Rating: 
Summary: Proven to be a Total Fraud, From Time Immemorial
Review: Joan Peter's book when it was first published in the United States was given heaps of praise, all of it blind. It wasn't until Norman G. Finkelstein actually critiqued the so-called original research Peter's conducted that he found out that either prominent facts were left out, doctored or did not add up. After publishing his claims From Time Immemorial was blasted as a hoax in Britain and the rest of Europe. Shortly after that, it was blasted by Zionist scholars all over Israel as a disservice to the Zionist cause. To find out how devious this book is read Finkelsteins chapter on it in his Image and Reallty of the Israeli-Palestine Confict. It made me laugh - a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: Revisionist History Revised
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionist History Revised
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Hired to write propaganda, wrote the truth
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Facts
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must read !
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: everything is complicated...
Review: My reaction to this book is mixed. Many a screed against Israel has been justified by reference to the traditional failure of Western media to come to grips with the legitimate (historical, ongoing, and new) grievances of the Palestinians. If such extreme opposition is justified, then so is Ms. Peters' strident defense of Israel. It is another question, however, whether the perspective she develops can be justified in its own right, without reference to those (other) extreme perspectives. This is where things get complicated. It seems to me that she gives vastly insufficent attention to the legtimate claims and grievances of the Arab population of Palestine. If "the case for Israel" depends on this failing, then that case is in sorry shape indeed. However, I do not believe that what's good in Ms. Peters's presentation really depends on this very serious moral and intellectual defect. What is valuable in her presentation is that she gives center stage to issues that are often marginalized, and that deserve to be central at least some of the time. For example, there is the extent to which the same Arab countries that attacked the newly minted state of Israel (and that went on to incarcerate the Palestinians in the land they captured) ultimately contributed to Israel's legitimacy. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled at various points (during the 40's and 50's) from their ancestral homelands in Arab-dominated lands, and were absorbed by Israel. To say that these indigenous communities have no right to a land of their own anywhere in the Middle East/North Africa is to say, in effect, that it is not enough that 99.9% of this land must be Arab/Muslim-ruled, but that nothing short of 100% will do. Yet this position seems, in short, fanatical and racist. Not that the bad behavior of Arab countries in any way diminishes the grievances of Palestinians against the Zionist settlers. The point is that the whole issue of indigenous Middle Eastern and North African--and, yes, Palestinian--Jews is often dismissed in a panic by sources eqully extreme as, but ideologically opposed to, Ms. Peters. Yet if the rights of indigenous peoples are at issue in the Arab/Israeli conflict, as they clearly are, then the rights of indigenous Jews cannot be dismissed simply because this angle happens to be inconvenient. An interesting development regarding this book is this: Extreme critics often cite unfavorable reviews by Israeli scholars as evidence of both the book's bankruptcy and those scholars' (surprising) probity. But it is ironic that those same extreme critics are guilty of equally serious distortions of their own, and would never dream of adopting the vaunted standards of those Israeli scholars within their own ranks. (Indeed, even Chomsky lines up to take a pot shot at this book. Good for him, I would say, if his own record of skewing the facts did not make this so patently hypocritical. Yet even in Chomsky's work there is value...)
Rating:
Summary: Historical Perspective on the Israeli-Palastinian problem
Review: Of all the books I have read on the subject, this book is the best researched and factual account of the history of Palastine and the problems arising from the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. This book is "must" reading for all those who are genuinely interested in an unbiased account of the historical facts. The author has spent many years and much effort in bringing an unbiased view of the true story of the Israeli-Palastinian "problem".
Rating:
Summary: An understated case
Review: Peters spent 7 years searching Arab, United Nations, League of Nations, British, French, Israeli, Turkish and Ottoman and other records. This book, with more than 1,800 citations, should be required reading for every Middle East reporter. 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
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Summary: FOR THOSE WHO WANT FACTS ABOUT THE ARAB/ISRAELI CONFLICT
Review: Propaganda about the Arab/Israeli conflict has obscured the truth. Many are so confused by false reporting that they have no context in which to understand news reports about the Middle East. From Time Immemorial is a treasure trove of carefully documented information. No study of the Middle East is complete without it. This is a must read.
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