The Diaries of Khalil Sakakini. Volume Eight: Exile from Qatamon, 1942-1952 (Arabic) Edited by Akram Mousallam

Khalil al-Sakakini (1878-1953), a leading Palestinian Christian educator and intellectual and one of the most colorful figures in Jerusalem during the late Ottoman and British Mandate period, was a prominent socialite and man of letters. Local and Arab political leaders as well as Palestinian and Arab intellectuals frequented his house in Jerusalem, at the suburb of Qatamon. Sakakini was captivated by the idea of Arab nationalism by had second thoughts about his own place within it.

This volume covers the turbulent times of 1948 and the exodus from Qatamon. Sakakini and his family fled to Egypt where they became refugees. Sakakini's account of the 1948 war and the battle over Qatamon are important as well as what he reveals concerning the inter-relations between bourgeois Palestinians and rural fighters in the large cities in 1948.

The Sakakini diaries constitute a primary source for historians and have been completed with the publication of this volume.