Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO Effort to Know the Enemy

Review

by Amol Saghar
published on 18 December 2024

The present book, "Reading Herzl in Beirut" by Jonathan Marc Gribetz, is a well-researched book that sheds light on the fascinating history between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Research Center and the raids on it by Israel which not just seriously affected but also altered the trajectory of its existence. This book is recommended for academics examining the political history of West Asia.

Reading Herzl in Beirut by Jonathan Marc Gribetz is a well-researched book that sheds light on the fascinating history of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Research Center and the raids on it by Israel. The present work focuses on the period between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Beirut, a city roughly 150 miles away from Jerusalem, is the centre of this study.

The book contains three parts, and the chapters in each part deliberate upon some of the pertinent issues related to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the emergence and evolution of the PLO Research Center. Located in Beirut, the Research Center was founded in 1965 and, playing a critical role in shaping Israel-Palestine (and Arab) relations, became an important arm of the Organization. An integral part of this institution was the library which boasted of a rich collection of books. The library contains books about Zionism, Judaism, and Israel's formation and evolution. Through an in-depth study of the PLO Research Center and its library, Gribetz examines the checkered history of Israel-Palestine relations. The books in the library were critical for PLO members in that they helped them to understand the primary tenets of religious and philosophical schools such as Judaism and Zionism. In addition, they could also equip themselves with knowledge about the complex socio-political antecedents of the Jews.

This book suits academics of the political history of West Asia and university-level students and history enthusiasts interested in West Asia’s disturbed socio-political antecedents. The intended readers of the book range from general history enthusiasts to university-level students and research scholars. Gribetz's study will also be noticed by scholars of library sciences and students of archival studies.

Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, lawyer, writer, playwright and political activist. Considered the father of modern political Zionism, he advocated Jewish immigration to Palestine to establish the Jewish state of Israel. Along with Herzl's books, Gribetz notes that a range of books by well-known figures of the Zionist Movement, including Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai and David Ben-Gurion, adorned the library's shelves. The Research Center and its library were the brainchild of Fayez Abdullah Sayegh (1922-80), who critically analyzed the Palestinian resistance movement against Zionism. The author delineates at length the administrative structure of this institution and its working style. To reflect on the organization's internal disagreements, Gribetz discusses the acrimonious relations between Fayez Abdullah Sayegh and his brother Anis Abdullah Sayegh (who was in charge of the ten departments of the Research Center) and their contemporary Yasser Arafat (1929-2004).

This book also examines PLO's primary objectives. PLO was established mainly to protect the Palestinian population from the atrocities inflicted by the newly created Israel. It has been noted that it was the failure of the Arab states to liberate Palestine and their defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli that prompted the emergence of PLO. Given the violent nature of Palestine-Israel relations, it is not surprising that instead of focusing only on the intellectual aspects, the members of the Center, as the book notes, also examined facets related to militancy and struggle. In this regard, the author discusses some of the books including The Terrorist Roots of the Israeli Herut Party (1966), The Balance of Military Power between the Arab States and Israel (1967), and Violence and Peace: A Study in Zionist Strategy (1967), which were actively promoted by the PLO Research Center.

Jonathan Marc Gribetz is Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University. Taking an expansive view, from the establishment of the Research Center in 1965 to its destruction following a raid by the Israeli forces in 1982, Gribetz’s meticulous and original study is a testament to the intellectual legacy of the PLO Research Center and its important role in shaping Palestinian nationalist thought. Based on a thorough study of archival and non-archival sources with oral testimonies, this book comprehensively studies the PLO Research Center and makes an important contribution to the study of the conflict.

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