Hirst paints a picture of Lebanon, its social-economic and ethnic-religious divisions and its sectarian democracy, before inevitably having to cross borders and examine events in neighbouring states: the rise of Arab Nationalism, the Zionist projects endevours in Mandatory Palestine and the Arab resistance to this (culminating in the Arab Revolt of 1936-39), the breakdown of British rule in Palestine and the subsequent conflict between the Zionists and the Arabs that brought Israel into existance, and a large number of Palestinian refugees into Lebanon upsetting the finely balanced ethnic and religious demography. This was a crucial point in the regions history that set the context within which conflict was to flourish for the rest of the century and beyond. The book begins with an overview of the period from 1860 to 1923, from the Ottoman period to the point where an enlarged Lebanon was carved out of Greater Syria by the French, this after the Arab provinces of the now deceased Ottoman Empire had been divided between the French and the British, with Palestine being simultaneously pledged to the Arabs and the Zionists. The Guardians former Middle East correspondent and long term resident of Beirut (kidnapped twice) has penned a fine book telling the story of Lebanons role (putting the occupied territories to one side) as the main battleground of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |