Palestinian Rights & Losses in 1948 - A Comprehensive Study

There have been countless studies of the 1948 events, which led to the creation of the state of Israel and the expulsion and dispossession of the Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Palestine; but none so far has dealt with the material and other losses of the Palestinians and given an estimation of their monetary value. This book presents, for the first time, an exhaustive evaluation of what Palestinians lost.

After an historical introduction describing Palestine under Ottoman and British rule, the author examines the central problem of land. He recounts the crucial events of 1947-1949, and provides a critical assessment of the work of the UN Palestinian Conciliation Commission. Finally, he makes his own careful economic assessment of Palestinian loses in 1948. The study is based on the official land records of the Palestine government and on the author's personal knowledge and twenty-two years' experience in land matters.

This unique research will prove indispensable to all who seek to understand the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the author's view, it will also be indispensable to the working out of a solution, if and when this becomes possible.

Sami Hadawi is a Palestinian scholar who was born in Jerusalem in 1904. He was in charge of land taxation under the British mandate over Palestine. After the termination of the mandate he served in the Jordan government, then as 'Land Specialist' to the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission in New York and was entrusted with the task of identifying and evaluating Arab property in the Israeli-occupied part of Palestine. In 1959 he joined the Arab Information Center of the League of Arab States; and in 1965 became the Director of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut. He retired from public life in 1968. His many books and pamphlets include Palestine: Loss of a Heritage (1963), Bitter Harvest (1967 and 1979), co-author of The Palestine Diary 1914-1948 (1970), and the Village Statistics 1945 Indicating a Classification and Ownership of Land in 1945 (1970). He now lives in Toronto, Canada.