| Referencia: | 10830 |
| Editorial: | Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center (PLO RC) |
| Año: | 1966 |
| Lugar de edición: | Beirut |
Palestine in 1948 - Official PLO map.
A large wall map of Palestine as it appeared in 1948, produced by the Palestine Liberation Organization (P. L. O.) Research Center around 1966. The year 1948 is considered by the P.L.O. the start of the Nakba or 'Catastrophe.
The map's compilation was overseen by Said Kamal Sabbagh, better known under the name of Said Sabbagh, an active Palestinian-Lebanese geographer, and represents the PLO's approved reference map for the Mandatory period. It presents four maps, with the largest at left being a topographical map of Palestine, with elevations documented throughout in Eastern Arabic numerals. The elevations below sea level around the Dead Sea are particularly noteworthy. Aside from elevation, roads (red lines, with single dashed lines for roads under consideration), international boundaries, telegraph lines (parallel solid and dashed lines), railways, cities, villages, waterways, and terrain are indicated.
At right, three additional maps appear. At top is a political map of Palestine in 1948, below that is a map displaying Palestine within the wider Arab World, and at bottom is a continuation of the main map, illustrating the southernmost portion of Palestine.
This undated map was produced by the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center in Beirut (founded in 1965) and was overseen by Said Kamel Sabbagh, who died in 1967. It is unlikely to have been published many years past that date (Sabbagh’s Arab Atlas (al-Atlas al-‘Arabi was published in Beirut in 1968). So can assume the map was published between 1965 and 1968. The Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center is infamous for having been raided when the Israeli military invaded West Beirut in September 1982. The complete library was then trucked to Israel. This created an international outrage, leading Israel to return the library as part of a prisoner exchange in November 1983.
Rarity: WorldCat / OCLC list just two copies of that map, one in the Library of Congress, the other one in UC Berkeley. We found other copies at the Beirut Arab University and the National Library of Israel (which dates it from 1966).
