From the River to the Sea

From the River to the Sea
by Dr Simon Smelt

Learn about the land and its peoples so you can handle - or join - the debate. This new book equips its readers to cut through falsehoods and fashions and the narratives woven around them. Building on in-depth research, this handy overview will deliver surprises to even the well-informed.

“Drawing on travelers’ journals, academic studies, archaeology and official records, moving quickly through the centuries with ease … a succinct yet very helpful and accessible book for the general reader.” Dr Sheree Trotter, Director of the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem:

Delving deep, our inquiry applies the evidence and maps the patterns of settlement and identity down the generations. The reader discovers just who was exploiting who as the study delivers jolts to common assumptions and portrayals.

From the 1st to the 20th century, we look at the Land and its peoples under the Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Umayyads, Abbasids, Crusaders, Saladin, Mamluks, Ottomans, the British, through periods of chaos, leading finally to the State of Israel.

We explore the movement of peoples, the changes in agriculture, the abandonment of much of the coastal strip, and the pressures of incessant warfare and Bedouin raiding. We survey the impact of the Ottoman decline in the 17th to early 20th centuries, the arrival of waves of Moslem and Jewish immigrants, and the British Mandate with its strong economic growth and rising tensions. We view the manoeuvres of Arab and colonial powers, Zionists and local leaders. Our quest leads to sixteen specific and well researched conclusions – supported by over 300 footnotes.