This catalogue presents narratives from the history of the Palestinian coast from the mid-18th century until the 1950s; this allows for a re-examination of the Nakba through a presentation of two hundred years of historical landmarks. The catalogue focused on selected narratives: the first highlights the rise of Akka (Acre) in Northern Palestine in the mid-eighteenth century, presenting its political, economic, urban, and architectural history before the formation of modern states in the region. A second narrative focuses on the rise of Yaffa (Jaffa) in the nineteenth century, with the gradual concentration of capital and trade in Palestine’s coastal cities. This was accompanied by a growing European influence in the mid-nineteenth century, which preceded the 1948 Nakba and the fall of the ‘country’. The book includes many archival materials, installations, and artworks documenting these narratives. It also includes two articles contributed by the two historical advisors of the exhibition, Adel Manna, PhD and Mahmoud Yazbak, PhD. Manna’s article is titled ‘A Paradise Lost: From Daher al-Omar’s Capital in Akka to the All-Palestine Government in Gaza’ while Yazbak’s is titled ‘Yaffa: The Cultural Landscape in the Late Ottoman Era’. A People by the Sea: Narratives of the Palestinian Coast
