Israel and the Gaza Strip: The First Decade 1947-1957

This book concentrates on the formative period of the Gaza Strip and the bordering Israeli Gaza Frontier Area, considering them as a distinct geographic region that might best be understood as an integral unit of analysis.

Based on abundant Israeli, British and American documentation, articles from the contemporary Arab press and other sources that reflect Arab perspectives, the book deals with the formation of the Gaza Strip between the initial drawing of the boundaries of the 1947 UN partition plan until the Israeli withdrawal from the area in March 1957, following the 1956 War. It also concentrates on the development of the Israeli urban and rural settlement systems that enveloped the Gaza Strip and formed the Gaza Frontier Area. Ultimately, the book provides a wider understanding of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, shedding light on political, military and demographic-spatial plans to solve the Gaza Strip abnormality that involved radical measures such as mass population transfers.

The innovative historical-geographical approach of the research offers key insights into the politics of the region, and the book will be of particular interest to anyone studying the history and development of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Arnon Golan is a historical geographer, currently teaching at the School of Environmental Sciences, the University of Haifa. He received his bachelor’s degree in history and geography, and MA and PhD in geography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research concentrates on the urban history of Palestine/Israel during the British Mandate period and the formative years of the State of Israel, as well as the transformation of human landscapes during and following the 1948 and 1956 Arab-Israeli Wars.