Tarbush was born in British Mandate Palestine. As an infant, he and his family are forced to evacuate their village together with its entire population, after the Zionist victory that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. As now landless refugees in the West Bank, the family sinks into poverty. 

When the teenage Palestinian refugee announced to his parents that he wanted to take a bus to visit relatives in Jordan for a few days, little did they know he would actually set off on a one-year hitchhiking journey to Europe, where he would eventually become a highly successful international banker and a key behind-the-scenes promoter of the Palestinian cause. 

In My Palestine, Tarbush combines poignant personal memoir with incisive political and economic commentary on the tumultuous events that shaped the history of Israel, Palestine, and the modern Middle East.