Palestine: Past and Present

The volume traces the evolution of Palestine-Israel conflict through several historically-informed and roughly chronological, yet overlapping, investigations examining, inter alia: the effects of the First World War and the efforts of the Zionist movement culminating in the establishment of the State of Israel and the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from the territories therein in 1947-48; missed opportunities for peace from 1967 to 1990 by reference to official policy documents; the revitalisation of Palestinian nationalism through the PLO after the 1967 war and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994; the competing rise and evolution of Islamic nationalism in Palestine, predominantly embodied by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas; attempts at Palestinian institution-building contextualised by the profound influence of international donors and Israel; and the ongoing evolution of the relationship between Hamas and Israel.

The final chapter canvases some of the rapidly evolving issues that have arisen over the last few years, including upheavals caused by the election of the Trump administration in the United States, and the periodic and ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The volume will be of interest to both scholars and the general public wishing to understand the historical and present drivers of the conflict in the Holy Land.