Questions & Answers

1. The Almond Tree refers to Baba and his family’s life in Palestine before the State of Israel was declared in 1948, what was there before Israel?

Palestine BEFORE & AFTER

Palestine 1896


2. Some people have stated that before European Jews began to emigrate to Palestine at the end of the 19th Century, that Palestine contained only nomadic Bedouin Tribes. Is this true?

In 1897 at the first Zionist Congress, the Basel program was conceived and stated, “The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” From the Basel Congress onward, the Zionist movement’s clear and consistent aim was to create a state for the Jewish people in Palestine. After the Basel program was formulated, rabbis decided to explore this idea and dispatched two representatives to Palestine. The fact-finding mission sent a cable from Palestine in which the two Rabbis wrote, “The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.”* In 1897-1898 there were 21,466 Jews and 541,677 non-Jews in Palestine.**

Here is what Palestine looked like at that time.

Coastal Cities slideshow (Photo Credits: PalestineRemembered.com)
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Non-Coastal Cities slideshow (Photo Credits: PalestineRemembered.com)
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For more pictures please go to: http://palestineremembered.com/OldNewPictures.html

Some of the Palestinian cities at this time were: Tiberias, Safad, Beersheba, Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablous, Nazereth, Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramle, Ramalla, Bethlehem , Acre, Haifa, Gaza and Jaffa as well as the countrysides.

Acre,  Haifa , Gaza and Jaffa were important coastal cities. Each city had a port, stone buildings, government buildings, hotels, restaurants, international trade and shipping. Jaffa, for example, in 1896, had a vibrant sea port and was connected to the city of Jerusalem via a railroad. The city was also home to one of the largest orange growing and distribution industries in the world.


3. Do you know what Zionism is and when did it start?
(listen to the audio)


4. Ali was a refugee. How did he and around 750,000 other Palestinians become refugees?

For these maps and others please visit: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Maps/index.html

For History of the Conflict, please visit IfAmericansKnew.org/history.  Visit Website >

Map of Facts on the Ground: