Programmer with a linguistics background, dad, trekkie. He/him Mastodon: @bgainor@mstdn.party
This link opens in a pop-up window
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published …
I'm not a historian, and not qualified to critique this book on that basis, and anything in this review shouldn't be taken as factual problems I have with the book. What I'll say is that I wasn't really the target audience for this book. It is fairly academic, and it is written from an Israeli perspective. As an American, I was unaware of a lot of the history that is taken for granted by this book. One other thing to note is that this book is primarily about the Nakba. While the Nakba is of course important to understanding the nature of the conflict in Palestine today, and the author does a good job of pointing out how the memory of it is still being denied, I wouldn't recommend this for someone looking for a broad overview of the conflict.
That's not to say I didn't appreciate the book. I …
I'm not a historian, and not qualified to critique this book on that basis, and anything in this review shouldn't be taken as factual problems I have with the book. What I'll say is that I wasn't really the target audience for this book. It is fairly academic, and it is written from an Israeli perspective. As an American, I was unaware of a lot of the history that is taken for granted by this book. One other thing to note is that this book is primarily about the Nakba. While the Nakba is of course important to understanding the nature of the conflict in Palestine today, and the author does a good job of pointing out how the memory of it is still being denied, I wouldn't recommend this for someone looking for a broad overview of the conflict.
That's not to say I didn't appreciate the book. I learned a lot, and the descriptions of what took place were at times emotionally devastating.
The problem with Israel was never its Jewishness – Judaism has many faces and many of them provide a solid basis for peace and cohabitation; it is its ethnic Zionist character. Zionism does not have the same margins of pluralism that Judaism offers, especially not for the Palestinians. They can never be part of the Zionist state and space, and will continue to fight-and hopefully their struggle will be peaceful and successful. If not, it will be desperate and vengeful and, like a whirlwind, will suck all up in a huge perpetual sandstorm that will rage not only through the Arab and Muslim worlds, but also within Britain and the United States, the powers which, each in their turn, feed the tempest that threatens to ruin us all.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (79%)
For Israelis, to recognise the Palestinians as the victims of Israeli actions is deeply distressing, in at least two ways. As this form of acknowledgement means facing up to the historical injustice in which Israel is incriminated through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, it calls into question the very foundational myths of the State of Israel, and it raises a host of ethical questions that have inescapable implications for the future of the state.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (75%)
Like the first Intifada, [the second Intifada] was initially a non-militarised popular protest. But the eruption of lethal violence with which Israel decided to respond caused it to escalate into an armed clash, a hugely unequal mini-war that still rages. The world looks on as the strongest military power in the region, with its Apache helicopters, tanks and bulldozers, attacks an unarmed and defenseless population of civilians and impoverished refugees, among whom small groups of poorly equipped militias try to make a brave but ineffective stand.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (74%)
The first of Israel’s three guidelines – or rather, axioms – was that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict had its origin in 1967: to solve it, all one needed was an agreement that would determine the future status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In other words, as these areas constitute only twenty-two per cent of Palestine, Israel at one stroke reduced any peace solution to only a small part of the original Palestinian homeland.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (73%)
The Palestinian minority in Israel, seventeen per cent of the total population after ethnic cleansing, has been forced to make do with just three per cent of the land. They are allowed to build and live on only two per cent of the land; the remaining one per cent was defined as agricultural land which cannot be built upon.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (69%)
In 1948, 85% of the Palestinians living in the areas that became the state of Israel became refugees.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (56%)
Their destruction appeared to have come as a genuine shock to nearby kibbutzim when they learned how these friendly villages had been savagely assaulted, their houses destroyed and all their people expelled.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (47%)
In Safad there were 9500 Arabs and 2400 Jews. Most of the Jews were Ultra-Orthodox and had no interest at all in Zionism, let alone in fighting their Arab neighbours.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (33%)
The Carmeli Brigade’s war book, chronicling its actions in the war, shows little compunction about what followed thereafter. The brigade’s officers, aware that people had been advised to gather near the port’s gate, ordered their men to station three-inch mortars on the mountain slopes overlooking the market and the port – where the Rothschild Hospital stands today – and to bombard the gathering crowds below. The plan was to make sure people would have no second thoughts, and to guarantee that the flight would be in one direction only. Once the Palestinians were gathered in the marketplace – an architectural gem that dated back to the Ottoman period, covered with white arched canopies, but destroyed beyond recognition after the creation of the State of Israel – they were an easy target for the Jewish marksmen.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (32%)
IANAL, but firing on civilians already attempting to flee feels like a war crime.
There was no need, stressed Ben-Gurion, to distinguish any more between the ‘innocent’ and the ‘guilty’ – the time had come for inflicting collateral damage.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (23%)
Their aim had been to survey the village and bring back information such as where the mukhtar lived, where the mosque was located, where the rich people of the village resided and who had been active in the 1936 revolt. This was not a very dangerous mission as the infiltrators knew they could exploit the traditional Arab hospitality code, and were even guests at the home of the mukhtar himself.
— The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Luis Noriega, Ilan Papeh (11%)
