By Thomas Suárez
Hardcover, 343 pages, US$25
This book is a lavishly illustrated and meticulously guided excursion through the mapping of historic Palestine from the earliest record through to the twenty-first century. Palestine is as much a place in the psyche of those who mapped it as it is a region of the earth. An authority on the history of cartography who has also written extensively on Palestine, Thomas Suárez is uniquely qualified to address the mapping of this region “from the river to the sea.”
Richly illustrated, Palestine Mapped guides the reader through the Greek and Roman concepts of Palestine, those of various medieval Mediterranean civilizations, and the European “Holy Land” mapping that has dominated for half a millennium and continues to inform modern political thought. Suárez dissects that prevailing mindset rather than viewing the land through its lens, setting the book apart from all others on the mapping of the region.
Thomas Suárez is a New York–born author, historical researcher, lecturer, and accomplished concert violinist and composer, now based in London. He writes and speaks frequently on Palestine, and his critically acclaimed book Palestine Hijacked: How Zionism Forged an Apartheid State from River to Sea has been hailed by historian Ilan Pappé as “a tour de force.” His other works include Writings on the Wall: Palestinian Oral Histories.
Ghada Karmi, an academic, lecturer, and author praised Palestine Mapped stating, “This is a gem of a book. Part geography, part history, part political analysis, it is written with a fine understanding of what is at stake in mapping Palestine. Nothing like this has ever been produced by any previous researcher.”
Salman Abu Sitta, the founder of Palestine Land Society wrote, “A remarkable book, a unique and powerful survey of the mapping of Palestine. The book shows how ‘mapping’ gave an image of veracity to the European Orientalist mindset, its perception of Palestine that informed later colonial conquest … a wonderful feast of search, inquiry, and analysis.”
Ilan Pappé, the historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, said, “Tom Suárez offers a unique cartographic representation of Palestine, the land with people, coveted by foreigners, colonized by Europeans and gradually destroyed by Zionism. Beautifully produced, it gives hope that maps will one day represent liberation and freedom for everyone between the river and the sea.”
