In 1979, Jonathan Dimbleby wrote a seminal book on the plight of the Palestinian people from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 onwards. It chronicled their struggles and their dreams of a homeland. Through extensive interviews, along with peerless intimate Photographs from Don Mccullin it gave a voice to the people: to the old men who were children when the Balfour Declaration prepared the way for the exodus from Palestine; to the children who were born in the diaspora and who were then willing to contemplate certain death in a guerilla war rather than surrender the right to their homeland. The Palestinians is about individuals - lawyers, doctors, diplomats, craftsmen, students, labourers, businessmen, politicians, soldiers, fighters and peasants. Through them the book explores the crisis of a people without a land, demonstrating that the 'Palestinian problem' is not an abstract issue but an urgent human tragedy. Until this is recognized, Jonathan Dimbleby argues, in an updated foreword, there can be no just or lasting peace in the Middle East.
