Imperial Perceptions of Palestine ─ British Influence and Power in Late Ottoman Times

The Palestine Exploration Fund, established in 1865, is the oldest organization created specifically for the study of the Levant. It helped to spur evangelical tourism to the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which in turn generated a huge array of literature which presented Palestine as a ‘Holy Land’, in which the Arab population and the Jewish minority were often portrayed as a simple appendix to well-known Biblical scenarios. In the first book focused on modern and contemporary Palestine to provide a top-down and a bottom-up perspective on the process of simplification of the region and its inhabitants under British influence, Lorenzo Kamel offers a comprehensive outlook that spans a variety of cultural and social boundaries, including local identities, land tenure, toponymy, religious charges, institutions and borders. By observing the process through which a region of different races, cultures and societies has historically been simplified, the author explores how perceptions of Palestine have been affected today.

Lorenzo Kamel is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. He holds a PhD from the University of Bologna, Italy.