In this first episode dedicated to a day-trip outside Jerusalem, Dotan Halevy takes to late-Ottoman Gaza. While today Gaza can be certainly considered the largest open air jail, or at least most securitized location in the world, Dotan tells of a forgotten past when Gaza was integrated into a maritime system and at the same served as a regional hub of the trade of agricultural products. We then talked about the evacuation of Gaza during the First World War, a little known event in history, but very important for the city of Gaza as it took a number of years for Gaza and its inhabitants to recover. We also talked about the intriguing figure of Alexander Knesevich (Dotan published an article on Jerusalem Quarterly 81) a consular agent working for different people, lastly for the British. Drawing some conclusions on Gaza during the British Mandate, the damage done by the war relegated Gaza at the margins of the emerging Palestinian nationalist movement and of other trends unfolding in Palestine.

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