Michelle Campos and Abigail Jacobson wrote about the last decades of the Ottoman Empire when it was changing to British rule in Palestine. They both explore the different experience of people who live in the 19th century and the begin of the 20th century and Palestine. Each historian analyzes this subject …show more content…
Campos draws on a host of different sources to explore the changing of citizenship and nationalism among the people of Palestine during the period between the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908 and World War one. Campos convincingly demonstrates the relevance of the changing perceptions of citizenship in Palestine. She argues, Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews from elite backgrounds became active imperial citizens who challenged, formulated and negotiated their perceptions of the revolution 's targets and promises. By doing so, they contributed to the shaping of communal and civic boundaries and communities.
The last decades of the Ottoman Empire and the transition to British rule in Palestine remain a period of intense interest to scholars. Because it is primary to the fact that this was when Zionism and Arab nationalism arose, thus creating what the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Michelle Campos, Ottoman Brothers, is evidence of this. Jacobson sets out to examine a period she considers “a turning point in the history of Palestine” (p. …show more content…
28). What the author doesn 't discuss is that this policy was all related to a long-term historical Ottoman system of dividing communities into millets or self-governing religious-ethnic units. Furthermore, the actual levying of discriminatory jizya taxes on non-Muslims and the enslavement of Christians by the empire all belies claims that there was some “fluid” identity that the British replaced by “distinguishing” between the communities. Whatever the merits of the rest of the book, this seeming mischaracterization of Ottoman rule presents a problem for a consistent reading. Jacobson also talks about women during the war and the Nabi Musa riots of 1920. She explains how these anti-Jewish riots were sparked by a major gathering of Muslims in Jerusalem during a holiday celebrating Moses, whom Muslims regard as a prophet. She argues that the riots “mark the first instance in which the escalating national tension translated into violence” (p. 175). The book thus ends on the old note, where Zionism and Arab nationalism have gone their separate ways, and the communities in the country have become divided. Nevertheless, what this important and original study shows is that these identities, if not the religious categories themselves, were very fluid during the last years of the Ottoman