Based on personal interviews with Palestinian families, Oroub El-Abed examines the effects of displacement and the livelihood strategies that Palestinians have employed while living in Egypt. The author also analyzes the impact of fluctuating Egyptian government policies on the Palestinian way of life. With limited basic human rights and in the context of very poor living conditions for Egyptians in general, Palestinians in Egypt have had to employ an array of both tangible and intangible assets to survive. By providing an account of how they marshalled these assets, this book aims to contribute to the expanding literature on forced migration and the theoretical understanding of the livelihoods of Palestinians in their "host" countries.

"Palestine and Egypt under the Ottomans is based on Hisham Khatib's unique collection of art and printed works covering the 400-year period of Ottoman rule in the region. The core of the material here are the paintings - mainly nineteenth-century watercolours, many of them by renowned artists such as Frederick Goodall, Edward Lear, Carl Werner and Carl Haag - which concentrate on a realistic portrayal of the Holy Land (in particular Jerusalem) and Egypt, rather than basking in romantic 'Orientalism'. Images from the valuable plate books are of exceptional interest. These include rare works by Charles van de Velde, Sir David Wilkie, Louis de Forbin, Francois Paris, Achille Prisse d'Avennes and David Roberts. In these plate books the text merely served to explain the large-scale engravings, lithographs or etchings that illustrated them. The section on travel books - also frequently illustrated - includes works by Bernardino Amico, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Michel Nau, Adrian Reland and Walter Tyndale. Some of the oldest material discussed and illustrated here - from the earliest days of Ottoman rule in Palestine and Egypt - are the maps and views, many of them by such well known names as Abraham Ortelius and Bernhard von Breydenbach. From the later end of the Ottoman period, this volume also records some of the earliest surveys and atlases of the region, as well as original photographs." --Book Jacket.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most intense and intractable international conflicts of modern times. This book is about the historical roots of that conflict. It re-examines the history of 1948, the war in which the newly-born state of Israel defeated the Palestinians and the regular Arab armies of the neighbouring states so decisively. The book includes chapters on all the principal participants, on the reasons for the Palestinian exodus, and on the political and moral consequences of the war. The chapters are written by leading Arab, Israeli and western scholars who draw on primary sources in all relevant languages to offer alternative interpretations and new insights into this defining moment in Middle East history. The result is a major contribution to the literature on the 1948 war. It will command a wide audience from among students and general readers with an interest in the region.

Covering the time span from the Paleolithic period to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the eminent Egyptologist Donald Redford explores three thousand years of uninterrupted contact between Egypt and Western Asia across the Sinai land-bridge. In the vivid and lucid style that we expect from the author of the popular Akhenaten, Redford presents a sweeping narrative of the love-hate relationship between the peoples of ancient Israel/Palestine and Egypt.

This book aims to alter profoundly the accepted version of the history of post-World War II Egyptian foreign policy. Michael Doran convincingly demonstrates the absence of any true pan-Arab front from the very beginning of the Arab League. Pan-Arabism before Nasser: Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question argues that, in the late 1940s, Cairo pursued a single-minded foreign policy designed to drive Great Britain, the enemy of Egyptian independence, out of the Middle East. This struggle generated the secondary goal of Egyptian foreign policy: undermining the Middle Eastern states working to sustain British influence in the region. While uncovering a significant dimension of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Doran also lays the foundation for a new understanding of Egyptian foreign policy. He argues persuasively that pan-Arabism, a policy that historians have traditionally associated with the rise of Gamal Abd al-Nasser in the middle 1950s, actually originated under the old regime.

Egypt came to govern Gaza as a result of a war, a failed effort to maintain Arab Palestine. Throughout the twenty years of its administration (1948–1967), Egyptian policing of Gaza concerned itself not only with crime and politics, but also with control of social and moral order. Through surveillance, interrogation, and a network of local informants, the police extended their reach across the public domain and into private life, seeing Palestinians as both security threats and vulnerable subjects who needed protection. Security practices produced suspicion and safety simultaneously. Police Encounters explores the paradox of Egyptian rule. Drawing on a rich and detailed archive of daily police records, the book describes an extensive security apparatus guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality. In pursuit of security, Egyptian policing established a relatively safe society, but also one that blocked independent political activity. The repressive aspects of the security society that developed in Gaza under Egyptian rule are beyond dispute. But repression does not tell the entire story about its impact on Gaza. Policing also provided opportunities for people to make claims of government, influence their neighbors, and protect their families.

For seventy years Israel has existed as a state, and for forty years it has honored a peace treaty with Egypt that is widely viewed as a triumph of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. Yet the Palestinians - the would-be beneficiaries of a vision for a comprehensive regional settlement that led to the Camp David Accords in 1978 - remain stateless to this day. How and why Palestinian statelessness persists are the central questions of Seth Anziska's groundbreaking book, which explores the complex legacy of the agreement brokered by President Jimmy Carter. Based on newly declassified international sources, Preventing Palestine charts the emergence of the Middle East peace process, including the establishment of a separate track to deal with the issue of Palestine. At the very start of this process, Anziska argues, Egyptian-Israeli peace came at the expense of the sovereignty of the Palestinians, whose aspirations for a homeland alongside Israel faced crippling challenges. With the introduction of the idea of restrictive autonomy, Israeli settlement expansion, and Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the chances for Palestinian statehood narrowed even further. The first Intifada in 1987 and the end of the Cold War brought new opportunities for a Palestinian state, but many players, refusing to see Palestinians as a nation or a people, continued to steer international diplomacy away from their cause.