Book Review: A History of Palestine

Among our Books to Avoid (certainly one NOT to purchase) is this one: A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel. By Gudrun Krämer. It's an excellent example of a book with an agenda; a book written solely for the purpose of getting the author's opinion across...regardless of the facts in evidence. When necessary to avoid the facts, Kramer was right there. Need to twist them, rewrite them - Kramer stepped up to the plate. Following is a review.

A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel. By Gudrun Krämer. (Princeton, N.J.: University Press, 2007.  Pp. viii, 357. $35.00.)

A Solicited Review by:

Sondra M. Rubenstein, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
University of Haifa

Islamic Studies Professor Gudrun Kramer’s A History of Palestine begins with brief references to biblical times and then focuses on the period 1750 to 1948, the founding of the State of Israel.  While ignoring vast amounts of historical evidence, her version of Palestine’s painful history is based on carefully selected facts, making her framing and intent clear. While the author cites the continued presence in Palestine of small Jewish communities, she omits others.  Proof of her framing can be seen in the multiple mentions arguing that Palestine, while sparsely populated for much of its history, was never devoid of an Arab majority and that their Islamic culture was not stagnant.

Extensive archeological findings throughout Israel, attesting to a Jewish presence, are mostly acknowledged but summarily dismissed as postdating “Arab roots dating back over a millennium.”  Thus, Masada, “whether it actually happened or not” (13), is simply identified as having been turned into “a symbol of Jewish national history.” Qumran, for example, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls concerning the Essenes is not mentioned.  This find was significant because it revealed more about the Essenes than any other Jewish group of the Second Temple period (which predates Islam by almost a thousand years, 536 BCE -- 70 CE).

Previous historians, Krämer states, criticized Ottoman rulers for their poor statistics (132) and their neglect of Palestine. However, “Critical historians no longer look primarily for external actors … [but] pay greater attention to local or regional actors….” Thus, Prof. Krämer tells us, “the temporal horizon is broadened, and the boundaries of political change and economic revival are shifted.“   Her conclusion is one example of her ignoring historical facts: “The year 1882--beginning of Zionist immigration--loses its status as the date of Palestine’s entry into modernity” (40). 

The book’s theme laments the fact that Palestinian Arabs were disadvantaged as compared to the Jewish settlers, whom Prof. Krämer identifies primarily not as “Jews,” but as Zionist settlers (269-270), perhaps implying an alien origin. At some point, however, she acknowledges that it became difficult to distinguish between them (290).

Krämer details the Jews’ incredible effort, specifically during the 1920s and ‘30s, to develop the land, schools, universities, cultural institutions, libraries, industries and jobs, as well as to build new infrastructures, thereby improving the lives of the people (197-198).  She also admits that the dynamism of the “Zionist settlers” attracted Arabs from neighboring countries to seek work in Palestine (113).  In this regard, she laments the Yishuv’s policy of preferring Jewish over Arab workers. 

Regarding Israel’s War of Independence, Prof. Krämer’s research would have been improved had she read Harvard University’s Prof. Nadav Safran’s From War to War: The Arab-Israeli Confrontation. . . . Among the many unmentioned details in her book was the partiality of the British, who, on leaving Palestine, left vast quantities of military equipment and strategic bases, and flew reconnaissance missions for the Arabs throughout the war, providing them with critical information. Krämer’s glaring omissions, innuendoes, and subtle historical distortions throughout this book diminish its potential value.

This review has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of The Historian, a journal of history published quarterly in the Unites States on behalf of the National History Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta.