Mary Eliza Rogers (1827–1910) was an artist, writer and traveller from an English middle-class family; her best-known work was Domestic Life in Palestine (1862), an account of four years (1855–1859) spent living and travelling in Palestine alongside her brother, a British vice-consul. Domestic Life is a valuable and often-cited source of information on mid-19th -century Palestine, particularly on domestic settings inaccessible to male travellers. But historian James Gelvin’s attitude to Rogers is typical, seeing her descriptions as mediated by Victorian orientalism: ‘Rogers found in Palestine what she had come to find: the Holy Land, unchanged since the time of Jesus’. This is certainly true, but this chapter argues that close reading of Rogers’ work, informed by Debbie Lisle’s notion of the female traveller as ‘honorary man’, reveals instead the strongly imperial nature of Rogers’ viewpoint and of her interactions with many Palestinians. To see Rogers’ work only through the lens of discursive orientalisms obscures her very real role in reinforcing her brother’s imperial presence, and the ways in which adopting a quasi-masculine position also allowed her to lay claim to knowledge and authority within Victorian paradigms of travel writing.

The scholarly literature on the history of archaeology and archaeological organisations in late nineteenth/early twentieth century Palestine focuses almost exclusively on the Western excavators and scholars who headed this work. But Arab workers did the bulk of the actual digging, and on a daily basis they were often overseen by fellow Arabs as foremen and gang leaders. This paper applies lessons from relational history as it has been used in Levantine intellectual and labour contexts to understand the roles of two particular men, Yusif ‘abu Selim' Khazin and Yusif Khattar Kanaan, who worked for the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1890 and World War One, acting as foremen, researchers, site directors and many other roles for Frederick Bliss, R.A.S Macalister, and Duncan Mackenzie. Despite their often slim and ghostly presence in the records, in which both men are often referred to only by their shared first name, the writings of Bliss and Macalister reveal them to have been indispensable on-site and as offering insights and knowledge which influenced how both archaeological finds and indigenous life in Palestine was understood.

National or ethnic collectivities are often coded in art, propaganda, and other media as “female”—passive, possessed, and penetrable by the enemy other. Particularly during times of conflict, the nation or homeland is depicted as a woman whose purity must be protected by men. Feminist explorations of this phenomenon have often focused on the language and practice of sexual violence against women in war. Mary Layoun’s discussion of Cypriot fiction raises a different possibility: when women transgress group boundaries and make their own choice to pursue sexual relationships with the other, this rupture of dominant ideologies opens up new ways of thinking about identity but may also end with those disruptions being suppressed and crushed. This article uses Layoun’s ideas to inform a close reading of two recent novels written in Arabic, both of which depict Muslim-Jewish amatory relations in a way that counters stereotypical ideas about how such relationships are seen in the Arab world.

A major collection of contemporary Palestinian poetry translated by 24 of Scotland's very best writers including Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, James Robertson, Jackie Kay, William Letford, Aonghas MacNeacail, DM Black, Tom Pow, Ron Butlin and John Glenday. A Bird is not a Stone is a unique cultural exchange, giving both English and Arabic readers a unique insight into the political, social and emotional landscape of today's Palestine. Includes both established and emerging Palestinian poets. Foreword by Scotland's Mackar (Poet Laureate) Liz Lochhead.

Dubbed 'the poster girl of Palestinian militancy', Leila Khaled's image flashed across the world after she hijacked a passenger jet in 1969. The picture of a young, determined looking woman with a checkered scarf, clutching an AK-47, was as era-defining as that of Che Guevara.

In this intimate profile, based on interviews with Khaled and those who know her, Sarah Irving gives us the life-story behind the image. Key moments of Khaled's turbulent life are explored, including the dramatic events of the hijackings, her involvement in the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a radical element within the PLO), her opposition to the Oslo peace process and her activism today.

Leila Khaled's example gives unique insights into the Palestinian struggle through one remarkable life – from the tension between armed and political struggle, to the decline of the secular left and the rise of Hamas, and the role of women in a largely male movement.