Summary
Israeli historian, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), who was one of the ‘new historians’ of the 1980s who revised the Zionist narrative of the 1948 war, and who in this book accuses the Zionist leadership of his own society — of which he says he is part — of a planned ethnic cleansing, as his own J’Accuse.
Details
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Pappe was one of the small group of Israeli ‘new historians’ who in the 1980s attempted to revise the Zionist narrative of the 1948 war; he writes that they “never contributed significantly to the struggle against the Nakba denial as we sidestepped the question of ethnic cleansing and, typically of diplomatic historians, focused on details”, though using Israeli military archives they disproved the claim of ‘voluntary flight’, confirmed many massive expulsions and revealed a considerable number of atrocities, including massacres (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.18).
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His stated project in the book: “In this book, I want to explore both the mechanism of the 1948 ethnic cleansing, and the cognitive system that allowed the world to forget, and enabled the perpetrators to deny, the crime the Zionist movement committed against the Palestinian people in 1948.” (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.19)
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“To some, this approach… may from the outset look as an indictment. In many ways it is indeed my own J’Accuse against the politicians who devised, and the generals who perpetrated, the ethnic cleansing… I accuse, but I am also part of the society that stands condemned in this book.” (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.19-20)
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The book is written first and foremost for the Palestinian victims of the 1948 ethnic cleansing, many of them his friends and comrades: “Only when they return will I feel that this chapter of the catastrophe has finally reached the closure we all covet” (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.12-13).
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The publisher’s praise pages call him, in John Pilger’s words, “Israel’s bravest, most principled, most incisive historian”, and, in the Morning Star’s, “one of the brave few voices to stand up and be counted in the oppressive atmosphere of Israeli society” (publisher’s matter, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.2, p.4).
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In Manna, Pappé is considered one of the most daring and productive researchers to challenge the historical Zionist narrative, famous for The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; Manna reports that Pappé, Walid Khalidi and others believe Plan Dalet was a methodical blueprint for ethnic cleansing, against Zionist historians including Morris (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.38-39).
Related pages
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ethnic Cleansing, Nakba, Benny Morris