© Columbia University Press
Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries
August, 2008
Cloth, 376 pages, 12 tables
ISBN: 978-0-231-13538-2
$35.00
/ £24.00
"An excellent in-depth piece of research into the Jewish assets issue." — Moshe Gat, The Journal of Israeli History
"Clear, rigorous, and elegant, this book will stir up enormous discussion. It may even serve as a guide to peace negotiations in the Middle East." — Yehouda Shenhav, professor of sociology and anthropology, Tel-Aviv University, and author of The Arab-Jews: Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity
"For far too long the injustices done to Jews who lost property in Arab countries between 1948 and 1965 have been ignored or exploited for political profit. For this meticulous study Michael R. Fischbach scoured Israeli, Arab, and other archives. By documenting the different policies adopted by Arab countries toward Jewish property and compensation for its expropriation, and by examining the obstacles raised by Israeli governments and front organizations to prevent Jews from Arab countries from reaching compensation agreements with those who actually took their property, Fischbach has made a lasting contribution to our understanding of these complex issues. Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries provides the basis for fair and politically productive settlements of the claims of both Palestinians and Jews against governments whose policies have deprived them of their homes, their livelihoods, and their fortunes. This is old-school, archive-based history at its best." — Ian S. Lustick, Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania