The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe

The book that is providing a storm of controversy, from 'Israel's bravest historian' (John Pilger) Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. 'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.' NEW STATESMAN 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. *** 'Ilan Pappe is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian.' JOHN PILGER '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 '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 Editorial Reviews '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 'Pappe offers a scorching indictment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.' - Metro M D 'Pappe is well positioned to lob a grenade such as this one into the twin worlds of Middle Eastern studies and politics. Pappe's book should shock and shame the academic world' - Arab Banker 'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.' - New Statesman 'Shocking, telling and illuminating.' - Emel '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 '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 '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's book will command attention.' - Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 'Leading Israeli historian Ilan Pappe delves into his country's bloodied past in search of answers in the present.' - Morning Star '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) 'The organization of the material in this book leaves almost nothing to be desired. The twelve sections substantially challenge and considerably undermine the ostensibly convincing Israeli discourse on the refugees question and the 1984 events.' - Arab Studies Quarterly 'Superb account of how, and why, Palestinians were driven out of their homes.' - Socialist Review 'Pappe's book is an essential read for anyone trying to understand the politics and history of the Middle East.' - Frontline Magazine (an Independent Marxist review from Scotland) '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 Whig. 'Pappe's ethical clarity and humane vision permeate The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine... Given the meticulous research and compelling moral imperative embodied in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Zionism itself may be in trouble.' - Race and Class 'Pappe offers a scorching indictment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.' - Metro 'Pappe offers a scorching indictment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.' - Metro '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 In his latest work, renowned Israeli author and academic Pappe (A History of Modern Palestine) does not mince words, doing Jimmy Carter one better (or worse, depending on one's point of view) by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, beginning in the 1948 war for independence and continuing through the present. Focusing primarily on Plan D (Dalet, in Hebrew), conceived on March 10, 1948, Pappe demonstrates how ethnic cleansing was not a circumstance of war, but rather a deliberate goal of combat for early Israeli military units organized by David Ben-Gurion, whom Pappe labels the architect of ethnic cleansing. The forced expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians between 1948 and 1949, Pappe argues, was part of a long-standing Zionist plan to manufacture an ethnically pure Jewish state. Framing his argument with accepted international and U.N. definitions of ethnic cleansing, Pappe follows with an excruciatingly detailed account of Israeli military involvement in the demolition and depopulation of hundreds of villages, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arab inhabitants. An accessible, learned resource, this volume provides important insights into the historical antecedents of today's conflict, but its conclusions will not be easy for everyone to stomach: Pappe argues that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues today, and calls for the unconditional return of all Palestinian refugees and an end to the Israeli occupation. Without question, Pappe's account will provoke ire from many readers; importantly, it will spark discussion as well. (Jan.)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - Publishers Weekly