Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict

(Hardback)

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An award-winning journalist presents an even-handed, thoroughly researched examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and illustrates how a shocking yet little-known massacre one century ago in what was then Palestine became ground zero of a war that continues to devastate.

In 1929, in the sacred city of Hebronthen governed by the British Mandate of Palestinethere was no occupation, state of Israel, or settlers. Jews and Muslims lived peacefully near the burial place of Abraham, patriarch of the Jewish and Arab nations, until one Saturday morning when nearly 70 Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered by their Arab neighbors. The Hebron massacre was a seminal event in the Arab-Israeli conflict, key to understanding its complexities. The echoes of 1929 in Hamass massacre of nearly 1,200 men, women, and children on October 7, 2023, illustrate how little has changedand how much of our perspective must change if peace is ever to come to this tortured land and its people, who are destined to share it. Noted journalist Yardena Schwartz draws on her extensive research and wide-ranging interviews with both sides to tell a timely, eye-opening story. She expertly weaves the war between Israel and Hamas into a historical framework, demonstrating how the conflict today cannot be understood without the context of ground zero of this century-old war, which began long before the occupation, the settlements, or the state of Israel ever existed.

Author Bio

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist who worked at NBC News, including stints at the Today show, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, WSJ, TIME, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, among many other places. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011 and earned an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013. She is a recipient of the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting. She lives in Wyckoff, NJ.