Book Review: 'From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949' by Victor Kattan

Abstract

The historical decisions made just before and during the British Mandate over Palestine (which ran from 1920 until 1948) decisively shaped the trajectory of that unhappy land, and continue to reverberate today. Victor Kattan's new book -- From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 -- explores the fateful triangular relationship among the British, the Zionist movement and the Palestinians through the lens of a rich and provocative legal-historical analysis. For Kattan, the struggle for Palestine during the Mandate years presents both a historical and a legal predicament: how was Great Britain to "implement a policy that promised two peoples self-determination in the same country without seriously considering how this could be accommodated", especially in the face of the unified opposition of the majority population?