By Jean-Pierre Filiu. Oxford, 422 pages, $29.95.
Reviewed by Jules Wagman
It starts on the dust jacket with two boys, presumably Arab, crawling through a barbed wire obstacle course while an armed, hooded instructor watches. It continues on the flyleaf with a photo of the author, in jacket and chinos, squatting in a tunnel, which looks for all the world like one in Gaza.
Author Jean-Pierre Filiu, a former French diplomat in Arab capitals and a historian, knows the Middle East, but Gaza, written in French, suffers from a wooden translation. Filiu’s English is excellent; he had a well-written op-ed piece on Gaza in The New York Times Aug. 26.
Filliu’s approach favors the Arab viewpoint, which would be expected, given his background. But that doesn’t mean that he would be incapable of preparing a balanced history.
Gaza is a fertile agricultural oasis where citrus flourishes. It is also a strategic crossroads, being subjected since antiquity to invasions and occupations, still happening today. Egypt, Gaza’s next-door neighbor, wanted no part of Gaza. Israel would take Gaza but not its people.
Filiu’s book on Gaza tells only part of the Arab side of the problem and virtually none of the Israeli side.
The Arab-Israeli wars are not much more than blips on Filiu’s radar. His red meat is the Palestinian battle for self-rule and the fighting and killings between rival Palestinian gangs and militias. He also reports the rocket and suicide attacks on Israel, followed by Israeli reprisal raids.
The 1948 Israeli War for Independence, which the Arabs call the Catastrophe, is hardly covered. How and why Arabs fled their homes for refuge in Gaza is considered only in passing.
This was less than four years after World War II displaced millions. Most Arab nations refused to succor the refugees, believing their refusal would pressure Israel into allowing the refugees to return home. Israel did not do that and many descendants of the original refugees are living in camps like the eight around Gaza.
In Gaza, Egypt was hampered by “internal repercussions stemming from the Palestinian tragedy.” Gaza’s original population of 80,000 had to absorb 200,000 refugees. Today its population is estimated at 1.6 million.
It wasn’t until 1969 that a Gaza section of the Red Crescent was established. Filiu describes the political activities of the Gaza Red Crescent since then but not its humanitarian work as the Muslim face of the Red Cross.
During this past Labor Day weekend The Wall Street Journal ran a photo of Gazans swimming in the Mediterranean as the latest truce took hold. In the background are several high-rise buildings, 10 to 20 stories tall.
Who built them? Are they residential, commercial, or both? The funds had to come from hard-nosed bankers and investors who expect a return on their money. Who are they? What role are they playing in Gaza? Filiu doesn’t look into that sort of thing at all.
He writes that as Israel left Gaza in 2005, “The settlers demolished or rendered unusable…the agricultural greenhouses.” Contemporary news reports ignored the Israeli actions and told only of the Gazan depredations.
In reality, while perhaps 30 percent of the greenhouses were destroyed by the departing Israelis, another 30 percent were destroyed by the Gazans as they took over.
This book was finished well before the latest fighting broke out. Israel’s aims included destroying the tunnels. Perhaps the one where Filiu posed for his flyleaf photo was found and destroyed. Perhaps not.
Filiu has told only part of the Arab side of the problem and virtually none of the Israeli side.
Jules Wagman has been reviewing books since 1966.
©2014 by Jules L. Wagman
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