======
The book that is providing a storm of controversy, from ‘Israel’s bravest historian’ (John Pilger)
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. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.
473 pages
1 September 2007
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Author | Ilan Pappé |
---|---|
Country | Israel |
Language | English |
Genre | History |
Published | 2006 (Oneworld Publications) |
Media type | |
Pages | 313 pp |
ISBN | 978-1-85168-555-4 |
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a book authored by New Historian Ilan Pappé and published in 2006 by Oneworld Publications. The book is about the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, which Pappe argues was the result of ethnic cleansing.
The thesis of the book is that the displacement of the Palestinians during the 1948 Palestine war was an objective of the Zionist movement and a must for the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state.[1] According to Pappé, the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight resulted from a planned ethnic cleansing of Palestine that was implemented by David Ben-Gurion and a group of advisors referred to by Pappé as "the Consultancy".[2][3] The book argues that the ethnic cleansing was put into effect through systematic expulsions of about 500 Arab villages, as well as terrorist attacks executed mainly by members of the Irgun and Haganah troops against the civilian population. Ilan Pappé also refers to Plan Dalet and to the village files as a proof of the planned expulsions.[4]
Background
The idea that the 1948 events were the results of a planned expulsion had already been suggested by historians Walid Khalidi in Plan Dalet: The Zionist Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine (1961) and Nur Masalha in Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought (1991). Yoav Gelber published an answer criticizing the interpretation of Plan D made by Walid Khalidi and Ilan Pappé: History and Invention. Was Plan D a Blueprint for Ethnic Cleansing? (2006).[5]
Benny Morris proposed several interpretations. The conclusion of his main work on the topic The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (1989) is that the exodus was the "result of war, not intent". Nevertheless, he stated later that "[i]n retrospect, it is clear that what occurred in 1948 in Palestine was a variety of ethnic cleansing of Arab areas by Jews. It is impossible to say how many of the 700,000 or so Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 were physically expelled, as distinct from simply fleeing a combat zone."[6] In an interview with Ha'aretz in 2004, he also defended the idea that having performed an ethnic cleansing in 1948 had been a better choice for the Jews than living a genocide.[7] In his last book about the 1948 War: 1948: A History the First Arab-Israeli War (2006), he nuanced all this and stated that:[8]
Critical reception
Analysis in peer-reviewed journals
Ben Gurion University professor Uri Ram's review in the Middle East Journal concluded that "Pappe provides here a most important and daring book that challenges head-on Israeli historiography" as well as "collective memory and even more importantly Israeli conscience".[9]
Jørgen Jensehaugen, in the Journal of Peace Research, while calling the book "a good read", faults Pappé for claiming that the preplanned expulsion of Palestinians was "the reason for the war", rather than merely "one aspect of the various war plans".[10]
Ephraim Nimni, in the Journal of Palestine Studies, commends Pappé on the book's "polemical character", but claims that the Zionist leaders were not solely responsible for the ethnic cleansing:
Laila Parsons of McGill University wrote of the book that "Ilan Pappe has added another work to the many that have already been written in English on the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. These include works by Walid Khalidi, Simha Flapan, Nafez Nazzal, Benny Morris, Nur Masalha, and Norman Finkelstein, among others. All but one of these authors (Morris) would probably agree with Pappe’s position that what happened to the Palestinians in 1948 fits the definition of ethnic cleansing, and it certainly is not news to Palestinians themselves, who have always known what happened to them."[12]
Ahmad H. Sa'di, in International Affairs, "highly recommended" the book.[13]
Mainstream media responses
Critical analysis appeared in The New Republic. In his review of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, fellow new historian Benny Morris wrote, "At best, Ilan Pappe must be one of the world's sloppiest historians; at worst, one of the most dishonest. In truth, he probably merits a place somewhere between the two." Morris argued, "Such distortions, large and small, characterize almost every page of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine."[14]
Ian Black, The Guardian's Middle East editor, reviewed it, calling it a "catalogue of intimidation, expulsion and atrocity".[15] He also pointed out that Pappé "does historical understanding a disservice by all but ignoring the mood and motives of the Jews, so soon after the end of a war in which six million had been exterminated by the Nazis." Summarising:
David Pryce-Jones, writing in the Literary Review, calls Pappé "an Israeli academic who has made his name by hating Israel and everything it stands for".[16]
Stephen Howe, professor of the history of colonialism at Bristol University, said that Pappé's book was an often compelling mixture of historical argument and politico-moral tract. According to Howe, while the book will not be the final word on the events of 1948, it is "a major intervention in an argument that will, and must, continue".[17]
See also
- Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus
- History of Israel
- 1948 Arab–Israeli War
- Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
- Genocide against Palestinians
Footnotes
- ^ Pappé (2006), Preface xvii "I want to make the case for the paradigm of ethnic cleansing and use it to replace the paradigm of war as the basis for the scholarly research of, and the public debate about, 1948."
- ^ Laila Parsons, McGill University "One of the new elements in Pappe’s narrative is his use of the label “The Consultancy” to name the group of men (Ezra Danin, Yehoshua Palmon, and Eliahu Sasson, among others) who regularly consulted with David Ben-Gurion before and throughout the war." [1]
- ^ Pappé 2006 "The list begins with the indisputable leader of the Zionist movement, David Ben-Gurion, in whose private home all early and later chapters in the ethnic cleansing story were discussed and finalised. He was aided by a small group of people I refer to in this book as the ‘Consultancy’, an ad-hoc cabal assembled solely for the purpose of plotting and designing the dispossession of the Palestinians."
- ^ Ilan Pappé (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Oxford. ISBN 978-1-85168-555-4
- ^ Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948, Appendix I, Sussex Academic Press, 2006
- ^ Benny Morris, 1948 Arab-Israeli War Archived 2014-01-29 at the Wayback Machine, Crimes of War.
- ^ "Survival of the fittest", Ha'aretz, 2004.
- ^ Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab=Israeli War (2008), pp.407-408.
- ^ Ram, Uri (2008). "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine". Middle East Journal. 62 (1): 150–2.
- ^ Jensehaugen, Jørgen (January 2008). " The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine". Journal of Peace Research. 45 (1): 124. doi:10.1177/00223433080450010810. S2CID 110710787.
- ^ Nimni, Ephraim (2010). "Point of Departure". Journal of Palestine Studies. 39 (3): 83–4. doi:10.1525/jps.2010.xxxix.3.83.
- ^ Laila Parsons, McGill University https://www.mcgill.ca/islamicstudies/files/islamicstudies/parsons.pappe_.review.pdf
- ^ Sa'di, Ahmad H. (November 2007). "The ethnic cleansing of Palestine". International Affairs. 86 (6): 1219–20.
- ^ Benny Morris. The Liar as Hero, MARCH 17, 2011
- ^ "Review: Palestine | The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine | The Iron Cage". the Guardian. February 17, 2007.
- ^ Raus Mit Uns Archived 2006-11-01 at the Wayback Machine David Pryce-Jones Literary Review
- ^ "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappe (The Independent, November 24, 2006)". Independent.co.uk.
References
- Pappé, Ilan (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld. ISBN 978-1-85168-555-4.
External links
- Video: Palestine History - Alan Hart with Ilan Pappé. The author talks about The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Product description
Review
'Superb account of how, and why, Palestinians were driven out of their homes. Pappe explains why there can be no peace until this crime has been acknowledged and redressed.'--Scottish Review
'A bold expose of Israel's purge of its Arab population in the early years of its existence. It should be read by anyone wanting to grasp the seemingly unfathomable background to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Pappe himself should be supported and applauded.'--Morning Star
'A major intervention in an argument that will, and must, continue. There's no hope of lasting Middle East peace while the ghosts of 1948 still walk.'--Independent
'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.'--New Statesman
'Groundbreaking research into a well-kept Israeli secret. A classic of historical scholarship on a taboo subject by one of Israel's foremost New Historians.'--Ghada Karmi - Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, England, UK
'Ilan Pappe is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian.'--John Pilger - director of The War on Democracy and author of Freedom Next Time
'Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a vital contribution to the scholarship from these new historians... Pappe forever puts to rest any doubt that Palestinians were systematically and brutally expelled from their homeland.'--Against the Current (An independent socialist organisation)
'Leading Israeli historian Ilan Pappe delves into his country's bloodied past in search of answers in the present.'--Morning Star
'Pappe has opened up an important new line of inquiry into the vast and fateful subject of the Palestinian refugees. His book is rewarding in other ways. It has at times an elegiac, even sentimental, character, recalling the lost, obliterated life of the Palestinian Arabs and imagining or regretting what Pappe believes could have been a better land of Palestine.'--Times Literary Supplement
'Pappe is one of the brave few voices to stand up and be counted in the oppressive atmosphere of Israeli society. Pappe's book is a searing account of the horrific brutality perpetrated during the birth of the state of Israel.'--Morning Star --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Ilan Pappe holds the Chair in Hisotry at the University of Exeter and is Academic Director of the Research Insitute for Peace at Givat Haviva and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies, Haifa. He is also author of the bestselling A History of Modern Palestine (Cambridge), The Modern Middle East (Routledge), and The Israel/Palestine Question (Routledge). --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Read more
Product details
ASIN : B00KT5W342
Publisher : Oneworld Publications; Second edition (1 September 2007)
Language : English
File size : 935 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 473 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 932 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)1 in Archaeology (Kindle Store)
1 in Emigration & Immigration
1 in 20th Century World HistoryCustomer Reviews:
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 840 ratings
Top reviews
Top reviews from Australia
There are 0 reviews and 6 ratings from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
Roger G. Billings
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening and importantReviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2023
Verified Purchase
Always knew about the basics of the situation but clearly didn't know half enough. Everyone should read this book!
Report
Mounir Farsoun
5.0 out of 5 stars TruthReviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 October 2023
Verified Purchase
Very informative and well documented good book..
6 people found this helpfulReport
Gogol
4.0 out of 5 stars A real eye openerReviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2008
Verified Purchase
A real eye opener.
This book may be a little difficult for some to come to terms with and for others even more difficult to accept. It is something that has been placed in the psyche of us in Europe after the horrors of the holocaust that any criticism of the state of Israel or Zionism is equal to anti semitism. That the state of Israel was created out of the ashes of the second world war in order to provide a safe and free land for Jews the world over and a place of return for the Jews to their historical homeland.
This book dispels the myth. Pappe rather presents the establishment of the state of Israel as being not only created by men whose ideology was every equal of the extreme nationalism that European Jews had suffered under but also created out of the ethnic cleansing of the native population of that land, the Palestinians.
Pappe begins his book by providing us with with definitions of ethnic cleansing quoting from the United Nations amongst others. unfortunately his use of wikipedia, an 'encyclopedia' by his own admissions is edited by anyone in order to further his argument greatly diminishes his own introduction. While he may choose to use this in his own words to gauge public opinion on how genocide and ethnic cleansing is defined the fact that wikipedia is more of a soap box for anyone with a grudge makes the website frankly worthless.
According to Pappe, ethnic cleansing is something that requires planning and pre-thought before execution and in the first few chapters Pappe documents how Zionist leaders wrote up maps of Palestinian areas, their populations and numbers. Pappe is also quick to point out however, how some Palestinian leaders were only too happy to sell off land to Zionist settlers believing that the greater threat to their land was the colonialism of the British. For some, the Zionists were the poor of Europe and offered little threat, little were they to know that these people would be one and the same who orchestrated their own extinction from their own lands.
Pappe goes on to examine the execution of the Zionist plans of forced expulsion of Palestinians under threats of murder, how the response of Arab militias resulted in further excuses for Zionist outrages on civilian populations. Pappe gives examples of Palestinian villages of both Christian and Muslim who were wiped from the map. Further examples of man (Defined as aged between 10 and 50) being separated from their women folk and executed. Examples of mass rape, destruction of Churches, Mosques, orchards are also given.
Another interesting point is the Arab-Israeli war which Pappe defines as a 'phony war' Pointing out that Jordan had no intention of defending Palestinians rather in protecting its agreed annexation of the West Bank. How the poorly armed and trained Arab armies were no match for the Zionist forces due to the Egyptians while large in numbers (Swelled by the Muslim brotherhood whose lack of any military training made them more a liability than help) The Syrians lack of modern arms, the Lebanese whose numbers were so small they were more concerned with holding onto their own land and Iraqis. Most of these forces were tied down by their own political leaders who had no intentions of seeing them defend the Palestinian people.
I believe it was Robert Fisk in his book 'Pity the nation' who once pointed out the irony of the victims of genocide often being the most enthusiastic perpetrators of it. It is interesting that most of the criticism of this book is that it is 'anti semitic' (Strange considering the author is Jewish!) and reminds me of how Serbs would point out the massacres that were committed against their people in World War 2 by Croatian militias as though that somehow justifies the slaughter of thousands in Bosnia and Kosovo. Similarly Zionists use the holocaust to deflect war crimes in Lebanon and the ethnic cleansing of an entire people in Palestine.
Thankfully Pappe has brought this to the worlds attention in a book that while filled with information that will be shocking and disturbing is also clear and easy to read.
Read less
76 people found this helpfulReport
cooperkat10
5.0 out of 5 stars BiasedReviewed in the United States on 11 June 2023
Verified Purchase
The facts of the situation in Palestine are written from a biased perspective. Yes, Palestinians were displaced by the newly formed Jewish government but the reality of the situation is twofold. The division of Israel gave the Palestinians a large section of land. I understand the reluctance to move but a Jewish homeland was necessary after the Holocaust. Jews needed and still need a place to live in safety. They continue to provide food, health care to the Palestinians whose government continues to put them in danger.
Mistakes were made on both sides but it is time for the Palestinians to be responsible for themselves and stop allowing Hamas to manipulate them by using resources for war instead of building homes.
11 people found this helpfulReport
Mr. D. T. Marchesi
5.0 out of 5 stars UnmentionablesReviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2011
Verified Purchase
Professor Pappe refers to Israel in this book as "our beloved country". He is, indeed, a true patriot, since he wants the best for his home country, a country which, sadly, has adopted am ostrich-like stance in regard to its past, and is actively encouraging its young to despise and/or hate its Arab people and its Arab neighbours.It would seem that the "eternal" war on "terror" suits the Israeli ruling classes down to the ground, providing as it does wonderful cover for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine which goes on, relentlessly, day by day as I write (good source for this is the OCHAoPT website/ bulletin). It was once more or less acceptable for educated Israelis to agree that their country's foundation was the result of a brutal invasion by largely European Jews (one can easily check the origins of Ben Gurion and practically all of the leading soldiers and politicians for the first 30-40 years of Israel)
We know that Benny Morris, one of the original researchers of this episode, does not deny the thrust of Pappe's argument viz. that the incoming Jews forced Arabs from their homes and massacred quite a few but regrets Ben Gurion's failure to complete the job, so that Israel still includes Palestinians as c. 16% of its population.
We in this country are, of course, loth to admit the crimes of our past and present , and our US friends actually revel in their aggressive brutalities which they also dress up as "humanitarian interventions" .
However, the book is far more a factual account than a theoretical discourse, and rightly so, since, as European Jews must have known better than most at the time, forced expulsions are everyday cruelties - they do not actually need an ideological driving force, although at the extreme, such would help. In particular, it is essential not to allow individual soldiers doing the dirty work to think too much about their vicious treatment of , in this case, Palestinians. I refer again to S Yitzhar's poignant story, in the forlorn hope that any Zionist reading this review may ponder it, and repent.
To sum up: the book is a brave and convincing attempt to confront Israelis with the reality of their history in the hope that one day they will eschew hatred and aggression (the settlements) and embrace decent standards of behaviour towards the people they have wronged for so long. Any visitor to the Holy Land can easily observe that the occupying forces treat the Palestinians like dirt, and this "status quo suits the Israeli Right mightily . It would seem superfluous to mention Gaza 2009 and other recent murderous attacks by the hugely superior-armed Israeli forces. The surreptitious taking over and carving up of Palestine which goes on , I repeat, daily,is scarcely reported , and one suspects that most Israelis never give the matter mature and humane thought.In 1947-8, there was, as Pappe notes, some international concern over key incidents such as the Deir Yassin massacre, but the world was probably too war-weary to be over-alarmed.
Of course,UN resolution 194 stated the right of return for the displaced Palestinians , which Count Bernadotte had already stressed. For his courage, he was murdered by terrorist Jews from a group which the Israeli PM Shamir belonged to (similar background to Begin's )
We now have the Israelis confident that their "Defence Forces" are the most moral in the world.
A good dose of Pappe could suggest to the brainwashed conscripts of the IDF that their tradition is questionable.
No comments:
Post a Comment