Books

The Bride-An illustrated history of Palestine 1850-1948 (Roger Hardy):

“In the end, the Zionists won their state not through the force of argument but through the force of arms.”

& not a moment too soon. With the current intumescence of Israeli/Zio-Nazi expansionism, exacerbation & extremism in “The Holy Land (of others)” clocking up a new nadir of enriched crimes against humanity under a freshly necromanced Kretinyahu & KKKo, it is a good moment to revise the regions troubled history.
& in this truly fantastic book by Roger Hardy – heaving with rarely depicted photography from the era – we have a perfect accomplice to such resource.

“The country of Palestine belongs to you and me, it is essentially ours. It was given to the Father of Israel [Abraham] in the words: ‘Walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.’ We mean to walk through Palestine in the length and in the breadth, because that land has been given unto us. It is the land from which comes the news of our Redemption.” – Arch Bishop of York, William Thomson 22cnd of June 1865, Palestinian Exploration Fund

“Nothing must be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities,” – Lord Curzon, Balfour Declaration (so much for that clause then).

The Bride regales a cache of stunning & scarce early photography drawn from extensive sources.
It is a real exhibit, detailing some two-hundred-and-fifty-plus individual photographs.
Consolidating these images is writer & historian Roger Hardy’s well researched & lucidly written descriptions & details of unfolding events speckled with accompanying excerpts from related written material & quotations.

forced expulsion – “In all, some 700,000, refugees, roughly half the Arab population of Palestine, either fled or were driven from there homes.”

“In the twelfth century [the church] armed itself with sword and spear to wrest the city where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried, from the unholy hands of the infidel Moslem. In the nineteenth century it arms itself with the sextant, and the theodite, and compass, to wrest from lying priests, and patriarchs, and effendis, the truth which the rubbish of ages and false reverence of superstition combine to conceal.” – Palestinian Exploration Fund, 1871, ‘The Crusade of the nineteenth Century’

“In Moscow, as in Paris, London, and Berlin, religious and political interests went hand in hand. ‘Palestine … is our native land – in which we do not recognise ourselves as foreigners,” – 19th century Russian writer

“The British suspected that, despite its denials, theJewish Agency – the main official Zionist institution – was hand in glove with the extremists. The suspicions were confirmed when the broke the code used by the agency in communications between Jerusalem and London.”“The declaration gave the Zionist movement the backing of the most powerful empire of the day.”

Again, with the increasingly inhumane & obscene maltreatment perpetuated by Israeli interlopers against the Palestinians (& the rest of the world, from NSO Group, to Team Jorge, to Epstein/Ghislaine/Wexner & beyond), it is imperative to scrutinise the origins & atrocities that were perpetrated by Zionist actors & their enablers to establish the current folly & flagrancy.

“To the Jews who went to Palestine, and to many who did not, [the declaration] signified fulfilment and salvation, but it brought the British much ill-will, and complications that sapped their power. Measured by British interests alone, it was one of the greatest mistakes in our imperial history.” – Elizabeth Monroe

“chunks of cement crashed into pedestrians; bodies were blown into the street.” – The bombing of the King David Hotel by Zionist extremists in 1946 – “The British suspected that, despite its denials, theJewish Agency – the main official Zionist institution – was hand in glove with the extremists. The suspicions were confirmed when the broke the code used by the agency in communications between Jerusalem and London.”

Away from the terrorism, bombings, murders & civilian massacres, betrayal & incorporation of what would go on to become one of the most nefarious & destabilising forces in the modern world (Israel), The Bride’s images indulge & capture a rich cultural topography from a largely vanished world, much of which has been lost or deliberately exterminated by invasive marauders.

One can pursue & enlighten either political or cultural interest in this brilliant assembly of photographs & history.
An extremely important & timely body of work.

Roger Hardy, 2022, Mount Orleans Press, 303 pages