Zachary Lockman
Comrades and Enemies
Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948
$37.95, £22.50 paperback
978-0-520-20419-5
Available Now
"[Lockman] avoids treating the Arab and Jewish communities as if they developed independently of each other but instead shows how Arab and Jewish societies in Palestine helped to shape each other in significant ways."—Shofar
"By looking at the segment of society where class solidarity should have been strongest, Lockman shows in microcosm the tragedy that befell Palestine."—Foreign Affairs
"An exhaustive study of relations between Arab and Jewish workers during the period that Britain ruled Palestine prior to the founding of Israel in 1948. . . . An extremely rich history of events which continue to shape the Middle East today."—Socialist Worker
"Lockman reconstructs the long and complex history of labor Zionism's efforts to organize Arab workers under its tutelage, and the contradictions it often entailed, and, at the same time, documents its own relations with Arab workers and their own labor movements. He demonstrates that Arab workers in Palestine were not merely passive objects of propaganda or of the organizing efforts by either Zionists or upper-class Arab nationalists, but historical actors in their own right. Most histories of early twentieth-century Palestine concentrate on the already much-explored political, diplomatic or military dimensions of Zionism and its development towards Jewish statehood. But Lockman aims more at the socioeconomic and cultural history both of the country and of Zionist ideology and practice."—Australian Jewish News
"By looking at the segment of society where class solidarity should have been strongest, Lockman shows in microcosm the tragedy that befell Palestine."—Foreign Affairs
"An exhaustive study of relations between Arab and Jewish workers during the period that Britain ruled Palestine prior to the founding of Israel in 1948. . . . An extremely rich history of events which continue to shape the Middle East today."—Socialist Worker
"Lockman reconstructs the long and complex history of labor Zionism's efforts to organize Arab workers under its tutelage, and the contradictions it often entailed, and, at the same time, documents its own relations with Arab workers and their own labor movements. He demonstrates that Arab workers in Palestine were not merely passive objects of propaganda or of the organizing efforts by either Zionists or upper-class Arab nationalists, but historical actors in their own right. Most histories of early twentieth-century Palestine concentrate on the already much-explored political, diplomatic or military dimensions of Zionism and its development towards Jewish statehood. But Lockman aims more at the socioeconomic and cultural history both of the country and of Zionist ideology and practice."—Australian Jewish News
"A unique and welcome perspective which will challenge some and inspire others in the field. . . The scholarship involved, with its fluent familiarity with this extraordinary range of sources—a range which very few historians are capable of using—is remarkable, as is the quality of the prose, and the breadth and maturity of the judgments made. This book will become the standard work in a field where much has been written."—Rashid Khalidi, University of Chicago
"An impressive achievement, subtle, nuanced, and yet firmly grounded in a mass of well-weighted and well-interrogated archival documents and memoirs. It is clearly the best book yet written on Mandatory Palestine."—Juan Cole, University of Michigan
"An impressive achievement, subtle, nuanced, and yet firmly grounded in a mass of well-weighted and well-interrogated archival documents and memoirs. It is clearly the best book yet written on Mandatory Palestine."—Juan Cole, University of Michigan
In Comrades and Enemies Zachary Lockman explores the mutually formative interactions between the Arab and Jewish working classes, labor movements, and worker-oriented political parties in Palestine just before and during the period of British colonial rule. Unlike most of the historical and sociological literature on Palestine in this period, Comrades and Enemies avoids treating the Arab and Jewish communities as if they developed independently of each other. Instead of focusing on politics, diplomacy, or military history, Lockman draws on detailed archival research in both Arabic and Hebrew, and on interviews with activists, to delve into the country's social, economic, and cultural history, showing how Arab and Jewish societies in Palestine helped to shape each other in significant ways.
Comrades and Enemies presents a narrative of Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine that extends and complicates the conventional story of primordial identities, total separation, and unremitting conflict while going beyond both Zionist and Palestinian nationalist mythologies and paradigms of interpretation.
Comrades and Enemies presents a narrative of Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine that extends and complicates the conventional story of primordial identities, total separation, and unremitting conflict while going beyond both Zionist and Palestinian nationalist mythologies and paradigms of interpretation.
Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948, by Hillel, Cohen
Son of the Cypresses: Memories, Reflections, and Regrets from a Political Life, by Meron Benvenisti
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900, by Beshara Doumani
Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land, by Meron Benvenisti
Son of the Cypresses: Memories, Reflections, and Regrets from a Political Life, by Meron Benvenisti
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900, by Beshara Doumani
Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land, by Meron Benvenisti