Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220794 in Books
• Published on: 1993-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 622 pages

Customer Reviews

Exposed and worthless
'From Time Immemorial' is not about putting forward "one side" of the argument, or being 'biased'. That would entail having the facts, and spinning them a certain way. This book, as other reviewers have detailed at length, entirely invents facts and consists of an elaborate hoax. All respected historians have panned the book. It received a terribly poor reaction in Israel itself.

It's unfortunate that people feel they must 'support' this book because it furthers 'their' cause. All reasonable people seek peace in the region, and a fradulent thesis that wipes out an entire people will do nothing towards that end. Reading this book is an insult to many years of serious scholarship and writing on the issues of the region, by people of all nationalities (including many Israelis and Palestinians).

This book is only useful as a study in ficticious fraud; but if you plan to conduct such a study, I strongly suggest a visit to the library instead.

This is a ludicrous and worthless book
Rarely can a work of non-fiction have so divided those Amazon customers who have read it. Many who are not familiar with this book must be puzzled to see such divergent views on what is meant to be a work of scholarship.

Perhaps it is worth beginning by establishing some common ground, by describing - very briefly - what Joan Peters book is about and the implications of what she says.

Peters book claims that the 'Palestinians' are an historical fabrication, that they never truly existed as a people and that a great many, if not most, of those who would subsequently claim to have been made refugees following the foundation of the State of Israel had in fact only moved into the region two years or so before Israel came into existence, drawn by the better economic circumstances created by Zionist immigrants. Therefore, it follows that these Arabs cannot claim to have been the natural inhabitants of Palestine since "time immemorial".

Although she admits that none of the official documentation of the time supports her thesis she counters that these documents were deliberately misleading, mainly thanks to the British authorities in Mandate Palestine.

Now, if true, this would be a most amazing finding with very deep implications. First, it would mean that half a century's struggle between 'Palestinian' and Jewish claims to the land of Palestine has been based on a falsehood. Second it would mean that hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people have been involved in an elaborate conspiracy, aided by - amongst others - the British government. A conspiracy involving Arabs living in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and indeed across the world, all of whom simultaneously make almost identical claims as to where they were born and brought up and about their own family history. It would also, incidentally, involve the manufacture of property deeds, of school records, of photographs and so forth.

Perhaps at this point - without even looking at the book - the impartial observer begins smell a rat. Plots involving millions of co-conspirators may be an entertaining story line in a child's comic book but do not normally stand up to much critical examination.

And so it proves in this case.

Peters has resorted to obscure and totally discredited sources. She has selected 'facts' and 'quotations' from other texts in such a way as to often - and clearly quite deliberately - convey a meaning which is totally different from, and even the opposite of that of the original text.

In doing so she is at times laughably inept. On page after page she contradicts herself, even as to simple facts such as a particular number. She also cites as a source for evidence of 19th century immigration a work written by a scholar who died in 1442.

Joan Peters has never once attempted to confront these most serious charges. Her silence speaks volumes.

This book is something of a curiosity. Not only does it continue to sell, many years after being exposed as nothing more than a rather poorly executed fraud but it also continues to attract admirers, as the Amazon site show.

The other odd and rather intriguing thing about it is that when it was originally published, it received largely positive reviews in the USA, whilst it was almost universally rubbished in Europe and essentially ignored or otherwise condemned in Israel. It isn't altogether clear why this should be. Perhaps it says something about what can pass for scholarship in the US or maybe it is because the American public appears rather more ready to accept, perhaps is even hungry for, grand conspiracy theories than most other Westerners.

On publication in the UK this book was reviewed by no less an authority than the Oxford University academic, Albert Hourani, who was then the world's leading authority on modern Middle Eastern history (he died in 1993). He concluded that her argument had no basis in fact, that facts were distorted and that the book was both 'ludicrous' and 'worthless'

The whole thing is almost amusing. Almost. Except that when individuals begin fabricating the 'history' of an entire people, deny their past and seek to strip them of their very existence as a nation, then the alarm bells must begin to ring. How many steps is it from believing this sort of nonsense to denying a people their political rights, watching without protest, perhaps even seeking to justify their treatment, as they are forcibly ejected from one place to another, ethnically cleansed.

If this all sounds rather far fetched, remember what has happened within the last decade in the Balkans; consider what is happening in Israel/Palestine.

How many steps from re-writing a people's history to writing them out of history altogether?

Corollary to Peters
The vastly varying opinions already displayed by reviewers of this book lead me to believe that my considered opinion will do little to convince a prospective buyer either way. Rather I am writing simply to suggest the antidote for Peters' work, or at least inform people who found it convincing that there has been a good deal of work on the accuracy of Peter's data collection, methodology and conclusions. Foremost in this field is the work of Norman G. Finkelstein, who initially exposed the fraudulent nature of Peters' claims and whose intricate and biting commentary can be found in his collection - 'Image and Reality of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'. So just read that too if you're gonna read this. Its only a chapter so you can get it out of the Library. Incidently Peters hasn't been heard from since the storm over her methods and conclusions erupted.
in peace