My Palestine: An Impossible Exile

‘As impressive a man as the Arab world has to show.’
Edward Said on Mohammad Tarbush

‘A work of necessity and hope. Read it and be wiser.’
Yann Martel

‘A story of Palestine, but also the story of a singular, remarkable Palestinian.’
Kamila Shamsie

‘A personal as well as political history of Palestine, poignantly written and closely argued.’
Arundhati Roy

‘Far more than a memoir, Mohammad Tarbush’s remarkable and courageous life, which he narrates with great lyricism, offers readers a keyhole through which to see the immense forces that created one nation by stealing another.’
Naomi Klein

Mohammad Tarbush was born in British Mandate Palestine. As an infant, he and his family were forced to evacuate their village together with its entire population after the Zionist victory that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. As landless refugees in the West Bank the family sank into poverty.

When, as a teenager, Tarbush left home one day under the pretext of visiting relatives in Jordan, he in fact set off on a year-long hitchhiking journey to Europe, where he would eventually become a highly successful international banker and a key behind-the-scenes promoter of the Palestinian cause.

My Palestine is a poignant personal memoir and an incisive political and economic commentary on the tumultuous events that shaped the history of Israel, Palestine and the modern Middle East.

MOHAMMAD TARBUSH was born in Beit Nattif, near Jerusalem. In 1988, he became managing director at Deutsche Bank then at UBS. He is the author of several books including Reflections of a Palestinian. His writings on Palestine have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Guardian and Financial Times, among others.