Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir, With a New Afterword

"Abu Sitta's memoir conveys a still burning sense of outrage at the injustice of the dispossession of the Palestinians and the denial of their rights—a personal and collective Nakba without end."—Ian Black, The Guardian The only memoir in English by a Palestinian Arab who grew up in the Beersheba district prior to 1948, now with a new afterword Salman Abu Sitta was just ten years old when the Nakba—the mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948—happened, forcing him from his home near Beersheba. Like many Palestinians of his generation, this traumatic loss and his enduring desire to return would be the defining features of his life from that moment on. Abu Sitta vividly evokes the vanished world of his family and home on the eve of the Nakba, giving a personal and very human face to the dramatic events of 1930s and 1940s Palestine as Zionist ambitions and militarization expanded under the British mandate. He chronicles his life in exile, from his family’s flight to Gaza, his teenage years as a student in Nasser’s Egypt, his formative years in 1960s London, his life as a family man and academic in Canada, to several sojourns in Kuwait. Abu Sitta’s long and winding journey has taken him through many of the seismic events of the era, from the 1956 Suez War to the 1991 Gulf War. This rich and moving memoir is imbued throughout with a burning sense of justice and a determination to recover and document what rightfully belongs to his people, given expression in his groundbreaking mapping work on his homeland. Abu Sitta, with warmth and wit, tells his story and that of Palestine.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments 1. The Source 2. Seeds of Knowledge 3. The Talk of the Hearth 4. Europe Returns to the Holy Land 5. The Conquest 6. The Rupture 7. The Carnage 8. Refugees' Lives 9. Crossing the Line to Return 10. Egyptian Days 11. Nadid 12. Ghaleb 13. My Battlefield 14. Britannia Rules the Waves 15. Building the Country 16. The Naksa and Eskimo Land 17. Working with the Facts on the Ground 18. On the Political Front 19. The Invisible Face of the Enemy Takes Shape 20. Charting the Land 21. Wakeup Call 22. The Last Mile

About the Author :
Salman Abu Sitta was born in 1937 in Ma‘in Abu Sitta, in the Beersheba district of mandate Palestine. An engineer by profession, he is best known for his cartographic work on Palestine and his work on the Palestinian Right of Return. He is the author of six books and over 300 articles and papers on Palestine, including The Atlas of Palestine, 1917–1966 (2010). He is the founder and president of the Palestine Land Society, and founder of the Palestine Land Studies Center at the American University of Beirut.

Review :
"Abu Sitta's memoir conveys a still burning sense of outrage at the injustice of the dispossession of the Palestinians and the denial of their rights—a personal and collective Nakba without end."—Ian Black, The Guardian "Much more than a personal memoir. This is a book that should be a mandatory study for young Palestinians and all those who believe in the justice of their cause and their right to return"—Middle East Monitor "This is a highly readable book, much recommended to anyone with an interest in Palestinian history. More than that, it is a significant piece of documentation, recounting events and ways of life which have largely been forgotten or erased."—The Electronic Intifada "The events of 1948 have been told elsewhere, but rarely with the immediacy and poignancy of this child's-eye view."—Hilary Wise, Middle East Eye "Mapping my Return brings to life the human stories that lie behind a few square kilometres of the land of Palestine."—Karl Sabbagh, Palestine Exploration Quarterly "Abu Sitta has ensured that the keys to the Palestinians' stolen homes will inevitably reopen the never forgotten doors."—Al Jazeera “A giant in his field.”—Mickey Muhanna, Afikra "The spirit of Dr. Abu Sitta's Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir mirrors precisely the dynamic quintessence and will of its creator in a word—sumoud—a compelling steadfastness to his homeland Palestine and to the right of return of every Palestinian."—The Palestine Chronicle "Abu Sitta's account is a valuable contribution to Palestinian political and social history."—The Jordan Times "This memoir is crucial to understanding why and how the Palestinian question has not been put to rest."—Al-Ahram Weekly "This book's most important contribution to scholarship may lie in Abu Sitta's subtle refutation of the notion that Palestinian refugees were passive victims of an unwelcome fate. . . . As a comprehensive account of nearly a century of Palestinian history, [Mapping My Return] is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the experiences and records of Palestinian refugees."—Anne Irfan, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies "[Abu Sitta's] narrative joins the growing genre of accomplished and illuminating Palestinian memoirs. He juxtaposes world-shaking and very personal events in an accessible, well-researched account."—Nancy Gallagher, Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online "This book is a wonderful mixture of autobiography, history, and politics. It is both riveting and very moving. Salman Abu Sitta weaves very skillfully his personal story with the broader story of the Palestine tragedy. . . . A really outstanding Palestinian memoir which deserves the widest possible readership."—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World "A highly recommended work from a well-known scholar that will appeal to anyone seeking to understand this story."—Dina Matar, author of What It Means to be Palestinian "A valuable and unique addition to the genre of Palestinian autobiographies in English."—Rochelle Davis, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University "In a life lived intensely, with unflagging curiosity and vocal outrage at the injustices that have beleaguered his people, Salman Abu Sitta is to be celebrated for his tenacity, intelligence and ability not to lose heart despite all the odds. This accessible and informative book describes all that he has lived through as a Palestinian, both on his own land and as a refugee. It also presents very clearly the fundamental need for the 'right of return' to be enshrined in any just and lasting peace in the region."—Selma Dabbagh, author of We Wrote In Symbols: Love and Lust By Arab Women Writers "Salman Abu Sitta has the broadest experience and longest tale to tell of any Palestinian I have ever met and this comprehensive history and geography of the land and its people should be on everyone's bookshelf."—Baroness Jenny Tonge “An extraordinary engineer and scholar.”—Edward Said