I Am A Palestinian Jew A Memoir By Margalit Edelson

With historical background, this memoir, I Am A Palestinian Jew, covers the period between Margalit Edelson’s birth in 1930 in Jerusalem through the period until the birth of the new state of Israel in 1948. She is a Jewish child living in Palestine under the British Mandate. Her family home, living conditions, Arab attacks, her family’s friendship with an elite Arab family, her school environment, visits to the Kotel, and the onset of World War II are described. So are the ordinary things that children like to do.

As a teenager, Margalit joins the Irgun. She writes about her experiences as a member of this underground organization, including her unique connection with the commander of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, while he is on board the about-to-be-blown-up Altalena.

“It was difficult to set up our state. Tens of generations and millions of wanderers from one land of massacre to another ... burning at the stake and torture in the dungeons, the sweat and toil of generations of pioneers and builders, the uprising of rebels to crush the enemy, the gallows, the banishment beyond seas, the cages in the deserts – all this was necessary for Hebrew independence to be declared in at least part of the country, the whole of which is ours.” ... A portion of what Menachem Begin, commander of the Irgun, tells the new Jewish Nation on May 15, 1948, from the Irgun radio station Kol Zion Halochemet – Voice of the Fighting Zion. (Menachem Begin becomes the Prime Minister of Israel in 1977.)