Palestine Mapped: From the River to the Sea in Early Cartographic Thought

 

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  by Ramona Wadi

   walzerscent

There is no neutrality in maps. Thomas Suarez makes that point early in Palestine Mapped: From the River to the Sea in Early Cartographic Thought (Interlink Books, 2025) “All maps are products of their makers’ worldview, their assumptions, culture, and what, even subliminally, they want the map to do,” Suarez writes in his introduction to the book that charts the mapping of Palestine throughout the centuries. Most early maps of Palestine that have survived are of European origin, and the author notes that cartography, together with the Western colonial approach to human rights, inflicted “precisely the opposite vision on Palestine.”

Linking to the present day, Suarez writes, “Maps are an active participant in what is known in political parlance as the ‘Palestine exception.’” Early mapping of Palestine was mostly done by outsiders, which the author notes does not reflect an absence of mapmaking in the indigenous population but rather the importance given to Palestine by its visitors and conquerors.

Most maps, Suarez notes, were influenced by the Western Judeo-Christian tradition; the majority “a Protestant, proto-Zionist lens.” The book discusses the earlier loss of maps and how best to preserve earlier cartography, while delving into a chronological discussion of the earliest maps of Palestine dating back to the 4th century and moving on to the more recent history. The book is illustrated with map images and the author also links to the present by showing how Israel used earlier maps of Palestine to justify its Judaisation and excavations of the old city in East Jerusalem. 

From the early Christian pilgrimages to Palestine after the First Crusade, maps depicted Palestine, notably Jerusalem as being the centre of the earth. “That the prevailing belief was of a geocentric cosmos makes Palestine’s seemingly divinely ordained position all the more powerful,” Suarez notes. Maps served the purpose of attracting Christian visitors to Palestine in the 15th century. Meanwhile, Medieval travel accounts and literature started featuring Palestine and Palestinian cities such as Jaffa and Jerusalem.

Of Arabic geographers and cartographers, Suarez notes that the oldest surviving maps date back to around 1037 and, unlike the Latin cartographers, the Arab geographers used precise methodology in their maps, inspired by Ptolemy. 

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The 16th century, Suarez writes, saw the normalisation of Western imperialism and the rise of Protestantism and Evangelism – all of which would ultimately impact Palestine. “Like language, mapping reflects its creators’ wishes and subconscious cultural assumptions,” Suarez states, as he goes on to describe how Palestine became defined by Biblical stories. The book gives an overview of the early Christian support for the ‘return’ of Jews to Palestine, noting Martin Luther in 1543 exhibiting anti-Jewish bigotry and calling Jews “a sheer misfortune for our country”. As Christians increased their calls for Jews to ‘return’ to Palestine, Palestine became central to colonial and imperialist agendas. Maps started depicting a future in which colonial expansion would take place, based on biblical myths. The British continued to promote the colonisation of Palestine and the Palestine Exploration Fund, Suarez notes, was instrumental in furthering the ‘messianic-imperial mapping of the land.”

As the book moves towards the history of the Zionist movement, Suarez discusses the historical context in which cartography became an integral part of colonising Palestine, and how biblical myths played a part in the creation of Israel – the name chose for the colonial enterprise “is the continuation of the realm of that name seemingly created by God in Genesis of the Old Testament.”

Suarez’s discussion of the 1947 Partition Plan through cartography should not be overlooked. The history is well-known among those who are well read about Palestine, but Suarez approaches the colonial implications and implementation from maps. He notes how the Partition Plan completely altered the map of Palestine and gave way to the colonial and misleading “Jewish state” and “Arab state”. 

“To say that the map was a failure would be misleading,” Suarez writes. “Rather, it was never intended to succeed – or, perhaps more accurate to say that it succeeded brilliantly in what it was actually designed to accomplish.” Zionist ethnic cleansing and terror attacks against the Palestinian population completely altered Palestine, with invented names concealing the existence of Palestinian towns and villages. Suarez also discusses the murder of Folke Bernadotte at the hands of Zionist paramilitaries, through cartography and Bernadotte’s insistence that Palestinian refugees should be allowed to return and borders should be clearly demarcated. As Israeli colonialism and expansion continued on Palestinian territory, Israel consistently refused to declare its borders, to the point that Palestinians are now facing a genocide and the complete erasure of Palestine.

As Suarez concludes, “Maps and nomenclature are a key weapon in this erasure: to be mapped is to be; and to be cleansed from the map is never to have been.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250819-palestine-mapped-from-the-river-to-the-sea-in-early-cartographic-thought/