Palestinian Doctors
Medical Practice and the Transformation of Palestine, 1900–1948

A social history of Palestinian doctors and the emergence of a professional community during the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods.

Yoni Furas (Author), Liat Kozma (Author)

9781009463355, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 2025

290 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.57 kg

'A must-read history of medicine, of professionalization and of Palestinians. Through lively stories and a treasure trove of data, this social history situates Palestinian doctors in their overlapping local, national and regional contexts. It adds a crucial new chapter to a growing literature on middle-class Palestinian life before 1948.' Hilary Falb Kalisman, author of Teachers as State-builders: Educators and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Palestinian doctors became a dynamic, vocal, influential, and fascinating professional community over the first half of the twentieth century, growing from roughly a dozen on the eve of World War I to 300 in 1948. This study examines the social history of this group during the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, examining their social and geographic origins, their professional academic training outside Palestine, and their role and agency in the country's medical market. Yoni Furas and Liat Kozma examine doctors' interactions with the rural and urban society and their entangled relationship with the British colonial administration and Jewish doctors. This book also provides an in-depth description of how Palestinian doctors thought and wrote about themselves and their personal, professional, and collective ambitions, underlining the challenges they faced while attempting to unionize. Furas and Kozma tell Palestine's story through the acts and challenges of these doctors, writing them back into the local and regional history.

Introduction
1. Prelude: Jerusalem, circa 1903
2. Class matters – the sociology of the profession
3. Colonial care: understanding the department of health
4. Medical landscapes
5. Conflicting medicines and the politicization of health
6. A Republic of medical letters and professional unity
7. Nakba: The displacement of the medical community
Conclusion
Bibliography
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]