUST READ FOR THE MILITARY!
“I am more convinced than ever after reading this we need more attention to the problems in this region to have any kind of peace in the future.” -- Jerzee Devil

Watch the You Tube Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pUEq9GgS4F4
Robert Fisk, The Independent:
Under the Cover of War “helps to balance documentation and diaries by one side with verbal recollection on the other. The book does not spare the Arabs—least of all the Arab atrocities or the Iraqi volunteers who turned up to fight for Palestine but didn't even know their geography—yet the suffering of those who fled is all too evident.”

“Here for example, is Abu Mohamed from the village of Saqiya, east of Tel Aviv describing what happened on 25 April, 1948: ‘Jews entered the village and started shooting women, men, and old people. They arrested girls, and we still don't know what happened to them. They came from the settlement that was near the village. They used Bren guns. Then armoured vehicles entered the centre of the village. Fourteen were killed that day. Two women could not run so they were killed in the village. The villagers ran together in the direction of al-Lid (Lod, the site of Ben Gurion airport in Israel today). After that, families started to leave separately. We left everything in the village. We thought it would be a short trip and we would come back.’”

Publishers Weekly, web pick of the week 11/24/08:

In her first effort, researcher and writer Esber takes readers on a dramatic inquest of modern Israel’s beginnings and the Arab conflict over Palestine. Reviewing historical accounts, Esber reveals that after WWII many of Europe's expelled Jews sought to regain their roots in Palestine. This meant the expulsion of the Palestinian Arab community who lived there; with the tacit approval of the United Nations, Palestinians were cruelly evicted from their homes and lives, subject to demonization and, according to Esber, a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Esber’s account abounds with first hand accounts from Arab victims recounting the terror they faced at the hands of Zionist forces. This gripping historical account illuminates the plight of Palestinians following the War, too long overshadowed in the media and historical record by the atrocity of the Holocaust; placing them back to back, Esber demonstrates a tragic domino effect, in which victims become aggressors and survival becomes a matter of fighting back.

Order online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Under the Cover of War is an important resource for anyone seeking to understand the full story of the 1948 Palestine war and the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rosemarie Esber meticulously documents and poignantly recounts the first phase of the Zionist conquest of Palestine and the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinians—an estimated 84 percent were children under 15, pregnant and nursing mothers, the elderly, and the infirm.
As this compelling history shows, the human tragedy of Palestine’s ethnic cleansing entailed the demonization of the Palestinian Arabs, the incitement of violence by Jewish nationalist leaders, and a weak response from an apathetic international community. War provided a cover for systematic expulsions and the founding of the State of Israel on Palestinian land, while British colonial officials did little but watch.

An array of unpublished military and diplomatic sources supports the Palestinians’ own account of their Nakba (catastrophe or disaster), based on new, original refugee interviews. This little-known story of human suffering makes a convincing case that redressing Palestinian losses is vital for regional and world peace.

The author, Rosemarie M. Esber, Ph.D., is a researcher and writer with degrees from the University of London and The Johns Hopkins University.

For Immediate Release
ISBN: 978-0-9815131-7-1
Hardback, 440 pages, 40 illustrations, appendices,
bibliography, index, $29.95

Media Contact
Arabicus Books & Media, LLC
(703) 585-3463
arabicusbooks@aol.com
www.ArabicusBooks.com

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