Son of the Cypresses
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1948 war
A01=Meron Benvenisti
antisemitism
arab
ashkenazi
Author_Meron Benvenisti
autobiography
belonging
biography
Category=DNBH1
Category=NHG
diaspora
discrimination
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ethnic cleansing
ethnicity
exile
exodus
gaza strip
history
holy land
homeland
immigration
islam
israel
israel arab war
israeli youth
jerusalem
jewish author
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jewish salonika
jewish women
journalist
judaica
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memoir
middle east
migration
palestine
pardess hannah
partition plan
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sabra
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three days war
war
west bank
zion
Product details
- ISBN 9780520238251
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 Apr 2007
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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'Now that I am seventy years of age, it is my prerogative to offer a summing up', says Meron Benvenisti, internationally known author and columnist, Jerusalem native, and scion of Israel's founders. Born in Palestine in 1934 to a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Benvenisti has enjoyed an unusual vantage point from which to consider his homeland's conflicts and controversies. Throughout his long and provocative career as a scholar, an elected official, and a respected journalist, he has remained intimately involved with Israel's social and political development. Part memoir and part political polemic, "Son of the Cypresses" threads Benvenisti's own story through the story of Israel. The result is a vivid, sharply drawn eyewitness account of pre-state Jerusalem and Israel's early years. He memorably sets the scene by recalling his father's emotional journey from Jewish Salonika in 1913 to Palestine, with all its attendant euphoria and frustration, and his father's pioneer dedication to inculcating Israeli youth with a 'native's' attachment to the homeland.
In describing the colorful and lively Jerusalem in which he grew up, Benvenisti recalls the many challenges faced by new Jewish immigrants, who found themselves not only in conflict with the Arab population but also with each other as Sephardim and Ashkenazim. He revisits his own public disagreements with both Zionists and Palestinians and shares indelible memories such as his boyhood experiences of the 1948 War. In remembering his life as an Israeli sabra, Benvenisti offers a vivid record of the historical roots of the conflict that persists today.
Meron Benvenisti was deputy mayor of Jerusalem from 1971 to 1978. He was a columnist for Haaretz, Israel's largest newspaper, and is the author of numerous books including Intimate Enemies (UC Press, 1995), City of Stone (UC Press, 1996), and Sacred Landscape (UC Press, 2000).
