From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine

The weight of the comprehensive evidence found and brilliantly analyzed by historian and journalist Joan Peters answers many crucial questions, among them: Why are the Arab refugees from Israel seen in a different light from all the other, far more numerous peoples who were displaced after World War II? Why, indeed, are they seen differently from the Jewish refugees who were forced, in 1948 and after, to leave the Arab countries to find a haven in Israel? Who, in fact, are the Arabs who were living within the borders of present-day Israel, and where did they come from?

Joan Peters's highly readable and moving development of the answers to these and related questions will appear startling, even to those on both sides of the argument who have considered themselves to be in command of the facts. On the basis of a definitive weight of hitherto unexamined population and other historical data, much of it buried in untouched archives, Peters demonstrates that Jews did not displace Arabs in Palestine-just the reverse: Arabs displaced Jews; that a hidden but major Arab migration and immigration took place into areas settled by Jews in pre-Israel Palestine; that a substantial number of the Arab refugees called Palestinians in reality had foreign roots; that for every Arab refugee who left Israel in 1948, there was a Jewish refugee who fled or was expelled from his Arab birthplace at the same time-today's much discussed Sephardic majority in Israel is in fact composed mainly of these Arab-born Jewish refugees or their offspring; that Britain, the Mandatory power, winked at and even encouraged Arab immigration into Palestine between the two World Wars; that by disguising the Arab immigrants as "indigenous native Palestinian Arabs," the British justified their restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement, dooming masses of European Jews to destruction in the Nazi camps.

Joan Peters also unfolds a historical record to shatter the widely held belief that Arabs and Jews harmoniously coexisted for centuries in the Arab world-the fact is that the Jews, along with other non-Muslims, were second-class citizens, oppressed in the Muslim world for more than a millennium. And this continuing prejudicial tradition of hostility underlies, as well, every Arab action toward the state of Israel.

In addition to her pioneering archival researches, Joan Peters has frequently traveled in the Middle East, conducting numerous interviews and gathering the personal observations of the first-rate reporter she is. The result is a book that has already had a major impact on policy discussions of one of the most vital and intractable of the world's problems, shrouded until now in a fog of misinformation and ignorance.

Distributed exclusively by Jonathan David Publishers.

Peters shows that for 70 years before Israel's independence, there was considerable Arab immigration INTO Palestine--a history confirmed among others by Arieh Avneri's pre-Peters book, Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the Arabs 1878-1948. This began in 1878, when Jewish settlers joined tens of thousands of Jews whose families lived in Palestine for two millennia after it was sacked by the Romans in 70 AD.

She shows at length that while Palestine was later conquered by a long parade of others--including Muslims, Crusaders, Saracens, and finally the Ottoman Empire--none ever drove the Jews out completely.

Peters provides documentation by many non-Jewish 19th century travelers, including Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad) and French and British envoys, of a desolate Palestine, whose small population included long-established Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Nablus, Jericho and other towns. In the 1870s, Jewish settlers from the Middle East and Europe began joining their co-religionists in Palestine. Arab immigration increased as Jewish development raised economic conditions far above those of neighboring Arab countries. Jewish farmers bought land at above-market prices from absentee effendi landlords in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere, employing both Arabs and Jews. Arabs also came for jobs in the government and building the railroads, roads and Haifa port.

Peters also notes a long history of Arab aggression against Israel, and before that, Jews. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, she shows that Arab pogroms killed thousands of Jews and destroyed many Jewish West Bank and Gaza communities established long before the 1948 war, some for hundreds or thousands of years. This followed a pattern of abuse, Peters demonstrates, which dominated much of the Arab world for 1,000 years. There, Jews were a minority, often (though not always) oppressed--subject to periodic rapes, massacres, dispersion and other horrors.

A former journalist and peace negotiator, Peters shows that over time reporters have revised history and accepted the false thesis that Palestinian Arabs were peace-loving victims of Jewish aggressors, while ignoring voluminous Arab propaganda proving the exact opposite. In 1948, for example, Hajj Amin el-Husseini--the British-appointed Jerusalem mufti--called for a war of annihilation against the Jews, a threat repeated by Gamel Naser in 1967....

As Peters notes, the League of Nations' Palestine Mandate--adopted with the blessings of Sharif Hussein of Mecca and King Faisal of Iraq--included TransJordan. Britain unilaterally gave more than 75% of Palestine to Emir Abdullah. He illegally expelled 100,000 Jewish residents from that part of what international law had designated a National Home for the Jews. Jordan, she writes, is a de facto Palestinian Arab state. Moreover, she notes, at the prompting of Arab Nazi collaborators, Britain all but closed Palestine's doors to Europe's Jews in 1939--effectively greasing the wheels of Hitler's war against them.

Finally, Peters shows that Israeli self-defense has never equaled Arab aggression or the hate that she documents so thoroughly.

A particularly vindictive 1986 criticism of this book was unraveled in a July 1986 Commentary article by Erich and Rael Jean Isaac. It noted that the author made serious errors, and failed to correct them when the essay was later republished in a book.

More important, even Peters' worst Israeli detractors do not contest her basic premise--that Palestine's Arab population ballooned by virtue of Arab immigration. After all, her sources include an interview with Tewfik Bey El-Hurani, published in August 1934, which stated "in the last few months, from 30,000 to 36,000 Huranese [Syrians] had entered Palestine and settled there."

If anything, Peters understates her case. Supporting evidence includes the testimony of Moshe Shertok and Eliahu Epstein, given to the Palestine Royal Commission, who visited 30 Hurani villages and complained of an influx of Huranis. In 35 Western Palestine regions that became Israel, the Arab population rose 135% from 1922 and 1947, compared to a 98% increase in 13 regions of Jewish settlement. But in cities REMOVED from Jewish development--Nablus, Jenin and Hebron--Arab population grew at much slower 56%, 78% and 64% rates, respectively. Avraham Brawer in 1949 similarly compared Western Palestine's population with far less dense populations of neighboring Arab countries.

In other words, Peters is correct: Jewish development fueled Arab migration into Palestine and, consequently, a large proportion of Arab population growth.

Readers in doubt should also consult Arieh Avneri. So should anyone who cares about truth and justice. Alyssa A. Lappen


Hired to write propaganda, wrote the truth   September 25, 2001
J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA)
255 out of 393 found this review helpful

Joan Peters, a professional writer and researchers, received a grant from an Arab Foundation to write a history of the ancient roots of the Arab population in historic Palestine. The problem was that, when she actually began doing her research, she found that most of the common beliefs about the long history of that population are just inaccurate. In fact, she found that the majority of the current population descended from waves of migration beginning in the 19th century and peaking in the early 20th.

Peter's uses considerable primary source data, including the ottoman and British censuses and the travel journals of western visitors like Mark Twain, all of which prove that the area compromising modern day Israel and the West Bank were largely unpopulated in the 19th century and experienced waves of immigration from people looking for work. Even more controversial, she documents the existence of ancient Jewish communities on both sides of the Jordan River, in places like Jerusalem, Gaza, Hebron, Safed, Nablus, and others. Sadly, many of these communities were forced to flee Arab violence at the turn of the century. Thus Hebron, which has boasted a continual Jewish community for over 2,500 years, had no community between 1930-67 because the Jews had to flee for their lives.

Arieh Avneri's Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the Arabs 1878-1948 adds considerable documentary evidence to this thesis and is also worth examination.


An absolute must read !   December 12, 2000
M. D Roberts (Gwent, United Kingdom)
151 out of 212 found this review helpful

My own research into the Middle East over many years gave rise to considerable concern that vast numbers of people were being deceived over the Palestinian refugee problem. It was obvious to me that many 'untruths' and 'inflated figures' were being branded around by the Arab world in order to promote their stance over the Palestinian issue. I had searched for a book that would concentrate on the original historical facts upon which the issue is based and not on propaganda from either side in the conflict. This is that book. Ironically the author was originally employed by the Arab world to investigate the matter on their behalf. However, the facts speak for themselves and the Arab world have since predictably sought to denigrate the author wherever possible. However, to avoid any bias, the facts are there, together with their sources, for anyone honest enough who wishes to research the matter for themselves. I am not Jewish or Arab, and just wish that the public at large were for once, provided with the true facts about this matter. This book should be re-published immediately in view of the current Middle East crisis. Perhaps the politicians involved would do well to access the facts themselves. Thank you all for your time.


The Facts   January 18, 2004
Gary Selikow (Great Kush)
125 out of 191 found this review helpful

My earlier factual ,and blanced review on this purely factual and balanced book was pulled off Amazon , after complaints by hate-filled pro-Palestinian Israel-hating readicals , whose only goal in life is the genocide of all Israeli men , women and children!
I therefore again point out some of the facts in this book that are highlighted (anyone who denies these facts is a liar , whose agenda is another holocaust of the Israeli people).
The term "Palestinian" is itself a masterful twisting of history. To portray themselves as indigenous, Arab settlers adopted the name of an ancient Mediterranean tribe, the Philistines ("Invaders" in Hebrew), who had died out over 2500 years ago. There is no connection between this tribe and modern day Arabs. The Romans, in order to conceal their shame and anger with rebellious regions, changed the references to Judea and Samaria by naming them Palestine. Most of Arabs had settled in Palestine after Jews started developing agriculture and industries approximately 100 year ago.
1. Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., almost two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
2. Since 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had a dominion over the land for at least 1,000 years as well as a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
3. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years.
4. King David made the city of Jerusalem his capital, Mohammed had never been to Jerusalem.
5. For 3000 years, Jerusalem has been known to be the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. When the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital and Arab leaders did not specifically come to visit there.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Tanach (Jewish Holy Scriptures) . Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran.
7. Jews pray facing Jerusalem wherever in the world they may be. Muslims pray facing Mecca (often with their backs toward Jerusalem).
8. In 1854, according to a report in the New York Tribune, Jews constituted two-thirds of the population of the holy city. (The source: A journalist on assignment to the Middle East that year for the Tribune. His name was Karl Marx. Yes, that Karl Marx.)
9. In 1867, Mark Twain took a tour of Palestine and described that land: "A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. It is a silent and mournful expanse. We never saw a human."
10. In 1882 census figures of the Ottoman Empire, it was recorded that in the entire land of Israel, there were only 141,000 Muslims, both Arab and non-Arab.
11. A travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker, estimated that the total population of Jerusalem was 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians and 40,000 were Jews.
12. After Zionist Jews came, drained the swamps, and made the deserts blossom Arabs followed them. They came for jobs, for prosperity and for freedom. Arabs arrived in large numbers.
13. In 1922, during the illegal separation of Transjordan, Jews were forbidden to settle on 77% of the disputed territory, while Arab settlements went unrestricted by British.
14. Prior to the Second World War, Mojli Amin, a member of the Arab Defense Committee for Palestine, proposed the following idea "All the Arabs of Palestine will leave and be settled amongst the neighboring Arab countries. In exchange for this, all the Jews living in Arab countries will leave and come and live in Palestine."
15. Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not established until 1913? Lebanon was not established until 1920. Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932 and Syria until 1941. The borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and those of Kuwait in 1961. Any of the aforementioned nations that say that Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own right of existence. They did not exist as fully-fledged countries, but were all under the control of the Turks. Over 80% of the original British Mandate land was given to the Arabs without any form of population transfer.
16. In 1947, the Jewish state settled on 18% of the original British Mandate land. This was accepted gratefully. The Arabs rejected it with a vengeance and seven Arab states immediately declared war against Israel.
17. In 1948, the Arabs were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Most of them left in fear of being killed by their own Arab brothers as traitors.
18. Jewish citizens of Arab countries had been forced to flee from Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
19. The number of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 was 470,000 (this figure was later inflated after UN offered them free help). The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
20. From 1948 to 1967 Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated. Jews and Christians were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
21. Arabs began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people only in 1967, after Israel captured Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
22. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, Arab- Palestinians are the only refugee group in the world that have never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees from all over were completely absorbed into the land of Israel.
23. Arab refugees INTENTIONALLY were not absorbed or integrated by the rich Arab oil states that control 99.9 percent of the Middle East landmass. They are kept as virtual prisoners by the Arab power brokers with misplaced hatred for Jews and Western democracy.
24. There is only one Jewish state. There are 54 Muslim countries including 22 Arab nations.
25. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
26. Pan-Arabism or the idea of an Arab Caliphate declares that all land that supposedly to belonged to Arabs, must be returned to Arabs.


Revisionist History Revised   November 15, 2001
Rabbi Noach Zaner (Lauderdale Lakes, FL USA)
102 out of 164 found this review helpful

Joan Peters has dealt with a topic that many would prefer to ignore...namely "truth". Lies , when told time and time again, appear to be true; but they only APPEAR to be true. Deep down, beneath all the rhetoric, truth can be found if one really searches for it. Ms Peters has done just that. She has dug deep to discover the truth concerning the major issues in the Arab - Israel conflict. Ironically, she set out to bring the Israelis to justice "for their dispicable treatment of the Palestinian refugees" and discovered /learned that this was nothing more than a major "smokescreen" hiding a much greater issue. Her documentation is thorough and one can only wonder why the information, the facts, that she, and so many others have uncovered, are not in circulation in today's political spectrum. Could it be that the world does not want to know the truth? If you are looking for facts, regarding the Arab - Israel conflict, this is the best book out there. However, it may have an adverse effect upon you. You just might find yourself becoming very upset while watching the evening news' coverage of what is taking place in Israel. The media bias is obvious.