The myths and reality behind the state of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—from 'the most eloquent writer on Palestinian history' (New Statesman)
The outspoken and radical Israeli historian Ilan Pappe examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel.
The 'ten myths'—repeated endlessly in the media, enforced by the military, and accepted without question by the world's governments—reinforce the regional status quo and include: Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration; the Jews were a people without a land; there is no difference between Zionism and Judaism; Zionism is not a colonial project of occupation; the Palestinians left their Homeland voluntarily in 1948; the June 1967 War was a war of 'No Choice'; Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East; the Oslo Mythologies; the Gaza Mythologies; and the Two-State Solution.
For students, activists, and anyone interested in better understanding the news, Ten Myths About Israel is another groundbreaking study of the Israel-Palestine conflict from the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
An indispensable guide to understanding the Israel–Palestine conflict, and how we might yet still find a way out of it.
'Ilan Pappe is the most original, radical and hard-hitting of Israel's 'new historians.'' —Avi Shlaim, author of Three Worlds
The devastation of 7 October 2023 and the horrors that followed astounded the world. But the Israel–Palestine conflict didn't start on 7 October. It didn't start in 1967 either, when Israel occupied the West Bank, or in 1948 when the state of Israel was declared. It started in 1882, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in what was then Ottoman Palestine. Ilan Pappe untangles the history of two peoples, now sharing one land. Going back to the founding fathers of Zionism, Pappe expertly takes us through the twists and turns of international policy towards Israel–Palestine, Palestinian resistance to occupation, and the changes taking place in Israel itself.
Revealed: How pro-Israel lobbying groups influence the Middle East policies of Britain, the US, and others
In 1896, a Jewish state was a pipe dream. Today the overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists. How did this happen?
Ilan Pappe unveils how a lobby changed the map of the Middle East. Zionists exerted pressure on the Congress, cracked down on dissent in the Labour Party, and relentlessly smeared critics. Groups funded by the Israeli state pushed for unprecedented military aid, recognition of unlawfully occupied territories, and the erasure of Palestinian rights. Lobbying for Zionism shows us how a dangerous consensus was built—and how it might be dismantled.
From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up the story where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off.
Publishing on the fiftieth anniversary of the Six-Day War that culminated in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Pappe offers a comprehensive exploration of one of the world's most prolonged and tragic conflicts. Using recently declassified archival material, Pappe analyses the motivations and strategies of the generals and politicians-and the decision-making process itself-that laid the foundation of the occupation. From a survey of the legal and bureaucratic infrastructures that were put in place to control the population of over one million Palestinians, to the security mechanisms that vigorously enforced that control, Pappe paints a picture of what is to all intents and purposes the world's largest 'open prison'.
Renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking book revisits the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred, and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called "ethnic cleansing." Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel's founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. This is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.
