Introduction
Michael Dumper and Amneh Badran
Section One – A History of Palestine
1. Byzantine and pre-Islamic Palestine, c. 324 – c. 638 CE
Daniel Reynolds
2. The Early Arab Islamic Period (634 – 1099)
Omar Abed Rabo
3. Palestine in the Ayyūbīd and Mamlūk Periods
Omar Abed Rabo
4. The Sweet Smell of Holy Sewage: Urban Planning and the Remaking of the Public Sphere in Ottoman Palestine
Salīm Tamārī
5. Palestine under the British Mandate
Issam Nassar
6. The 1948 War and the Nakba
Ilan Pappé
7. The 1967 War and the Conquest of Palestine
Awad Mansour
Section Two – Society, Geography, Economy and Demography
8. Palestinian Social Structure
Bernard Sabella
9. Christianity in Palestine
Mitri Raheb
10. Islam and Muslims in Palestine
Mustafa Abu Sway
11. Palestinian Islamist Movements: History, Ideology and Politics
Khaled Hroub
12. The Political Economy of Fragmentation: Palestine After 1948
Tariq Dana
13. Land Use and Urban Planning in Palestine: Over a Century of Ongoing Colonial Legacy
Maha Samman
14. Jerusalem
Michael Dumper
Section Three – Contemporary Politics
15. Collective Consciousness in Motion: Palestinian Nationalism, Anti-Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation
Erica Augenstein and Akram Salhab
16. Zionism
Amneh Badran
17. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Non-State Actors
Lily Habash
18. The Israeli Dominant Bloc System – The Rise of the Right and the Prospects for the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
As'ad Ghanem and Mohanad Mustafa
19. Palestinian Women’s Movements
Islah Jad and Areen Hawari
20. The Palestinian Refugee Issue
Jalal Al Husseini
21. Lost Light: The Gaza Strip and the End of Viability
Sara Roy
22. Reinstating the Significance of Palestine
Jamil Hilal
23. Current Trends and Prospects for a Political Settlement
Diana Buttu
Section Four – Palestinian Culture
24. Form Follows Life: An Overview of Palestinian Architecture Since the 19th Century
Yara Saifi
25. Education in Palestine
Rawan Asali Nuseibeh
26. Palestinian Literature and Film
Nadia Yaqub
27. Palestinian Music
David A. McDonald and Issa Boulos
28. Contemporary Palestinian Art
Bashir Makhoul
29. Palestinian Food: Commensality and Cultural Resistance
Christiane Dabdoub Nasser
Biography
Michael Dumper is Emeritus Professor in Middle East Politics, University of Exeter, United Kingdom. His recent research has been focussed on Jerusalem and on Palestinian refugees. He has acted as a consultant on Middle East politics for the UK and Canadian governments, for Office of the Special Coordinator for the ME Peace Process (UNSCO), the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the European Commission Task Force on Refugees, as well as a number of think tanks and research centres in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. His publications include Power, Piety and People: The Politics of Holy Cities in the 21st Century (2020) and Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History and the Future of the Holy City (2014).
Amneh Badran is Assistant Professor and Vice Dean at Al-Quds Bard College, Al-Quds University, Palestine. Her publications include Zionist Israel and Apartheid South Africa: Civil Society and Peace Building in Ethnic-National States (2010) and “Youth Discourse, Objectives and Strategies under Occupation: Palestinian Children’s Political Activism in the East Jerusalem Village of Silwan, 2008–5” in Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children (2024).
"This Handbook of nearly thirty chapters is an immensely significant contribution to studies of Palestine the country, if not yet the modern state. Divided into four sections – a historical section; a social, geographical, and economic section; a third section on contemporary politics; and a final section on Palestinian culture – this Handbook addresses both orthodox as well as critical scholarship on Palestine and its people. It places Palestine and its history, particularly from the late nineteenth century, in a more central position to understand the political dynamics between Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Palestinian nationalism, between settler colonialism and autochthonous awakening, and between different forms of social activism. This is a publication of immense importance for those who wish to have a more nuanced and critical understanding of contemporary Palestinian / Israeli struggles, and the significance of the 75 year Nakba."
Dawn Chatty, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, University of Oxford, UK
"As a political scientist and historian, I am privileged to endorse the comprehensive Routledge Handbook on Palestine which portrays all aspects of the politics, geography, demography, culture, and civilization of people still struggling to attain freedom and independence. This Handbook is comprehensive and meticulously written by experts and scholars registering the details of a people's profile struggling force for the last 75 years under Israeli occupation. This Handbook is a significant reference to students of the Middle East and those of geopolitics and should be adopted as a textbook in all major universities worldwide. It is very comprehensive, accurate, coherent, and objective. The content of such a Handbook is admirable and appreciated, and it is rare in our Palestinian library. Therefore, its endorsement is well-deserved."
Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Ambassador to Denmark
