My Palestine: An Impossible Exile

Mohammad Tarbush
Hardback, 352 pages
9781913368999

Mohammad Tarbush was born in British Mandate Palestine. As an infant, he and his family were forced to evacuate their village together with its entire population after the Zionist victory that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. As landless refugees in the West Bank the family sank into poverty.

When, as a teenager, Tarbush left home one day under the pretext of visiting relatives in Jordan, he in fact set off on a year-long hitchhiking journey to Europe, where he would eventually become a highly successful international banker and a key behind-the-scenes promoter of the Palestinian cause.

My Palestine is a poignant personal memoir and an incisive political and economic commentary on the tumultuous events that shaped the history of Israel, Palestine and the modern Middle East.