Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO Effort to Know the Enemy by Jonathan Marc Gribe

Reading Herzl in Beirutby Jonathan Marc Gribetz\nHow the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center informed the PLO's relationship to Zionism and Israel\n\nIn September 1982, the Israeli military invaded West Beirut and Israel-allied Lebanese militiamen massacred Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Meanwhile, Israeli forces also raided the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center and trucked its complete library to Israel. Palestinian activists and supporters protested loudly to international organizations and the Western press, claiming that the assault on the Center proved that the Israelis sought to destroy not merely Palestinian militants but Palestinian culture as well. The protests succeeded: in November 1983, Israel returned the library as part of a prisoner exchange. What was in that library?\n\nMuch of the expansive collection the PLO amassed consisted of books about Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. In Reading Herzl in Beirut, Jonathan Marc Gri2