INTRODUCTION A lthough most o f this book was written during 1977 and the early part o f 1978, its frame o f reference is 'b y no means confined to that very important period in modern N ear Eastern history. On the contrary, m y aim has been to write a book putting before the Am erican reader a broadly representative Palestinian position, something not very we!) known and certainly not well appreciated even now, when there is so much talk o f the Palestinians and o f the Palestinian problem . In formulating this position, I have relied mainly on what I think can justly be called the Palestinian experience, which to all intents and purposes became a self-conscious experience when the first wave o f Zionist colonialists reached the shores of Palestine in the early 1880s, Thereafter, Palestinian history takes a course peculiar to it, and quite different from A rab history. There are, o f course, many connections between what Palestinians did and what other A rabs did in this century, but the defining characteristic o f Palestinian history— its traumatic national encounter with Zionism — is unique to the region. This uniqueness has guided both my aim and my perfor­ mance (how ever flawed both may be) in this book. As a Palestinian m yself, I have always tried to be aware o f our weaknesses and failings as a people. By some standards we are perhaps an unexceptional people; our national history testifies to a failing contest with a basically European and ambitious ideology (as well as practice); we have been unable to interest the W est very much in the justice o f our cause. Nevertheless it