1948 Catholic Press Arabic Language Map of Palestine

An unrecorded Arabic-language folding map of Palestine, published in 1948 by the Catholic Press in Beirut. It reflects the situation at the end of the Mandatory period and the start of the most intense phase of Arab-Israeli conflict.

A Closer Look

Coverage includes Mandatory Palestine with portions of neighboring territories, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Roads, railways, settlements of various sizes, airports, lighthouses, and other features are noted throughout, including religious sites, unsurprisingly given the map's publisher. Topography is indicated with color shading. An inset map of Jerusalem appears at top-left, while another of the Beersheba sub-district (now the Negev region) is included at bottom-right.

Intriguing blue hand-written annotations appear, mostly towards bottom. They are difficult to distinguish from blue printed text on the map but are marked with 'Xs' which appear to indicate the sites of battles during the First Arab-Israeli War. The 'southern front' was especially precarious for the Israelis, as the Jewish settlements there were smaller in number and spread out over greater distances, and because the Egyptian force which occupied the region was relatively powerful. The Israelis managed to halt Egyptian advances with considerable difficulty early in the war and then in October 1948 counter-attacked, capturing towns and roads, especially in the northern part of the Negev. They then halted their advance, in part out of fears of provoking a British intervention, and Egypt went on to occupy the Gaza Strip until 1967.

British Mandatory Palestine

Mandatory Palestine was established in 1920, following World War I (1914 - 1918). During the First World War, an Arab uprising against Ottoman rule and the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force drove the Ottoman Turks out of the Levant (the flag of the Arab Revolt, known as the flag of Hejaz, is the basis for the Palestinian flag which appears here). The British initially agreed to honor Palestinian independence, but ultimately took full control of the region. The Mandate had mixed results. It led to American and European academic and religious activity, unchecked Zionist land purchases and immigration, and a rise in Arab nationalism. Three years after the beginning of World War II (1939 - 1945) and the end of the Arab Revolt (1936 - 1939), Mandatory Palestine was in tumult. The Arab Revolt called for the end of British administration and Arab independence in Palestine, as well as a cessation of open-ended Jewish immigration. Although the revolt was suppressed, Arab resentment towards both Western powers and Zionists only increased, contributing to many of the issues that still destabilize the region.

Nakba

In 1948, Palestine became a global focal point marked by the dissolution of the British Mandate and the declaration of the State of Israel. These events spurred the 1948 Palestine War, or as it is known in Israel the War of Independence. For Palestinians it is the opening phase of the Nakba or 'Catastrophe', in which roughly 80% of the Palestinian population was forced into exile. The Palestine War was immediately followed by the Arab-Israeli War (May 15, 1948 – Mar 10, 1949), involving neighboring Arab states opposed to Israel. By the end of the conflict, Israel had expanded its territory beyond the UN's partition, with a significant portion of the Palestinian Arab population made stateless or forced into exile. The events of 1948 laid the foundation for the ongoing ethnic and religious conflict in Israel-Palestine and wider regional destabilization.

Publication History and Census

This map was 'printed' by the Catholic Press طبع في المطبعة الكاثوليكية in Beirut in 1948. It is not known to exist in any institutional collections and is very scarce to the market.