PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 45

Near Safad, about 1930
1. Feissal Darraj highlights that the period of
fighting between 1936 and 1939, called thawra
in Arabic, meaning revolution, is translated in
foreign language books as “the Revolt”. How-
ever, all Palestinians call it “the Revolution”
not “the Revolt”.
2. Henry Laurens, La Question de la Pales-
tine, vol. III, 1947–1967. L’accomplissement
des prophéties, Fayard, 2007, says that ‘Abd Al
Qadir Al Husseini, a hero of the Arab Revolt
of 1936–1939 and especially of the 1948 war,
led a militia, Al Jihad Al Muqaddas, that was
officially formed on December 25, 1947, to
protect villages from attacks by Zionists (pp.
32 and 73).
3.  Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, is a mostly
Shi’ite area. Destroyed and occupied by Israeli
forces on several occasions it was the scene of
one of the main battles in the Israel–Lebanon
war of 2006.
4.  Al Quneitra is on the Golan Heights.
5.  In 1948, Syria was a young republic that had
gained independence five years earlier. In 1949 it
is estimated that there were about 75,000 Pales-
tinian refugees. See the article by Jalal Al Hus-
seini, “Les réfugis palestiniens de Syrie”. Afkar/
Idées, Estudios de Politica Exterior/Instituto Eu-
ropeo del Mediterraneo, 2013, pp. 20–26.
6. See Jalal Al Husseini, “Le statut des ré-
fugiés palestiniens au Proche-Orient  : facteur
de maintien ou de dissolution de l’identité
nationale palestinienne  ?”, in Les Palestiniens
entre État et Diaspora – Le temps des incertitudes,
Paris, Karthala, 2011, pp. 37–65. The author
highlights Syria’s solidarity with the Palestini-
an refugees right from 1948, even though they
only made up 2.7% of the population. They
made up 10% of the population of Lebanon
and 43% of the population of Jordan in 2003
(figures from the Jordanian Prime Minister).
7. Henry Laurens, “Comment l’Empire otto-
man fut dépecé”, Le Monde diplomatique, April
2003, pp. 16–17.
8. According to Olivier Compagnon, “Bal-
four (Declaration, 1917)”, in the Encyclopédie
Universalis (in French), on November 2, 1917,
Arthur James Balfour sent a letter to Lord Roth-
schild, President of the Zionist Federation of
Great Britain, in which he promised to create a
Jewish homeland in Palestine. On the strength
of this document the British government ob-
tained the support of the Jewish banks in Eng-
land and in America against the backdrop of the
First World War, which required an increasing
supply of funds. Nevertheless, the Declaration
went against the undertakings given to the Arab
nationalists who were demanding an independ-
ent state (the Hussein–McMahon agreement
in 1915), and in particular it contradicted the
Sykes–Picot agreement of 1916 which laid the
groundwork for the international control of the
Ottoman lands in the Middle East.
9.  The PLO was founded on May 28, 1964.
10.  In Cairo, Yasser Arafat and Abu Iyad set up
the Association of Palestinian Students which
became the General Union of Palestinian Stu-
dents (GUPS) in 1959.
11.  To find out more, see Anis Sayegh’s auto-
biography: Anis Sayegh’n Anis Sayegh, Beirut,
Lebanon, (Al Rayyes), which was reviewed in
the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
(2011, vol. 1, pp. 455–458).
12.  Sayegh was the editor of Shu’un Filastiniya
from 1964 to 1974. This magazine, which was
published in Arabic, had several other editors
until 1993.
13. PhD thesis by Feissal Darraj under the
supervision of Alain Guy, Université Tou-
louse-Jean Jaurès, 1974.
14. Mahmoud Darwish is the most famous
Palestinian poet and one of the most significant
contemporary Arab poets. At the age of 19, in
1960, Darwish published his first collection of
poems, Asafir bila ajniha (Birds without wings).
15. For the political history of Lebanon see
Roger Azzam, Trente ans de guerre, L’ instruc-
tion d’un crime, Le Coudray-Macouard, Chem-
inements, 2005, p. 323.
16. Jalal Al Husseini and Kamel Doraï, “La
vulnérabilité des réfugiés palestiniens à la lu-
mière de la crise syrienne”, Confluences Méditer-
ranée, vol. 87, no. 4, 2013, pp. 95–107.
Feissal
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