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The Palestinians
In 1979, Jonathan Dimbleby wrote a seminal book on the plight of the Palestinian people from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 onwards. It chronicled their struggles and their dreams of a homeland. Through extensive interviews, along with peerless intimate Photographs from Don Mccullin it gave a voice to the to the old men who were children when the Balfour Declaration prepared the way for the exodus from Palestine; to the children who were born in the diaspora and who were then willing to contemplate certain death in a guerilla war rather than surrender the right to their homeland. The Palestinians is about individuals - lawyers, doctors, diplomats, craftsmen, students, labourers, businessmen, politicians, soldiers, fighters and peasants. Through them the book explores the crisis of a people without a land, demonstrating that the 'Palestinian problem' is not an abstract issue but an urgent human tragedy. Until this is recognized, Jonathan Dimbleby argues, in an updated foreword, there can be no just or lasting peace in the Middle East.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published October 10, 2025
About the author
Jonathan Dimbleby
31 books101 followersJonathan Dimbleby is a writer and filmmaker based in England. His five-part series on Russia was broadcast by BBC2 and accompanied by his book Russia: A Journal to the Heart of a Land and its People. Destiny in the Desert was recently nominated for the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 9, 2026
Well this took a long time to finish.
Dimbleby covers the broad sweep of Palestinian history, but he keeps pulling things back to people—the families, the individuals, the small details that tend to get lost in bigger political accounts.
I found those sections the most effective. The personal stories give the book its shape and stop it becoming too abstract. There’s a steadiness to the tone as well; it doesn’t push too hard, but it’s clear where the sympathies lie.
It adds depth to a subject that’s often reduced to headlines, and it does so in a way that feels considered rather than polemical.
A thoughtful but, for me, depressing read.
Dimbleby covers the broad sweep of Palestinian history, but he keeps pulling things back to people—the families, the individuals, the small details that tend to get lost in bigger political accounts.
I found those sections the most effective. The personal stories give the book its shape and stop it becoming too abstract. There’s a steadiness to the tone as well; it doesn’t push too hard, but it’s clear where the sympathies lie.
It adds depth to a subject that’s often reduced to headlines, and it does so in a way that feels considered rather than polemical.
A thoughtful but, for me, depressing read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review