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“Printed in English for the first time by Academic Studies Press, Palestine for the Third Time is an engaging, empathetic and often perceptive account of the Zionist project in the ancestral homeland of the Jews.” —Sheldon Kirshner, Times of Israel
Palestine for the Third Time is a book of reportage originally published in Poland in 1933 by Ksawery Pruszyński, a young reporter working for a Polish newspaper, who went to Mandate Palestine to see for himself whether the Zionist dream of returning to Eretz Yisrael had a chance of turning into reality.
Travelling widely and talking to people he happened to meet on his way—Jews, Arabs, committed dreamers and the disaffected—he was trying to explain to his readers what he was seeing. This book is a unique firsthand account of the early stages in formation of the state and nation of Israel. But it's not just a nostalgic vignette. It resonates powerfully today, linking Tony Judt, Edward Said, and Amos Oz, illuminating the hotly debated questions of modern Israel.
Ksawery Pruszyński (1907-1950) was a Polish journalist, writer, and diplomat. He was born in Volhynia (now Ukraine) into a landowning family who settled in Kraków after the Russian Revolution. After graduating with a law degree, he started working as a journalist reporting from Gdańsk, Mandate Palestine, and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, he fought as a soldier (Narvik and Falaise) and worked as a diplomat in London and Moscow. After the war, he joined Poland’s diplomatic corps, first at the UN and later as ambassador to the Netherlands, while still writing and publishing. He died in a car accident in Germany. He is now recognized as one of the founding fathers of the Polish school of reportage.
Wiesiek Powaga was born in Poland. He settled in London after the imposition of martial law of 1981. After graduating with a degree in philosophy at King’s College, London, he worked as a carpenter, translator, correspondent for a music magazine, and as senior editor for a UK publisher. He has translated fiction, poetry, and drama, occasionally script-writing for radio and tv.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Ksawery Pruszyński
Antony Polonsky
Introduction
Wiesiek Powaga
Foreword
1. On a Bunk Bed with the Halutzim
2. The Dust of the Road
3. The Land Without Crises
4. More Beautiful Than Paris
5. The Jews Who Do Not Like It Here
6. The Onward March of Israel
7. Suppliers of Men and Money
8. Malaria and Millions
9. Histadrut Haovdim
10. Like Stones Thrown against a Bulwark
11. Trekking across Emek Israel
12. Sabras of Ein Harod
13. Gesher
14. Glass Towers Are not a Myth
15. From Ghetto to Kibbutz
16. The Dollar Falls Twenty Percent
17. Only Four Weeks
18. The Wailing Wall
19. Socialism
20. Collective Love
21. Kibbutz, Kolkhoz, Cloister
22. The Jewish Population Catches Up
23. In the Eyes of Young Islam
24. Arabs in the Eyes of Jews
25. Christian Jerusalem
26. Nineteen Centuries after Pilate: A Night in Gethsemane
27. The Way of the Cross
28. Resurrexit
29. So Many Different Roads: “Das Wirkliche Deutschland”
30. “A Daemonio Meridiano . . . ”
31. Roads
32. The Threat of Soviet Cannons
Afterword
Appendix: Ksawery Pruszyński’s Speeches to the UN