ABSTRACT
While the First World War is generally regarded as a watershed in world history, it was also an important turning point in the history of Palestine. Over the course of the four years of the war, Palestine and the Sinai Desert served as a battle arena for conflict between the armies of the Ottoman and British Empires.
Extensive geographic-historic and historical research has examined the war through the eyes of Palestine’s local inhabitants, most of which focused on how communities or individuals coped with the war and on the reciprocal relations within and between the different religious groupings. There is a void in the research with regard to what the local inhabitants knew about the war and to what extent they identified as part of the Ottoman cause. We examine these issues by assessing first, how the “Home Front” accessed news and learned about the situation on the Palestine front; second, how the inhabitants perceived the war; and third, whether the war changed the perception of the inhabitants, as individuals and as communities, of the Ottomans and of Palestine and its future. To do so we use the diaries and autobiographies of men and women from the three main religious groups, who lived in Palestine during the period.
