Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir

by Salman Abu Sitta

Salman Abu Sitta, who has single-handedly made available crucial mapping work on Palestine, was just ten years old when he left his home near Beersheba in 1948, but as for many Palestinians of his generation, the profound effects of that traumatic loss would form the defining feature of his life from that moment on. In this rich and moving memoir, Abu Sitta draws on oral histories and personal recollections to vividly evoke the vanished world of his family and home from the late nineteenth century to the eve of the British withdrawal from Palestine and subsequent war. Alongside accounts of an idyllic childhood spent on his family's farm estate Abu Sitta gives a personal and very human face to the dramatic events of 1930s and 1940s Palestine, conveying the acute sense of foreboding felt by Palestinians as Zionist ambitions and militarization expanded under the mandate.
Following his family's flight to Gaza during the 1948 mass exodus of Palestinians from their homes, Abu Sitta continued his schooling and university education in Cairo, where he witnessed the heady rise of Arab nationalism after the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952 and the momentous events surrounding the Israeli invasion of Sinai and Gaza in 1956. With warmth and humor, he chronicles his peripatetic exile's existence, as an engineering student in Nasser's Egypt, his crucial, formative years in 1960s London, his life as a family man and academic in Canada, and several sojourns in Kuwait, all against the backdrop of seismic political events in the region, including the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the 1991 Gulf War.
Abu Sitta's narrative is imbued throughout with a burning sense of justice, a determination to recover and document what rightfully belongs to his people, an aim given poignant expression in his painstaking cartographic and archival work on Palestine, for which he is justifiably acclaimed.

Genres: Memoir, History, Nonfiction, Geography, Biography Memoir

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2016

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a stunning archival work. So many individuals in Palestine are memorialized in this book. Salman Abu Sitta goes above and beyond to remember ever person his paths crossed with and write down their names and as much of their history as possible. Such a brilliant man !!

[Skip Schiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mapping my Return, especially the ending, is marvelous, simply marvelous. It is his story embedded in the right of return. He narrates the pre-Nakba, Nakba, and post-Nakba periods, as he ranges between Palestine, especially his home village just east of Gaza, Gaza itself where his father continued to live and is buried, Jordan, Kuwait, the UK, and other countries. Altho at times self-inflating (as perhaps most memoirs tend to be), his self-importance embeds within his Palestinian identity; in his successes he represents Palestinians. "Mapping" refers to the realization—after extension research, a claim that needs to be checked—that most of the original Palestinian village sites are open and therefore capable of absorbing a large number of returning Palestinians.

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The memories of a Palestinian engineer who grows up in the world post-1948-nakba. He works in Kuwait as an engineer and public planner, and later is involved in Palestinian politics and activism at senior levels.

[Jasper Sendler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Clear, logical, intelligent and convincing. States the Palestinian cause with precision and feeling. Highly recommended

[Razan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“My ultimate ambition has been to pick up the pieces of the debris and painstakingly reconstruct the destroyed landscape.”

An engineer by profession, the author dedicated his life to mapping Palestine, both before and after the Nakba. His work culminated in two editions of ‘The Atlas of Palestine’, which detailed the land from 1871–1877 and 1917–1966. He also founded the Palestine Land Society in London, an organisation devoted to preserving the history of Palestine’s land and people.

Although his autobiography provides profound insight into the refugee experience, the writing style verges on dry and unengaging. While the book provides valuable historical context, it requires a bit of effort to read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will share segments of my letter to the author as a review:

“The book was very well organised, easy to understand, and resourceful. Most importantly, it was personal. Being able to understand the history of the Palestinian plight the way you saw it taught me so many things about Palestinian history that I probably could not have learned anywhere else. For example, I learned about the meeting between the leaders of your town, particularly your father and the representative of the King of Saudi Arabia to discuss the events that were unfolding pre-1948. It was reassuring to hear a personal story about the Palestinian people knowing what was going on and trying their best to do something about it (contrary to popular belief) [...] I was also extremely proud to read your letter to Arafat and to know that you stood on the right side of history regarding the Oslo Agreements.

I could also really relate to your book because of your journey between Kuwait, Canada, and the UK, three places that have had a significant impact on my life and on my family. One thing I did not realise was the struggle of escaping Kuwait during the Gulf War, particularly for foreigners like you who could have been held hostage. I had never heard personal stories about this, even from my parents, and reading about your arduous journey really added to my picture of Palestinian refugees' lives since their expulsion from their homeland.

I was particularly interested in reading your book to learn about your journey with PLANDS, and I was not disappointed. You worked so hard to unravel information on Palestinian geography that was scantly available, even more than I had imagined, and it was really a pleasure reading about your journey. You have made a very important contribution to my knowledge on Palestine and on my awareness of the extent of the Zionist regime's eradication and appropriation of our land. I visited Palestine a few months ago and I found it very sad that I did not know what the occupiers' houses were exactly covering or what the lands that seem to have been empty forever used to be. But now, I can proudly say that on my next visit, I will be able to use the resources you have provided to identify Palestinian towns and villages. Most importantly, your work will help us rebuild Palestine in the future, insha'Allah.

Last but not least, I love your emphasis on education and its importance for the future of Palestine and I think this is a very important wake-up call and dose of hope for the Palestinian youth, many of which have lost hope in the future of our country. We have such a huge role to play in spreading awareness about Palestine and our history that no one should ever stop working towards that goal. Two lines I particularly love were “Education was the only battlefield in which I was soldiering” and “Education was the most brilliant manifestation of the refugees’ human spirit, which elevated pupils from solving algebra on the tarmac to sitting in lecture halls at Harvard.” I will pass this book on to my friends and acquaintances and hope that it will give them as much hope in the future of Palestine like you did to me. “