The Palestinians: Photographs of a Land and its People from 1839 to the Present Day

It’s easy to forget what Elias Sanbar writes in his introduction to his book The Palestinians: Photos of a land and its people from 1939 to the present day – that Palestine is one of the most photographed places in the world. If this is the case, why are settlements allowed to mushroom in the occupied territories; why are Palestinian houses crushed to the ground and their olive trees uprooted; why do so few people across the world have such little understanding of what is happening on the ground?

The answer, or part of it, lies in the photographs Sanbar presents in The Palestinians, which has been shortlisted for Middle East Monitor’s 2015 Palestinian book awards. Sanbar puts forward a collection of images taken of both Palestine and Palestinians over 200 years as a way to draw attention to colonial clichés, oriental representations and preconceived ideas of a land and its people, images which have ultimately contributed towards a global misunderstanding of Palestine.

Read the full review on the Palestine book awards site.