The question of how the Zionists managed to take control of Palestinian lands has been a subject of heated debate in Arab intellectual circles, and has opened up space for many questions including: Who sold Palestine to the Zionists and who facilitated their occupation? Was it the intention of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to do so? And what role did he play in “facilitating” the occupation of Palestine? The author, Fadwa Nusairat, provides answers to these questions and many other related issues by exploring and analyzing historical documents, providing an account of what might have happened.
This book overturns prevailing uncertainties and challenges deep beliefs that have developed within a wide spectrum of Arab, academic discourses, and intellectual and popular milieus. The book contradicts the historical postulate that Abdul Hamid II was very careful to prevent the establishment of a Zionist entity in Palestine and sheds a light on the...