settlements: The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Product Description

In this controversial new book, a prominent Israeli historian at Haifa University revisits the formative period of the State of Israel. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord during the War of Independence, he offers archival evidence to demonstrate that a central plank in Israels founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. This book is a passionate plea to acknowledge the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 as the root cause of the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.
Rate Points :4.0
Binding :Paperback
Label :Oneworld Publications
Manufacturer :Oneworld Publications
ProductGroup :Book
Studio :Oneworld Publications
Publisher :Oneworld Publications
EAN :9781851685554
Price :$14.95USD
Lowest Price :$8.91USD
Customer ReviewsMUST READ!!!!!!!
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :5
This is a hands-down absolute must read for anyone wishing to understand the Israel/Palestine conflict. Dont even bother to have an opinion until you have read this book.

Haunting
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :1
An elegantly written, exhaustively researched account of the Nakba that will stand as the definitive work on the subject for any lay historian. Pappe writes with a reserved, almost detached historical precision yet cannot help allowing his grief and rage to break through.

While the book is stylistically elegant, its a difficult book to read emotionally, if you have any human feelings. Whatever your understanding of Palestinian history, it will be enriched by Pappes account. If you arent moved to compassion for this persecuted people you have a heart of stone, and if it doesnt change your thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict then you have a head of stone. Should be required reading for anyone with even a mild interest in the history of this region.

A history must be judged differently than a work of fiction
Rating Point :1 Helpful Point :0
Most historians at least try, or claim to try, to be as objective as possible in reporting on the facts of historical events. Pappe is not one of them. In one interview he boldly says that he is not interested in the truth. He says:

" I am not as interested in what happened as in how people see whats happened. ("An Interview of Ilan Papp," Baudouin Loos, Le Soir Bruxelles,Nov. 29, 1999)

I admit that my ideology influences my historical writings...(Ibid)

Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers. (Ibid) "

See also the introduction to one of his books, A History of Modern Palestine, where he he unabashedly acknowledges his personal bias and open political partisanship , and more significantly how this impacts on his writing:
"My bias is apparent despite the desire of my peers that I stick to facts and the truth when reconstructing past realities. I view any such construction as vain and presumptuous. This book is written by one who admits compassion for the colonized not the colonizer who sympathizes with the occupied not the occupiers."

We all like to read books that confirm what we already believe or what we want to believe. But believing a historian who doesnt even claim to be interested in seeking truth is foolish. As is to be expected from an author who is "not as interested in what happened as in how people see whats happened" the book is full of illogical conclusions and omissions that mislead. For a review of how this book distorts the facts see the review by Seth Frantzman appearing in the Middle East Quarterly which is available on line. It is too long to repeat here. In short this book admirably carries out its authors stated goal of trying to "convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers." If you are what Pappe derisively calls a truthseeker, you had best look elsewhere.

ideological bigotry is not history
Rating Point :1 Helpful Point :0
First, lets document the crime exposed by Mr. Pappe. In 1947, when Britain wanted out of its League of Nations Mandate over Palestine, the United Nations partitioned the remaining portion of Palestine into two more states, a second Arab state (The first Arab state, Jordan, was carved out of Palestine earlier by the British.)and a Jewish state, i. e. the three-state solution. Most of the land that Jews had the temerity to occupy for more than 3,000 years went into the creation of the two Arab states. All of the West Bank inclusive of the old city of Jerusalem and all of the Gaza Strip plus additional territory were incorporated into the second Arab state, whose Arab population acquired the name "The Palestinians". The "two-state solution" widely referenced today was handed to the The "Palestinian People" unconditionally 60 years ago.

The Zionists accepted the solution of 1947, and the Arab world, which argued angrily against it at the United Nations, went to war to eliminate it. That war created the Palestinian refugees. Had there been acceptance of "the solution" by the Arabs in 1947, there would have been no Palestinian refugees and Mr. Pappe would need something else to discredit the Jews claim to a fraction of the land they occupied continuously for more than 3,000 years.

In the course of the 1947-1948 Arab war against the U. N. "solution", many resident Arabs fled their homes for essentially three reasons.

(1.)Their leaders told them the Jews were massacring them in an effort to incite them to join the war against their Jewish neighbors.

(2.)Their leaders told them to vacate so that invading Arab armies could more effectively kill the Jews.

(3.)Jewish combatants towards the end of the war forced them out in reprisal for the murdering of resident Jews by Arab combatants earlier in the war.

The first two causes displaced many more Arabs than the third, which is all that people like Pappe will acknowledge. In addition, Pappe and people like him will not acknowledge the comparable number (hundreds of thousands) of Jews who were thrown out of Arab countries in collective punishment for Israel prevailing in the Arab war of rejection of 1947-1948.

If you want more tunnel-visioned distortions of the history of the Arab-Israel conflict, Pappes egregiously dishonest book (and many more like it) will server you well.

Devastating... and essential reading if you want to know what really happened in 1948
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :1
When I started reading this book, I was planning to highlight only the most outstanding passages... the ones that really made the situation clear and/or that described particularly outrageous acts of ethnic cleansing. Well, I ended up highlighting half the book!

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a devastatingly clear picture of what the Zionist leadership had in mind for -- and did to -- the Palestinians living in what was to become the Jewish state of Israel. I cannot imagine that anyone, after reading this book, would fail to agree that the Zionists engaged in nothing short of systematic ethnic cleansing. Pappe documents the atrocities village by village... and shows, by the way, that the attacks by neighboring Arab countries did not commence until the ethnic cleansing campaign was well underway.

As part of the ethnic cleansing, the Zionists/Israelis not only drove the Palestinians out of their villages by force and demolished their homes and belongings. In many cases, atrocities such as rapes and massacres were carried out. Pappe documents each case he leaves no doubt that these events occurred. In many cases, his documentation comes from Israeli historical archives.

Pappe documents how the ethnic cleansing campaign was organized and carried out as part of the Zionist leaderships Plan D (Dalet)... a blueprint for ridding the entire area of its native Palestinian population and replacing it with Jewish villages and (eventually) towns and cities. The goal was to take over all of historic Palestine, not just the areas offered to the Zionists in the U.N. Partition Plan. Many of the ethnic cleansing raids carried out as part of Plan D took place in the areas that were to be kept by the Palestinians for their own future state (which of course never materialized). By the way, the book contains some excellent maps that help readers understand where everything happened and the ultimate geographical results.

If you want to really understand -- on a visceral level -- how the Palestinians feel and (more importantly) why they feel that way, please read this book. It will blow your mind... and you will never again look at Israel and Palestine the same way.

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