‘The Reconstruction of Palestine’: Geographical Imaginaries after World War I

The deployment of technologies such as cartography and aerial photography in the Levant during World War One helped to inspire interlinked geographical and political imaginaries of the region, including the idea of an independent, Arab Greater Syria. This chapter shows how this version of the Palestinian future was more widespread and long-lasting than has previously been documented, and was discussed in the Arabic press in North America, as well as within Mandate Palestine. It then goes on to consider how Palestinian imaginaries of the geography of their land changed over time, adapting to the geographical borders and political circumstances imposed by colonial politics. In so doing, it offers a broader discussion of the ways in which politics, image-making and geography interact in the aspirations and imaginaries of peoples living under colonialism.