The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

by Ilan Pappé

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, War, Israel, Race, Religion

473 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist. He was formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa (1984–2007) and chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000–2008).

Pappé is one of Israel's "New Historians" who, since the release of pertinent British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, have been rewriting the history of Israel's creation in 1948, and the corresponding expulsion or flight of 700,000 Palestinians in the same year. He has written that the expulsions were not decided on an ad hoc basis, as other historians have argued, but constituted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, in accordance with Plan Dalet, drawn up in 1947 by Israel's future leaders. He blames the creation of Israel for the lack of peace in the Middle East, arguing that Zionism is more dangerous than Islamic militancy, and has called for an international boycott of Israeli academics.

His work has been both supported and criticized by other historians. Before he left Israel in 2008, he had been condemned in the Knesset, Israel's parliament; a minister of education had called for him to be sacked; his photograph had appeared in a newspaper at the centre of a target; and he had received several death threats.

Reviews

[بثينة العيسى · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say the truth is a bitter pill to swallow. Actually it is more than that! Reading this book as an extremely painful journey, in a way that exceeds your worst nightmares.

I wasn't able to read more than 20 pages per day, not because of its richness with information but because my brain needed time to absorb all the atrocities. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK! I think it's one of our responsibilities as humans to educate ourselves about the injustice in the world so we can be part of the change in the futur. again; PLEASE READ THIS BOOK! you'll do us a favor.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a courageous book to write and a difficult yet important book to read. Ilan Pappe details in excruciating detail the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people enacted by the settler state of Israel. The amount of displacement, murder, rape, and other forms of violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people by Zionists makes for an unpleasant read, yet a necessary one to understand the historical context of the present-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Big kudos to Ilan Pappe for writing this book which directly challenges colonialism and racism using in-depth research with a critical lens. I hope that this book helps folks dive deeper into understanding contentious elements of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, like the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the ability for a group of individuals to both be oppressed and to oppress others, and the disturbing silencing of pro-Palestine views from right-wing conservatives who persist in their bigotry and complicity in ethnic cleansing. Pappe’s writing can veer a bit into the dense academic side but honestly who cares given the urgency of the material.

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

AL NAKBA



Quand’è che una nazione è abbastanza forte e matura da potersi confrontare con il proprio passato?

Me ne vengono in mente diverse, anche non lontane, che ancora non riescono a scendere a patti con una parte del loro passato.
Cominciando proprio da Israele, che non riesce a conciliarsi con la sua stessa genesi.


Rifugiati palestinesi durante l'esodo del 1948. Almeno 700 mila persone furono allontanate con la forza, costrette ad andarsene senza aver mai più la possibilità di ritornare.

Il 1948 è l’anno del peccato originale, della nascita della colpa.

Ma Pappe dimostra che è l’anno in cui la colpa viene consumata (o meglio, iniziata a essere consumata, visto che si tratta di operazione che dura a tutt’oggi), ma i sintomi e i primi istanti di vita di quello che sarebbe successo quell’anno, quando gli inglesi se ne andarono dalla Palestina, e di quello che è successo nei 65 anni a seguire, fino ai nostri giorni, viene da un po’ più lontano, da quando i sionisti decisero che la Palestina era la loro Terra Promessa, la loro terra assegnata.

Ilan Pappe è uno storico israeliano che appartiene a quella che si può definire la Nuova Storiografia Israeliana, vive e lavora in Inghilterra, non è molto amato in patria, dove (ma non solo lì) suscita i soliti rigurgiti di negazionismo.
Questo libro del 2006 è basato sullo studio di documenti soltanto da poco messi a disposizione degli storici, quale il diario di Ben Gurion, e i verbali delle riunioni del Comitato di Consulta, l’organo decisionale del partito-milizia del movimento sionista, l’Haganà.


Nella notte del 31 ottobre 1946 tre giovani militanti dell'Irgun, gruppo militante sionista, fecero brillare alcune cariche esplosive piazzate a Villa Bracciano, accanto a Porta Pia, sede dell'ambasciata britannica a Roma. L'edificio, deserto al momento dell'esplosione, venne raso al suolo e quindi ricostruito nel 1971 così come lo si vede oggi. I sionisti volevano convincere gli inglesi ad abbandonare la Palestina per aver campo libero nel loro piano di pulizia etnica. I palestinesi al contrario avrebbero volentieri trattenuto i britannici.

Gli israeliani hanno sostenuto che la convivenza con gli arabi è sempre stata impossibile a causa delle continue aggressioni che hanno dovuto subire, e che gli arabi se ne sono andati dalla Palestina spontaneamente, abbandonando case beni e villaggi.

Ilan Pappe ribalta questa tesi, la smentisce in toto, e dimostra che abbandono ci fu, ma imposto con l’uso della forza e della violenza da parte degli israeliani, che progettavano già dagli anni Trenta un vero e proprio programma di pulizia etnica, scientificamente messo in atto dalle autorità, sioniste prima e israeliane poi, con l’obiettivo di allargare lo spazio della nascente Israele ben oltre i confini fissati dalle convenzioni internazionali e far sì che all’interno di questi nuovi confini non ci fossero più arabi.
Il piano ebbe successo e fu favorito dall’ignavia della comunità internazionale che, ancora presa dai sensi di colpa per la sua inattività contro lo sterminio del popolo ebraico in Europa durante la seconda guerra mondiale, si astenne da qualsiasi ingerenza.


Rovine del villaggio palestinese di Suba, presso Gerusalemme, visto dal kibbutz Zova

L’atteggiamento di Israele a Napoli verrebbe sintetizzato con una magnifica illuminante espressione: “chiagne e fotte”.
Cioè, mentre Israele si lamentava pubblicamente delle (presunte) aggressioni della popolazione araba, organizzava, preparava, iniziava e portava avanti sistematicamente la pulizia etnica del popolo palestinese.
Il mito della fondazione di Israele, secondo il quale appena iniziò la guerra ci fu un volontario esodo di palestinesi, fa acqua da tutte le parti. È pura invenzione che gli ebrei tentarono di persuadere i palestinesi a restare, cosa sulla quale s’insiste ancora oggi nei libri di scuola israeliani.
Centinaia di migliaia di palestinesi erano già stati espulsi con la forza ancor prima del conflitto e altre decine di migliaia lo sarebbero state nel corso delle prime settimane di guerra. Per la maggior parte di loro, la data del 15 maggio 1948 allora non aveva un particolare significato: era semplicemente un altro giorno nel tremendo calendario di pulizia etnica che era iniziato più di cinque mesi prima. I tremendi resoconti della pulizia etnica non offuscarono mai la narrazione ufficiale e popolare israeliana, dato che vennero completamente cancellati.


Campo di rifugiati di Jaramana in Siria.

Pappe, in epigrafe a ogni capitolo, suggerisce il paragone con il caso di pulizia etnica recente a noi più vicino, quello nei Balcani: solo che qui, gli stessi reati, non hanno privato le vittime, se non altro, del loro diritto a poter ritornare nella propria casa o a essere indennizzate.

Diritto che, invece, al di là del Mediterraneo, Israele non ha mai voluto riconoscere, nonostante la risoluzione dell’ONU.
La tesi di Pappe è che fin tanto che Israele non riconoscerà la pulizia etnica compiuta a partire dal 1948, e che in quell’anno trovò la sua massima forza, fino a quando le foreste che sono state piantate sulle macerie dei villaggi arabi derubati e distrutti non riporteranno almeno il nome originario dei luoghi, i colloqui di pace non raggiungeranno mai lo scopo che si prefiggono.



Nel diario di Ben Gurion c’è l’inizio e la spiegazione di tutto:
Noi fonderemo uno Stato cristiano in Libano…Piegheremo la Transgiordania, bombarderemo Amman e distruggeremo il suo esercito, e allora la Siria cadrà, e se, ciononostante, l’Egitto continuerà a combattere, bombarderemo Porto Said, Alessandria e il Cairo. Questa sarà la nostra vendetta per quello che loro (gli Egiziani, gli Aramei e gli Assiri) fecero ai nostri antenati ai tempi della Bibbia.
Belle premesse…
Ben Gurion, perfino Yitzhak Rabin, sono padri fondatori di Israele, personaggi leggendari, in realtà furono "volenterosi carnefici" di Iehova.



Nonostante la cura redazionale dell’editore Fazi lasci a desiderare (ma come si fa a collocare in fondo al volume tutte le note, che in una ricerca di storia sono per forza di cose numerosissime?!), questo è un libro importante, da non perdere.

Al Nakba è come in arabo si chiama l’esodo palestinese.


La dieta dimagrante della Palestina a partire dal 1948.

[فهد الفهد · Rating 5 out of 5]

التطهير العرقي في فلسطين

ف�� الوقت الذي يخوض فيه أبطال القسام معركة جديدة مع العدو الصهيوني، قررت أن اقرأ هذا الكتاب المهم جداً للمؤرخ الإسرائيلي إيلان بابه، تأتي أهمية الكتاب من عدة عوامل، أولها ولا ريب من أن مؤلفه إسرائيلي، وهذا ينزع من الكتاب أي شبهة تعاطف مع الفلسطينيين، ويجعلنا نفترض أن الكتاب سيكون في أحسن الأحوال محايداً، الأمر الآخر هو اعتماده على وثائق إسرائيلية تعود إلى ما قبل قيام الدولة الصهيونية، من هذه الوثائق مراسلات الجيش الصهيوني، ومنها كذلك يوميات بن غوريون، وبعض الوثائق الأخرى.

من خلال هذا كله يهدم إيلان بابه كل أساطير نشوء دولة إسرائيل، ويكشف أن قيام تلك الدولة لم يكن إلا غطرسة مرعبة، وتطهيراً عرقياً مارسه اليهود ضد العرب، يكشف بابه بكل تفصيل ما حدث قبل نهاية الانتداب خلال سنة 1947 م، من حملات تطهير للقرى والمدن العربية تشمل قتل وطرد وهدم منازل الفلسطينيين، كما يكشف للأسف الخيانات والتخبطات العربية التي أوصلت العرب والقضية الفلسطينية إلى ما هي عليه الآن.

كتاب مهم جداً وشجاع.

[Mohammed Morsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book doesn't need a review. It's a piece of living history, it should be school material instead of the lies and rubbish TV churns out on a daily basis. So well documented, so much empathy. So much respect for this man having the courage to write the truth.

[Dan Lutts · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's "ethnic cleansing"?

According to the final report of a United Nations Commission of Experts who investigated Yugoslavia's violation of humanitarian laws in 1994, ethnic cleansing is: ". . . a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas . . ."


The report goes on to state that ways to forcibly expel unwanted civilian populations by ethnic cleansing can include "murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, severe physical injury to civilians, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, use of civilians as human shields, destruction of property, robbery of personal property, attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and locations with the Red Cross/Red Crescent emblem, among others."


The UN Commission of Experts states that the above practices ". . . constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.” (UN Commission of Experts)

Using numerous documents from Israeli government archives, entries from David Ben-Gurion's personal diary, and eyewitness accounts from Palestinian victims, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe makes a strong case that the Zionists, using most of the methods mentioned in the report, ethnically cleansed Palestine of most of its native Palestinian population in the 1948 war. Zionist soldiers and members of former terrorist groups during Mandate times used violence and terror against Palestinians civilians. They also murdered, raped, and imprisoned Palestinians and forced the survivors to walk countless miles to refugee camps in other countries. Looters stole the contents of many Palestinian homes, which the owners were forced to abandon. Afterwards, the Zionists obliterated almost all evidence that Palestinians had ever lived in Palestine for centuries.

Pappe maintains that the Zionists had another reason for obliterating most traces of Palestinian villages and towns: to prevent their occupants and descendants from ever returning to their homes and native homeland again.

Pappe also exploded key myths in the Zionists' narrative of Israel's creation. Here are just a few:

The Zionists were the victims of Palestinian and Arab aggression. Actually, the Zionists were the victimizers. One thing that really frustrated David Ben-Gurion and others Zionists was the Palestinians' passiveness. They didn't respond to the Zionists' repeated provocations that would justify attacking and expelling them. The Palestinians just wanted to live in their country in peace. In the end, the Zionists initiated the violence.


The Zionists were fighting a desperate war of survival. Actually, Israel was never in danger of being defeated by the Palestinians or by the Arab armies. The Zionists had two narratives. The public one was that they were fighting for survival. The secret-but-true narrative was that there was no chance of their losing. In fact, while they were fighting their so-called war of survival, Israeli soldiers and former terrorists were also shelling Palestinian villages and towns, indiscriminately killing, massacring -- and even raping -- the inhabitants, and forcing them out of their homes and into refugee camps in other countries. Many of the villages and towns had existed for centuries. Some contained both Palestinians and Jews who had been living together peacefully for centuries as friends and neighbors.


Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Actually, Israel is an apartheid state because of its treatment of the Palestinians who remain in Israel. Israel also treats certain groups of Jews as second-class citizens.


The Camp David negotiations in 2000 failed because Yassir Arafat refused to negotiate. Actually, Arafat wasn't allowed to negotiate because the U.S. allowed Israel to set the terms for peace. No right of return. No Jerusalem as the Palestinians' capital. Arafat refused to sign the document because it violated UN Resolution 194, which recognized the Palestinians' right to return to their homes. By signing the document, Arafat would have betrayed his people.

Peppe advocates a one-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem. Israel should become a civic, democratic state in which Jews and Palestinians can live peacefully together, like they used to do before the Zionists destroyed everything.

Pappe makes a strong case in defense of the Palestinians and his book includes copious end notes. Anyone who is interested in why there seems to be no solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem should read this book because it gives a different point of view from the prevailing one.

[Sean Glover · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's thourough and honest discourse is both immaculate and sobering. Pappe proves authoritatively that the actions by a group of supposed Zionists in Israel beginning in 1947 constitute ethnic cleansing. This perpetrated atrocity serves as a prototype for ethnic cleansing similar to that by the Nazis in Germany. According to Pappe, “(M)ore than half of Palestine’s native population, close to 800,000, had been uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed, and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied of their inhabitants” (p. xiii). The cabal: the Hagana. The plot: plan Dalet, the organized and enforced removal of Palestinians from their homelands. What remained enveloped in misinformation: the Palestinians’ story, which is quite excellently illuminated by Pappe.
Pappe described the reality of the war, which unfortunately consisted of large massacres via machine gun and rapes after the habitations of the Palestinians were forcefully taken and generally looted, burned and otherwise destroyed, buried and hidden by new developments. The residents of these villages were barred illegally from return to their homelands. In fact, according to Pappe, U.N. mediator Count Bernadotte was murdered after he proposed “the unconditional return of all the refugees” (p. 156). The ‘right to return’ was granted in a UN decision that has been ignored. Justice?
Why did I read this book? I like books about controversial moral issues that raise awareness about injustice. That is, books like this are really milestones of conscious work because they shed light on information that is suppressed in order to oppress a people. One might argue, ‘no, the reason for suppression is fear and the pursuit of self-interests such as safety and security.’ And, to that I say that it is important to recognize multiple perspectives. A possible consideration put forth by Pappe: a pluralistic “civic and democratic state” (p. 256). In sum, Pappe has created veracious source for future rhetorical discussions on the issue of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Also, this book is excellent for the discovery of methods of writing about history.

P.S. The latter discourse is in no way intended to convey bias or prejudice to or towards anyone.

[Dowl Phin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I first read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe, one of the "Israeli New Historians" who looked at the archived materials from Cabinet meetings, politician diaries, Israel Defence Force orders etc... after they were eventually released forty years after 1948. I read Pappe following the a challenge by an politically anti-Israel Jewish friend of mine who teaches in Philosophy at UNSW.

I found Pappe's book painful as he outlined the atrocities committed by Israel - even though I was mindful of the one-sided non-contextual facts that Pappe was describing, and the consequent one-sided idealistic anti-Israel interpretation. It was painful because, as a Jew, I couldn't help feeling 'ASHamed' (as a Jew) to be just like all the other racist nationalists the world over - Christian, Buddhist, Leftist, Rightist or Muslim.

I followed Pappe up with Benny Morris' book, knowing that Morris was one of the first of the "New Historians" to look at the historical material. Morris offers the balanced contextual background to Pappe's propaganda diatribe - with a 19th century starting point instead of one which commences in 1948. Morris accepts Pappe's atrocities but he also outlines the earlier Arab atrocities; he describes the self-delusion, corruption and moral bankruptcy of Arab leadership as well as the errors of strategy and internecine rivalries of the Arab elites; and he writes his history aware of the dynamics and uncertainties that are integral to war - in contrast to Pappe's simplistic interpretation of evil consequence being a result of evil desire.

Following the reading of both books I have come to the conclusion that there will NOT be any peace between Israel and the Palestinians until both sides recognise the atrocities and the errors of judgement that they have committed. At this stage, each side only looks at the atrocities the other side has committed, though I suspect that because of more freedom of speech and political-commercial transparency-accountability, there are more Jews, Israelis and Westerners who recognise the 'evils' of their ways than there are Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians who recognise the 'evils' of their ways.

War is evil - no doubt about that. War is two-sided - no doubt about that, either. The tit-for-tat strategy that both sides use has not produced peace in the near-term and there is no reason to believe tit-for-tat will bring peace in the long-term.

It is well to keep in mind that existence and honour seem to be two infinite values. Jews and Israelis see this conflict, following centuries of oppression and last century's attempt at liquidation in terms of existence. Simultaneously, Muslims and Arabs see the past century in terms of humiliation and loss of honour. At this stage in our history, non-indigenous Westerners in general, and non-Aboriginal Australians in particular, have little understanding of either existential threat or humiliation - and so it is that when I discuss the Middle East with them, I have a sense that they are clueless.

Reading Morris after Pappe is a good ways to become clued-up.

[Clif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zionist views have been overwhelmingly influential in the United States. "The Story of Israel" that I place in quotation marks to indicate its mythological nature, has been presented repeatedly, but most famously in the novel and movie, "Exodus". It is the story of victims struggling to an empty land where they make the desert bloom and stand proudly with weapons in hand shouting "never again".

This appealing, heroic, justice-loving scenario is a fabrication. Ilan Pappé, an Israeli Jew, has, in this book, presented the facts upon which true justice must be based.

From its inception late in the 19th century, mainstream Zionism, considered early on as a kind of lunatic-fringe within Judaism, put forth the clearing of the indigenous people, the Arabs living in Palestine, as a necessity for the creation of a Jewish majority there. So it has happened.

Zionism struggled before WW2 because not enough Jews were interested in going to Palestine, but the holocaust put the movement over the top, not only providing the necessary influx but also creating a feeling of guilt among the nations of the world (not least Germany) that was leveraged into the creation of the State of Israel and its financing and militarization since (read The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein). It should be noted that most of the survivors of the holocaust wanted to go to the United States, not Palestine, but the US did not open its doors to them, a shameful thing.

This book is a detailed accounting of the horrors that occurred - the forced evacuation of hundreds of villages, executions of villagers (over 31 events are considered massacres), blowing up houses or setting fire to them with the residents inside, military attacks on unarmed civilians - pure terror by the folks who loudly denounce terror.

The contrast to what happened in the 1990's in Kosovo is startling, particularly in view of the NATO bombing that took place to stop the ethnic slaughter compared to the lack of any effort to stop the cleansing of Palestine. In fact, the United States cannot do enough to help the process as it continues to this day.

Israel, like the United States, is a country founded on injustice. The process could take place hidden away in the vastness of the American west in the 19th century, but with Israel it has been quite obvious all along. Shockingly, the world has stood by, impotent in the face of the "special relationship" between the US and Israel fostered by the political power of Zionists in the United States. This history is a blot on both countries. The ethic-cleansing has proceeded only because of US protection and not a few American Jews hold dual citizenship, having taken up residence in the Israeli settlements specifically to take the land from the natives.

As the Senate confirmation hearing on Chuck Hagel demonstrated conclusively, Congress is the puppet of Zionism. Senators fell all over themselves questioning Hagel about his views on Israel while all other matters were secondary.

Americans should wake up to the reality of Israel, a county that is injustice institutionalized, a living example of everything the American civil rights movement was out to end. The founders of the state of Israel were full, eager participants in the eviction of the Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and villages and the deliberate erasure of the evidence continued to this day by the planting of "forests" by the Jewish National Fund. All the facts are evident in the archives and in particular the diary of David Ben-Gurion, who happily viewed empty villages flushed of the Arab residents. This history is an outrage that any person, Jewish or not, should find revolting.

There is only one future for Israel - as a democracy for all people, not a place for one group. Jewish Israelis to ride herd on others. This will come as surely as it did in South Africa. The BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement is a great way to make progress in this.

When one's nation does wrong, only a small minority of citizens will have the courage to point it out. My deepest respect to Professor Pappé, who was hounded out of Israel and now teaches in Great Britain, for this outstanding documentary work. My deepest apologies to the Palestinian people who have endured decades of injustice and are readily labeled terrorists by those ignorant of the past and the people.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I knew the history of Israel's annexation of Palestine but this was a totally shocking account! I can't believe Britain reneged so emphatically on its promise to allow the Palestinians independence. The UN also must be ashamed of its duplicitous role.
Ilan Pappe is a Jewish academic who cannot be accused of anti-semitism. He just wants people to know what really happened. Israel is guilty of war crimes aided and abetted by Britain and the UN.
It is particularly important to read this now that Palestine has applied for recgnition as a state at the UN. How can this be denied when the UN allowed Israel without any impediment?
I was absorbed by this book and recommend it to all.

[Radhika Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening and heart-wrenching read which I would recommend to anyone who wishes to be slightly enlightened about the Israel-Palestine “conflict”. Spoiler alert: It’s not a conflict; it is a systematic and cruel expulsion of people in a bid to further establish racial supremacy.

“Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé is a painstaking account of how the all-too often forgotten Nakba of 1948, wherein Zionists carried out the mass evacuation of Arabs and attempted to expand their own territory so as to construct a country which was solely devoted to Jews, was perpetuated.

Pappé, therefore, attempts to explore both the mechanism of this ethnic cleansing as well as the cognitive system that allowed the world to move on from the Nakba like it never happened. What follows is a shocking revelation of world history that not only exhibits the utmost cruelty that human nature is capable of performing but also how the US, Britain, and the UN are instrumental in allowing the massacre of innocents to take place.

I am adding a warning that this book is not for the faint-hearted.

The book starts off with Pappé describing what Ethnic Cleansing actually means. He refers to the definition of the same in international law and then tries to portray to his readers that what took place in Palestine in 1948 falls squarely within the definition of ethnic cleansing. In a horrifying twist of events, the Nakba is celebrated as the War of Independence by Israelis and the fact that a section of society was almost wiped out at the hands of a superior military power is buried. In fact, surfing through the Jewish National Fund website after reading this book caused major cognitive dissonance for me because the website completely erases even the existence of a civilization prior to 1948.

Pappé then describes how the drive for an exclusively Jewish State unfolded by not only delving into what the Zionism as a religious ideology entails by referring to the philosophy of Theodor Herzl, but also by getting into the practicalities that were concocted by people such as David Ben-Gurion, who was the architect of the Nakba (and undoubtedly as vicious as Hitler, which is ironic because here the victims of the Holocaust have become the perpetrators).

A moral question that I encountered was, how could the same people who faced the most unimaginable atrocities on account of their race a mere few years back allow and perpetrate the same crimes? This is also a question that Pappé wanted to explore but came up empty-handed.

Anyway, this is not simply a book that explains the happening of the Nakba; it is a pure documentation of how each and every village with Arabs was “cleansed”. And cleansing is not confined to merely expulsion of people in villages; it includes the destruction of the hard work, the history, and the culture of every village. It was almost painful to read this; so much just lost to greed and barbarity.

He further deals with what allowed the Zionist ideology to bloom and how Ben-Gurion was able to execute his plan with the aid of international support/non-support, including alliances with the King of Transjordan, Western guilt stemming from the Holocaust as well as major missteps taken by the UN. It’s enough to invoke a river of fury in you, and also explains the origins of the PLO, Hamas and the Intifada.

Despite dealing with such a heavy topic, the book is extremely accessible and is replete with the smallest of details about the Nakba. A fact that I admired about Pappe was that even after writing about how costive the Jews have been toward repatriation of the Arabs, he still holds out hope for the Right to Return of the refugees and possible peace in the region. Is there a chance of that happening? Only time will tell.

PS: While reading this, it was hard to not draw parallels between Zionism and Hindutva. Much of the rhetoric pertaining to establishing a pure religious entity without the presence of Muslims is quite indistinguishable. Even the beginnings of the Nakba are eerily similar, with the disengagement of the British and then the Partition. A personal opinion, but things would have been horribly different had we had any other leader other than Nehru (despite all his failings) during our nascent years.

[✨ jami ✨]

Must read non-fiction detailing the founding ideas of Israel and the impact of Zionism as an ideology that led to the systematic removal of the Palestinian people from the land.

[may ➹]

As heartbreaking as this was to read, I’m glad I picked it up. This was an extremely comprehensive and detailed account describing the Zionist ideology that led to the expulsion of Palestinians from their land to create Israel, diving into not only the ethnic cleansing acts themselves but also their effects. I appreciated that it showed both how Israelis removed the Palestinian people and how they destroyed Palestinians’ land and culture. Definitely a must-read book.

[Jaber · Rating 4 out of 5]

كنت قد قلت خلال الأيما الأولى من قراءتي هذا الكتاب الكلام التالي :

لو كان لي من الأمر شيء , أو لو كنت وزيرا للتعليم في أي قطر عربي لأوجبت على الجامعات أن تدرّس كتاب التطهير العرقي في فلسطين لإيلان بابيه
الكتاب لا توجد من نسخته العربية نسخة على الانترنت للأسف , ولكنه موجود في المكتبات وفي جملون بسعر أقل من سعرا لمكتبات بثلاثة دنانير
وعندما تقرأ هذا الكتاب تعلم أن النكبة لم يكن حدثا مفاجئا ولا أمرا صادما للمسار التاريخي الذي سارت فيه فلسطين منذ قدوم اول مهاجر يهودي إليها في نهايات القرن التاسع عشر
وإلكيم هذه الفقرة من الكتاب والتي توضح حجم الجهد المخابراتي الي بذلته الصهيونية قبيل النكبة :
"وتتضمن الملفات _ملفات المخابرات_ وصفا مفصلا للزراعة وتربية الحيوانات , وللأراضي المزروعة ولعدد الأشجار في المزارع , ولنوع وجودة الفواكه في كل بستان بل وعلى كل شجرة , ولمعدل مساحة الأرض بالنسبة إلى كل عائلة , ولعدد السيارات , ولأصحاب الدكاكين , وللعاملين في الورشات , ولأسماء الحرفيين في كل قرية ونوع مهاراتهم , وفي وقت لاحق أضيف إلى ذلك تفصيلات دقيقة جدا عن كل حمولة وانتماءاتها السياسية والفوارق الطبقية بين الأعيان والعامة , وأسماء الموظفين في دوائر الحكومة الانتدابية "
وفي موضع أخر يقول : وقد تضمن ملف كل قرية تفصيلات دقيقة عن موقعها الطوبوغرافي , وطرق الوصول إليها , ونوعية أراضيها ,,,,,,,,ومن فئات المعلومات المهمة كان هناك مؤشر يحدد درجة العداء "للصهيونية " بناء على مدى مشاركة القرية في ثورة 1936 , وكان هناك قائمة بأسماء كل شخص شارك في الثورة , والعائلات التي فقدت أشخاصا في قتال ضد البريطانيين , وأعطي الأشخاص الذين زعم انم قتلوا يهودا اهتماما خاصا , وكما سنرى لاحقا فإن هذه الأجزاء الأخيرة من المعلومات نجم عنها في سنة 1948 أشد الأعمال وحشية في القرى , وقادت إلى إعدامات جماعية وتعذيب الضحايا "
المجتمع الفلسطيني لم يكن مستباحا فقط ,بل لقد كان عاريا كيوم أنجبته الطبيعة !

كتاب عظيم , ويعد من أفضل الكتب التي وثّقت النكبة , والأهم حديث المؤلف المستفيض عمّا قاد للنكبة وعن التحضيرات التي كانت تقوم بها الصهيونية من أجل حصول التطهير العرقي , قبل حصوله بعشرات السنوات

[Mohamed al-Jamri · Rating 5 out of 5]

شاهدت مناظرة شارك فيها إلان بابي، وهو مؤرخ إسرائيلي ضد الصهيونية، وأعجبتني ردوده. تشجعت لقراءة كتبه، خاصة بسبب كونه أحد "المؤرخين الجدد" كما يعرفون في إسرائيل، وهم ثلاثة مؤرخين اطلعوا على الأرشيفات الإسرائيلية التي تؤرخ لفترة النكبة وقيام إسرائيل، والذين توصلوا لنتائج تخالف الرواية الرسمية الإسرائيلية.


بابي يعيش حاليًا في بريطانيا ويعمل في جامعة إكزتر بعد تلقيه العديد من التهديدات بالقتل في إسرائيل بسبب مواقفه المعادية للصهيونية. قرأت له كتابين، الأول هو أكبر سجن في العالم: تاريخ الأراضي المحتلة، والثاني هو التطهير العرقي لفلسطين. كان من المفترض أن أقرأهما بالعكس، حسب الترتيب التاريخي.


أدهشني كتاب التطهير العرقي لفلسطين بشكل كبير، فرغم اعتقادي أني أعرف بصورة مجملة ما حدث في ١٩٤٧-١٩٤٨ إلا أنني كنت مخطئًا، بل وواقعًا تحت تأثير البروباغاندا الصهيونية دون أن أعلم.


الكاتب يعتمد على إرشيفات الهاغانا، مذكرات بن غوريون وغيرها من محاضر اجتماعات ووثائق تم رفع السرية عنها، ويعتمد كذلك على شهادات العيان من الجنود الصهاينة ومن الضحايا الفلسطينيين، وهذا ما يجعل الصورة التي يقدمها أكمل وأشمل من غيره من الكتب، ويرجح الكاتب أنه أول من يجمع بين هذه المصادر المختلفة.


هل كانت إسرائيل محاصرة في ١٩٤٨ ومهددة بالزوال من الدول العربية؟ هل كان تهجير الفلسطينيين هو نتيجة ثانوية للحرب؟ لقد كانت إجابتي على السؤالين هي نعم قبل قراءة هذا الكتاب، ولكني أعلم الآن أنني كنت مخطئًا.


يكشف الكتاب مدى التخطيط الصهيوني المتقدم منذ عقود لتهجير الفلسطينيين وتطهير الأرض منهم لأن الفكر الصهيوني فكر عنصري، يرى أن اليهود فقط يجب أن يعيشوا في فلسطين، هم فقط ولا أحد غيرهم. ولذلك بدأ التطهير العرقي بالقوة منذ نهاية ١٩٤٧، بل كان هو السبب في الحرب التي بدأت في مايو ١٩٤٨ وحينها كان قد تم تهجير أكثر من ٢٠٠ ألف فلسطيني من أراضيهم، بل واستمر التهجير حتى بعد انتهاء الحرب، ووقت الهدنات التي تخللتها، حتى تم طرد نصف سكان فلسطين من أراضيهم -حوالي ٧٢٠ ألف شخص- فضلًا عن القتل والاغتصابات والاعتقالات التي كانت بالآلاف كمجازر دير ياسين والطنطورة وغيرها من الجرائم التي لا يتم استذكارها في العادة.


لم يكن وجود وقيام إسرائيل في أي وقت من أوقات هذه الفترة مهددًا، بل كانت تتفوق عسكريًا من حيث العتاد والعدد، وكانت قيادات الدول العربية -رغم خطاباتها الرنانة- مترددة جدًا في معاونة الفلسطينيين، خاصة أن غالبيتها دول حديثة، وبعضها استقلت للتو مثل سوريا ولبنان وأوضاعها الداخلية غير مستقرة. أقوى جيش عربي كان الجيش الأردني ولكن الملك عبدالله لم يكن يريد تحرير فلسطين، بل كانت له مطامعه الخاصة بها، واتفق مع الصهاينة على تقاسمها، بحيث تصبح الضفة الغربية تحت سيطرة الأردن، واختلفوا حول القدس الشرقية فحسب، ولذلك حصلت معارك حولها نجحت الأردن في الانتصار فيها.


الكتاب مؤلم جدًا ومليء بخيبات الأمل، ولكنه ضروري لكل من يريد معرفة أصل الصراع وأسبابه، ولماذا اتخذ المسار التي حدث ولماذا لا يزال مستمرًا. الكتاب الثاني مكمل للأول ويربط الماضي بالحاضر ويتكلم تحديدًا عن طريقة التفكير الصهيونية التي أدت لحرب ١٩٦٧ ولماذا لم يتم ضم الضفة الغربية وغزة لإسرائيل بشكل رسمي، بل إبقاؤها تحت الإحتلال العسكري لتكون أكبر سجنٍ في العالم.

[Amerie]

The Amerie's Book Club selection for July 2021 is THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE by Ilan Pappe.

In The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe lays out in intricate detail how the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land was not a side effect of, but a pre-planned essential step for, the creation of the state of Israel. This series of massacres and expulsions—The Nakba—is commemorated by the Palestinian people as a catastrophe both past and present, but it has never been acknowledged by Israel, even as the Nakba—and the right of millions of Palestinians to return to their homeland—is at the crux of any chance for peace. In brilliant fashion, Professor Pappe revisits what happened in the early 20th century so that we might understand what is happening now, and finally, hopefully, move toward a long-awaited peace.
📚
#AmeriesBookClub #ReadwithAmerie #ABC #IlanPappe #TheEthnicCleansingofPalestine @AmeriesBookClub @oneworldpublications

ABOUT ILAN PAPPE
Professor Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is also the author of the bestselling The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld), A History of Modern Palestine (Cambridge), The Modern Middle East (Routledge), The Israel/Palestine Question (Routledge), The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel (Yale), The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge (Verso) and with Noam Chomsky, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians (Penguin). He writes for, among others, the Guardian and the London Review of Books.

Professor Pappé obtained his BA degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1979 and the D. Phil from the University of Oxford in 1984.
He founded and directed the Academic Institute for Peace in Givat Haviva, Israel between 1992 to 2000 and was the Chair of the Emil Tuma Institute for Palestine Studies in Haifa between 2000 and 2006.
Professor Pappé was a senior lecturer in the department of Middle Eastern History and the Department of Political Science in Haifa University, Israel between 1984 and 2006.
He was appointed as chair in the department of History in the Cornwall Campus, 2007-2009 and became a fellow of the IAIS in 2010.
His research focuses on the modern Middle East and in particular the history of Israel and Palestine. He has also written on multiculturalism, Critical Discourse Analysis and on Power and Knowledge in general.

[Ogo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the type of book wealthy hipster kids and trustafarians like to read to feel good about themselves. The book is incredibly manipulative and tugs at the emotional strings of clueless readers to indoctrinate them with anti-Israeli and Islamist-aligned propaganda. There are some truths in the book and there's no doubt Israel has had it's share of committing atrocities, but this book completely glosses over all of the atrocities committed by the Palestinians on the Christian Palestinians as well as the Muslim ones too. It doesn't explain how the majority of Bedouin-Israelis and Druze-Israelis support and often fight for Israel. This is the type of propaganda used by pan-Islamic nationalists in the middle of the 20th-century to promote Muslim unity by developing the narrative if an evil enemy (Israel) and the poor, helpless victims Palestinians. Somehow this Islamist narrative became in vogue amongst the left-wing, self-congratulating academics sitting the Ivory Towers of the West. Now the Palestinians are professional victims who have become a mascot of the self-righteous hipsters, progressives and college activists. The book ignores how the Arab nations never accepted the Palestinian refugees and massacred them as well in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Compare this with the Jewish nakba where 700,000 Jews were expelled from Arab nations and were peacefully assimilated and welcomed into Israeli society. What happened in the past was a tragedy for both sides, but during this time, numerous groups of people migrated and many borders were redrawn (Partition of India, Armenian genocide, Greek expulsion from Turkey), but only the Palestinians continue to play professional victims as a political tool for the anti-Semitic Islamists and their left-wing apologists.

[Ebtihal Salman · Rating 5 out of 5]

التطهير العرقي في فلسطين

٢٧ مايو ٢٠٢١

كتاب تأريخ قيّم جدا على صعيد المعلومات التاريخية وتحديد المفاهيم. أعترف بأن الكثير مما طرحه من معلومات كان جديدا بالنسبة لي.

في هذا الكتاب، يطرح إيلان بابيه مفهوم التطهير العرقي، وكيف ينطبق هذا المفهوم على ما فعله الصهاينة في فلسطين (ولا يزالون يفعلونه). ثم يذهب بطيئا في التاريخ منذ أيام الانتداب البريطاني وبدايات الهجرة الصهيونية ليذكر بالتفصيل الخطوات التي قام بها الصهيانة لتنفيذ خطتهم، بتهجير الفلسطينيين من أرضهم عبر منهاج من جرائم وحشية تضمنت القتل والتدمير ومحو القرى من أساس وجودها، من أجل إنشاء دولة يهودية. يستند الكاتب إلى وثائق رسمية ومراسلات ومذكرات من أطراف متفرقة، البريطانيين، الصهاينة والمؤسسات الدولية كالأمم المتحدة، بالإضافة إلى ما تم توثيقه من شهادات شفهية للضحايا. هناك الكثير من الفصول الموجعة لجرائم مرعبة تعرض لها الشعب الفلسطيني.

ويتحدث الكاتب أيضا، وبصورة مباشرة، عن كيف حدثت كل تلك الجرائم بحضور مراقبين وشهود دوليين (الانتداب البريطاني أولا، ثم مراقبين الامم المتحدة، وحتى القيادات العربية) وكيف سمحوا بمرور تلك الجرائم وتراوحت ردات فعلهم بين إشاحة الوجه عنها، أو القيام بمظاهر شكلية وغير جادة لإيقافها. وأيضا، يتحدث عن الخيانة العربية، مسميا الأسماء، والتواريخ والتفاصيل، في مقاطع مثيرة للغضب، عن ”الحرب المزيفة“ التي لم يكن هدفها تحرير فلسطين بقدر ما هدفت لإقتطاع حصة من الكيكة.

الكتاب حافل ولا يمكن تلخيصه، ولكن هذه بعض النقاط المهمة التي أكتفي بتدوينها هنا.

التطهير العرقي والنكبة لم تبدأ فعليا منذ مايو ١٩٤٨، بل سبقت ذلك التاريخ، منذ نهاية العام ١٩٤٧ (فترة انتداب بريطاني) حين تعرضت أول قرى الفلسطينيين لإغارات التطهير، وامتدت إلى أواخر ١٩٤٩. إنها سنوات طويلة من الجرائم الصهيونية والصمت الدولي.

أن يكون هناك الكثير من الوثائق والشهود الدوليين لهذه الجرائم، ولا يُنصف ضحاياها، بل وأشد من ذلك، يمضي العالم بإتجاه نسيان وإنكار النكبة، أو تجاوزها كما لو كانت جرحا في إصبع من أجل ”عملية السلام“ الخ، هذا تعامي وتواطؤ دولي في الجريمة. إنه إشارة صارخة لعدم عدالة هذا العالم.

التطهير الذي يصفه الكاتب لا يزال مستمرا، وإن كان يأخذ شكلا أكثر ”تحضّرا“ في عالم اليوم، كما يحدث في القدس هذه الأيام. يترافق ذلك مع العمل المستمر لمحو ذاكرة النكبة وصناعة ذاكرة جديدة. الفصول التي تحدث فيها الكاتب عن تغيير هوية الأرض جغرافيا وثقافيا، والغابات الشاسعة التي زرعوها فوق القرى الممسوحة لطمس كل أثر وتاريخ لها، كانت مذهلة.

يصف الكتاب في العديد من منعطفات خطة التطهير العرقي كيف استثمر الصهاينة ذكرى الهولوكوست لصالح تمرير جرائمهم، في عالم دولي جبان ومجلل بخزي جريمته السابقة، حتى أنه يتواطأ بغض نظره عن جرائم الصهاينة، والحذر في توجيه النقد لهم بسبب ما مروا به. ومن الجهة الأخرى يصف الكتاب أيضا كيف تجنب الصهاينة في سنوات النكبة تلك كل ما يمكن أن يربط بين ما جرى لليهود على يد النازية وما يقومون به تجاه الفلسطينيين (وهو متشابه جدا!)، حتى أنهم دفعوا بإتجاه انشاء وكالة مستقلة للاجئين الفلسطينيين لكي لا تكون منظمة اللاجئين الدولية ذاتها التي دافعت عن اليهود سابقا، هي المدافعة عن نفس الحق للفلسطينيين.

أعتقد أن الكاتب رغم كونه اسرائيلا بدا منصفا ومتحيزا فقط لموضوعه وأطروحته، وسعيه لإثبات حدوث جريمة التطهير العرقي في فلسطين، متشبثا بفكرة أن الوصول إلى حل للمشكلة القائمة، يبدأ بالاعتراف بوقوع الجريمة، تسميتها التسمية الصحيحة، والبدء بإنصاف الضحايا.

الكتاب مهم وأنصح بقراءته لكل مهتم بفلسطين.

[Alastair Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"An insightful and deeply disturbing account of the events leading up to 1947/48 in the Arab/Israeli war. Prior to reading this book I had always accepted the official Israeli viewpoint of an Israeli David fighting an Arab Goliath. Israel's constant wars against Arab nations after that seemed to be a continuance of that period in history.
Until I read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine that is. I've been a recent convert to the Palestinian cause after watching footage of Israeli tanks and gunships in action against stone throwing youths. And yet I still held onto the official line although the view was somewhat jaded.
Pappe is an Israeli and well qualified to write his new history and it is a history that will disturb. He reveals that the push to drive the Arabs out of Palestine was not the accidental and unfortunate result of a war of liberation, but a dedicated plan of ethnic cleansing set into stone before the end of the British Mandate. That this was done a mere three years after the world was shown the results of the Jewish Holocaust is a damning blow to the Zionist cause and a sad indictment on Ben Gurion, Begin, Sharon and the other Israeli 'heroes.' History it seems is written by the victors and in this age of media spin it's refreshing when someone pulls back the curtain to reveal the sad and ugly truth.
You will find it tough going but if one wants to understand the roots of the Arab/Israeli conflict then this book is a good starting point. It's well researched and has copious endnotes, maps, and a chronology at the end. He unashamedly takes the side of the Palestinians and makes no apology for that, one can almost feel the rage as he writes.
With Israel moving further and further to the right, Abbas courting the UN, and the incomprehensible ignorance of American politicians from both sides of the fence when it comes to the Middle East, Pappe's work is a veritable sledge hammer. A patriot is not someone who merely waves a flag, a trained monkey can do that; a patriot is one who loves their country so much they are prepared to stand up and call the powers that be to account for their lies and deceit. Pappe has alienated himself from his homeland by refusing to cave in to moral cowardice. And criticism of Israel has always been a touchy point after WWII but criticising Israel doesn't make us anti Semites, neo Nazis or even Jew haters. After all we criticise Western governments and no one bats an eyelid, it's called free speech.
As already mentioned it's a sad book to read but a necessary book if you want to understand the root causes of the Middle East conflict. "

[نورة · Rating 4 out of 5]

"ملحوظة قبل البدء: لم أقرأ الكتاب وإنما قمت بقراءة ملخص له كتبه غازي الصوراني"

لا أعلم لم قمت بقراءة الكتاب وأنا أعلم بأني سأخرج منه بكمية غضب وإحباط وقهر ولكني قرأته على أي حال :/

ما فعله الصهاينة خلال السنوات الماضية من اغتصاب للأراضي الفلسطينية يستحقونه .. نعم يستحقونه وسترى ذلك من خلال قراءتك للكتاب فسعيهم الحثيث والذي يظهر بوضوح من خلال قراءة كل صفحة بل كل سطر يدلك على أن هنالك حسن تخطيط ووضوح هدف وتكاتف في سبيل الوصول للهدف وقبل هذا اجتماعهم على عقيدة واحدة بينما تفرقنا نحن !
كل سطر في هذا الكتاب يتحدث عن تقدم ملحوظ قاموا به فسطر يتحدث عن مستوطناتهم يليه سطر يتحدث عن اغتصاب القرى الفلسطينية يليه سطر يتحدث عن طرد اللاجئين وهكذا تجد خطواتهم سريعة ووااااسعة بشكل مذهل يجعلك لا تعجب من التمدد الذي قاموا به بل تعجب من وجودهم بين ٢٢ دولة عربية وإسلامية بل ربما أكثر وكل ما فعلوه هو الاستنكار والاعتراض "الكلامي" فقط !

ثم بعد ذلك نأتي لنطالب بعودة فلسطين فلنستعد نحن ديننا ورجولتنا وعروبتنا أولا !


أختلف مع المؤلف والذي أكد بشكل متكرر أن الهدف هو التطهير العرقي وأن الاستيطان بني على ذلك بينما يدعونا للدفاع باسم العرق العربي ، نعم هنالك عداوة من قبلهم معنا كعرب ولكني لا أجد هدفا أقوى وأشد ورابطة تجمع أمة ما وتجعلها تتفوق على أخرى كالعقيدة ، لذا أرى أن الهدف والدافع عقدي صهيوني بحت يليه هدف التطهير العرقي وبالمقابل أرى أن الانتصار لن يكون باسم العروبة أبدا وإن أتى فسيكون باسم الدين والعقيدة الإسلامية ..
المشكلة يا رفاق كانت ولا زالت عقدية منذ الأزل (ولن ترضى عنك اليهود ولا النصارى حتى تتبع ملتهم) .

[Sayaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب لا يحتاج أن يقرأ من قبل أي عربي يعرف تاريخ فلسطين وما حدث لها، لأنه يحمل أرقاماً دقيقة واقتباسات لجنود اسرائيلين وشهود عيان فلسطينين على ما حدث من "تطهير" للفلسطينين. ولكن هناك أمر مهم جداً هو أن يشتري كل واحد منا نسختين من الكتاب ليحتفظ بالأول كشهادة دقيقة جداً على ما حدث. والثاني ليضرب به (والحمدلله أن حجم الكتاب كبير نوعاً ما) على وجه كل من يتهم الفلسطينيين ببيع أراضيهم.

إيلان بابيه عمل بشكل جبار على الكتاب ليكون فعلاً مصدر يرجع إليه لحمله الكثير من التواريخ والأرقام والشهادات وحتى الصور المهمة لمثل هذه الحادثة التاريخية.

الكتاب لا يعار.

[مُهنا · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am horrified, ashamed, and furious. This book showed clearly and succinctly the crimes committed by Israeli government against the Palestinians. It showed the horrific extent the Zionists were willing to go to fulfill their dream of a purely Jewish state, which comes as a shock that the official beginning of their crimes was only a mere 3 years after the end of WW2 where many innocent Jews where murdered at the hand of the Nazi regime. It is shocking how the western world just after witnessing the extent of human cruelty in the holocaust were willing to just stand and watch as Zionists murdered and raped Palestinians.

I feel ashamed that the Arab world were so slow and hesitant to respond to the cries of help from the Palestinians at the beginning of the Nakba. How they half heartedly spoke out, and when they spoke their words were meaningless. I am furious at the Arabs who at seeing the murder of Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists saw a chance for gain and chose to switch sides for their own personal gain.

I find it also funny that Europe just after the end of the war chose to give something that isn't theirs to the Zionists to protect themselves from facing their own mistakes and failures.\

All in all, this is an excellent book that perfectly encapsulate the criminal history of the Zionist state and their unwillingness to admit it.

[Lamia Al-Qahtani · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم وصرخة صادقة لإحياء نكبة 1948 مرة أخرى للوقوف في وجه الادعاءات الصهيونية التي تقول أن فلسطين كانت أرضًا بلا شعب وتجاهلت ما قامت به من تهجير وتطهير وقتل للسكان المحليين في فلسطين وجعل مشكلة إسرائيل مع العرب تبدأ من عام 1967 وليس قبلها، كما يستعرض المؤلف أساليب إسرائيل في طمس الهوية العربية لفلسطين، ويؤكد على مقاومة الفلسطينيين ورفضهم بيع أراضيهم لليهود وهو أحد أسس الدعاية الصهيونية.
أهمية الكتاب تأتي من كون مؤلفه إسرائيلي وليس عربي ويستشهد فيه بوثائق صهيونية ومذكرات القادة الصهاينة الذين قاموا بعمليات التطهير العرقي في فلسطين.

[Vas]

This book exposes one of the great whitewashes of post WW2 history, that Israel was a brave little nation, created by hardy pioneers who had to fight off Arab hordes who were bent on their destruction.

[Andrew]

Books like this need to exist, that subvert the accepted grand narratives and tell of a brutal history. This isn't to say that Pappé's analysis is perfect-- there is a tendency to read every action of the Israeli state as an extension of the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians-- but it is blunt and forceful, and a scathing indictment of the tendency of the settler-state (something that the Americans, Taiwanese, and Australians are also complicit in) to re-write their histories.

[Miroku Nemeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the epilogue to this text that is essential reading for anyone who wants to really speak on Palestine, Israel, or peace in the Middle East, Pappe writes, after mentioning massacres from 1948 to the present, “[t]here has never been an end to Israel’s killing of Palestinians.” (258) At this time, when nearly 2000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military, 75% or more civilians, over 450 being Palestinian children, and the Israelis have only lost 63 soldiers invading illegally occupied Palestinian land, and three adult civilians, this could not be more true. The eyes of the world are beginning to open more and more, finally, to the vicious and bloody deception that underlies Israeli Zionist propaganda, and this is the perfect time when this important book by a truly brave and heroic Israeli historian should on precisely this topic, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, should gain more exposure.
This is not a new topic to me, I have been studying this topic for decades, reading many books on the topic from many sources, taken classes, etc. But I have also broken bread with, prayed with, and been part of a community that includes Palestinians. I have known innumerable Palestinians who are the descendants of refugees, and known refugees myself. I have known Palestinians who suffered life-scarring permanent disabilities at the hands of Israeli torturers, and know of the abuse of the Israeli racist state from those who have suffered the abuse. I also know that those Israelis who speak out, like many Jews who speak out here in the United States, put themselves at considerable risk for their brave and principled stances. But what lesson can we learn from the very real suffering of the Jewish people historically if not that we must fight against the dehumanization of those who would be represented as “others”? The fight against the colonization of Palestine, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the dispossession of Palestinians, the occupation, torture, incarceration, and terrorizing of the Palestinians is one of the most important social justice issues in the world today, especially for Americans, who largely have been deceived by pro-Zionist propaganda all of their lives. Our government gives 3-8 billion dollars to Israel, and it is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, even though it is seen as the most racist nation-state in the world by the majority of the world, and rightfully so.
Read Pappe, Finkelstein, Hass, Shahak, Blumenthal, and other Jews and Israelis of conscience if you really want to know about the reality of Israel and Palestine.
Turn off FOX News, except to see how they deceive you. And remember the name of this book, and know that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was a reality that was bloody, murderous, ruthless, and rapacious. There were many executions of men, women, and children. Half of the population was driven from it’s land, and hundreds of villages were ethnically cleansed and destroyed months before the Arab armies that Zionists use as a poor small Israel defending itself against all of the armies the neighboring Arab states even sent their troops (and the Israelis had twice the amount of troops as the Arabs, the most powerful of which, the Jordanians, had already made secret agreements to only protect the territories he had been promised in the West Bank). I could list atrocities, such as the massacre of Deir Yassin, which was pre-May 1948, but human details should be enough to portray the brutality of the Israeli ethnic cleansing. Rape almost always accompanies ethnic cleansing, and the Zionists raped, including gang-raped, girls and women, often murdering the men in their family, and sometimes murdering the girls and women after the gang rape. “One only has to be told that 30 babies were among the slaughtered in Deir Yassin to understand why the whole 'quantitative' exercise -which the Israelis repeated as recently as April 2002 in the massacre in Jenin-is insignificant." (91)


The rest of this review are random notes I took while reading, and I may return to edit them in the future.



“For Israelis, to recognize the Palestinians as the victims of Israeli actions is deeply distressing, in at least two ways. As this form of acknowledgment 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.
Recognizing Palestinian victimhood ties in with deeply rooted psychological fears because it demands that Israelis question their self perception of what ‘went on’ in 1948. As most Israelis see it—and as mainstream and popular Israeli historiography keeps telling them—in 1948 Israel was able to establish itself as an independent nation-state on part of Mandate Palestine because early Zionists had succeeded in ‘settling an empty land’ and ‘making the desert bloom’.
The inability of Israelis to acknowledge the trauma the Palestinians suffered stands out even more sharply when set against the way the Palestinian national narrative tells the story of the Nakba, a trauma they continue to live with to the present. Had their victimhood been the ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ outcome of a long-term and bloody conflict, Israel’s fears of allowing the other side to ‘become’ the victim of the conflict would have not been so intense—both sides would have been ‘victims of the circumstances’, and here one may substitute any other amorphous, non-committal concept that serves human beings, particularly politicians but also historians, to absolve themselves from the moral responsibility they otherwise would carry. But what the Palestinians are demanding, and what, for many of them, has become a sine qua non, is that they be recognized as the victims of an ongoing evil, consciously perpetrated against them by Israel. For Israeli Jews to accept this would naturally man undermining their own status of victimhood. This would have political implications on an international scale, but also—perhaps far more critically—would trigger moral and existential repercussions for the Israeli Jewish psyche: Israeli Jews would have to recognize that they have become the mirror image of their own worst nightmare.” Pappe 246-247



When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that ‘tragically but inevitably’ led to the expulsion of ‘parts of’ the indigenous population, but the other way round; the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state. A few weeks after the ethnic cleansing operations began, the neighboring Arab states sent a small army—small in comparison to their overall military might—to try, in vain, to prevent the ethnic cleansing. The war with the regular armies did not bring the ethnic cleansing operations to a halt until their successful completion in the autumn of 1948. (Pappe xvi)

This is important, of course, because Pappe lays out in his text how the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionists preceded the supposed attacks of all the neighboring Arab states upon poor defenseless Israel, etc.—the trash propaganda narrative that I have recently seen recycled in popular (amongst the brainwashed and ignorant) pro-Israeli videos and the like.

The Partition Resolution was adopted on 29 Nov. 1947, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began in early December 1947 with a series of Jewish attacks on Palestinian villages and neighborhoods….Though sporadic, these early Jewish assaults were severe enough to cause the exodus of a substantial number of people (almost 75,000). (40)

This is before the entry of any outside Arab troops. The only troops that entered in January were the “all-Arab volunteer army” who were easily defeated by Zionists. “Easily winning the upper hand in these skirmishes, the Jewish leadership officially shifted its tactics from acts of retaliation to cleansing operations. Coerced expulsions followed in the middle of February 1948 when Jewish troops succeeded in emptying five Palestinian villages in one day. On 10 March 1948, Plan Dalet was adopted. The first targets were the urban centres of Palestine, which had all been occupied by the end of April. About 250,000 Palestinians were uprooted in this phase, which was accompanied by several massacres, most notable of which was the Deir Yassin massacre. Aware of these developments, the Arab League took the decision on the last day of April, to intervene militarily, but not until the British mandate had come to an end
The British left on 15 May 1948, and the Jewish Agency immediately declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, officially recognized by the two superpowers of the day, the USA and USSR. That same day, regular Arab forces entered Palestine. (40)

So, again, the myth of small Israel as defending itself against all of the might of the surrounding Arab states is a false one, which leaves the ethnic cleansing of over 300,000 Palestinians, the massacres in Deir Yassin, and other details that preceded the Arab armies attacking, an event the Zionists were well-prepared for militarily and strategically completely out of the narrative.

”In other words, in the early stages of ethnic cleansing (until May 1948), a few thousand irregular Palestinians and Arabs were facing tens of thousands of well-trained Jewish troops. As the next stages evolved, a Jewish force of almost double the number of all the Arab armies combined had little trouble completing the job.” (45)

“Between 30 March and 15 May, 200 villages were occupied and their inhabitants expelled [all of this took place before a single regular Arab soldier had entered Palestine]. This is a fact that must be repeated, as it undermines the Israeli myths that the ‘Arabs ran away once the ‘Arab invasion’ began. Almost half of the Arab villages had already been attacked by the time the Arab governments eventually, and, as we know, reluctantly decided to send in their troops. Another ninety villages would be wiped out between 15 May and 11 June 1948, when the first of the two truces finally came into effect.” Pappe 104

[هالةْ أمين · Rating 4 out of 5]

هذا الكاتب لايزيد قارؤه الا كمدا وغيظا
كنت أتسائل ماذا أريد من قراءتي له ؟ ماهي السؤالات التي أبحث عن اجابتها في قراءتي لهذا الكتاب ؟
هل أحث عن حق مشروع للصهاينة في فلسطين ؟ أم هل أحث عن تأكيد أن فلسطين استحقت مافيه لتهاونها؟
لكن ماوجدته هو اثبات أن الصهاينة فاقوا كل الكلمات التي تصف مدى وضاعتهم
لكن أشد ما أثار دهشتي وعجبي وحنقي هو مافعله الصهاينة في محاولة خلق وزرع مظاهر أوروبا وتحريف الآثار والتاريخ في الاراضي ��لفلسطينية العربية الاسلامية
وصلت الى مرحلة محاولة زرع اشجار لا تنمو الا في اوروبا لتأكيد أن هذه أرض اسرائيلية ؟
يا إلهي .....!

[Suad Alhalwachi · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكتاب مؤلم جدا ولقد عاصرت كل الحروب الصهيونية ما عدا اولها والذي بدأ في ١٩٤٨. اسماء موشي دايان وبن غوريون وجولدا مائير وغيرهم تطن في اذني والورقة البيضاء التي وقعها الاستعمار البريطاني للصهيونيين تشع في عيني. هاكم خذوها والقوهم في البحر. والان نحن تحت التطبيع ومطاراتنا تعج بهم واشتروا محلات الصرافة وعن قريب سيشترون البنوك وربما قطعا كبيرة من الاراضي ولا اعلم ماذا سيحدث بعد ذلك! هل سيرمونا في البحر كما حدث مع الفلسطينين؟

وشهد شاهد من أهلها وكتب كل الخطط وكل ما حدث. على الاقل احتفظ الكاتب بكل شيئ ونقله كما هو. لماذا يا ترى كان صادقا؟ هل كان يريد فضح النظام الصهيوني او ا��ه كان يدون مذكراته فقط؟ وكيف استطاع ان يكون صادقا الى هذه الدرجة؟

القدس عروس عروبتكم ترن في اذني دعوني اشركها في هذه المراجعة:

أهلا أهلا أهلا

من باع فلسطين سوى الثوار الكتبة ؟

أقسمت بأعناق أباريق الخمر وما في الكأس من السم

وهذا الثوري المتخم بالصدف البحري ببيروت

تكرش حتى عاد بلا رقبة

أقسمت بتاريخ الجوع ويوم السغبة

لن يبقى عربي واحد إن بقيت حالتنا هذي الحالة

بين حكومات الكسبة

القدس عروس عروبتكم

فلماذا أدخلتم كل زناة الليل إلى حجرتها ؟؟

ووقفتم تستمعون وراء الباب لصرخات بكارتها

وسحبتم كل خناجركم

وتنافختم شرفا

وصرختم فيها أن تسكت صونا للعرض

فما أشرفكم

أولاد القحبة هل تسكت مغتصبة ؟

أولاد القحبة

لست خجولا حين أصارحكم بحقيقتكم

إن حظيرة خنزير أطهر من أطهركم

تتحرك دكة غسل الموتى أما أنتم

لا تهتز لكم قصبة

الآن أعريكم

في كل عواصم هذا الوطن العربي قتلتم فرحي

في كل زقاق أجد الأزلام أمامي

أصبحت أحاذر حتى الهاتف

حتى الحيطان وحتى الأطفال

أقيء لهذا الأسلوب الفج

وفي بلد عربي كان مجرد مكتوب من أمي

يتأخر في أروقة الدولة شهرين قمريين

تعالوا نتحاكم قدام الصحراء العربية كي تحكم فينا

أعترف الآن أمام الصحراء بأني مبتذل وبذيء كهزيمتكم. يا شرفاء المهزومين

ويا حكام المهزومين

ويا جمهورا مهزوما

ما أوسخنا .. ما أوسخنا.. ما أوسخنا ونكابر

ما أوسخنا

لا أستثني أحدا. هل تعترفون

أنا قلت بذيء

رغم بنفسجة الحزن

وإيماض صلاة الماء على سكري

وجنوني للضحك بأخلاق الشارع و الثكنات

ولحس الفخذ الملصق في باب الملهى

يا جمهورا في الليل يداوم في قبو مؤسسة الحزن

سنصبح نحن يهود التاريخ

ونعوي في الصحراء بلا مأوى

هل وطن تحكمه الأفخاذ الملكية ؟

هذا وطن أم مبغى ؟

هل أرض هذه الكرة الأرضية أم وكر ذئاب ؟

ماذا يدعى القصف الأممي على هانوي ؟

ماذا تدعى سمة العصر و تعريض الطرق السلمية ؟

ماذا يدعى استمناء الوضع العربي أمام مشاريع السلم

وشرب الأنخاب مع السافل (ترامب) ؟

ماذا يدعى تتقنع بالدين وجوه التجار الأمويين ؟

ماذا يدعى الدولاب الدموي ببغداد ؟

ماذا تدعى الجلسات الصوفية قي الأمم المتحدة ؟

ماذا يدعى إرسال الجيش الإيراني إلى (قابوس) ؟

وقابوس هذا سلطان وطني جدا

لاتربطه رابطة ببريطانيا العظمى

وخلافا لأبيه ولد المذكور من المهد ديمقراطيا

ولذلك فتسامح في لبس النعل ووضع النظارات

فكان أن اعترفت بمآثره الجامعة العربية يحفظها الله

وأحدى صحف الإمبريالية

قد نشرت عرض سفير عربي

يتصرف كالمومس في أحضان الجنرالات

وقدام حفاة (صلالة)

ولمن لا يعرف الشركات النفطية

في الثكنات هناك يراجع قدراته العقلية

ماذا يدعى هذا ؟؟

ماذا يدعي أخذ الجزية في القرن العشرين ؟

ماذا تدعى تبرئة الملك المرتكب السفلس ؟

في التاريخ العربي

و لا يشرب إلا بجماجم أطفال البقعة

أصرخ فيكم

أصرخ أين شهامتكم..؟

إن كنتم عربا.. بشرا.. حيوانات

فالذئبة.. حتى الذئبة تحرس نطفتها

و الكلبة تحرس نطفتها

و النملة تعتز بثقب الأرض

وأما انتم فالقدس عروس عروبتكم

أهلا..

القدس عروس عروبتكم

فلماذا أدخلتم كل السيلانات إلى حجرتها

ووقفتم تسترقون السمع وراء الأبواب

لصرخات بكارتها

وسحبتم كل خناجركم

وتنافختم شرفا

وصرختم فيها أن تسكت صونا للعرض

فأي قرون أنتم

أولاد قراد الخيل كفاكم صخبا

خلوها دامية في الشمس بلا قابلة

ستشد ضفائرها وتقيء الحمل عليكم

ستقيء الحمل على عزتكم

ستقيء الحمل على أصوات إذاعتكم

ستقيء الحمل عليكم بيتا بيتا

وستغرز أصبعها في أعينكم

أنتم مغتصبي

حملتم أسلحة ��طلق للخلف

وثرثرتم ورقصتم كالدببة

كوني عاقرة أي أرض فلسطين

كوني عاقرة أي أم الشهداء من الآن

فهذا الحمل من الأعداء

ذميم ومخيف

لن تتلقح تلك الأرض بغير اللغة العربية

يا أمراء الغزو فموتوا

سيكون خرابا.. سيكون خرابا

سيكون خرابا

هذي الأمة لابد لها أن تأخذ درسا في التخريب !!

شعر مظفر النواب عن الحكام العرب

لا انصح بالقراءة

[Sai · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘There are two factors that have so far succeeded in defeating all chances of an equitable solution to the conflict in Palestine to take root: the Zionist ideology of ethnic supremacy and the ‘peace process’. From the the former stems Israel’s continuing denial of the Nakba; in the latter we see the lack of international will to bring justice to the region- two obstacles that perpetuate the refugee problem and stand in the way of a just and comprehensive peace emerging in the land.’

Ilan Pappe provides a clear chronology of the atrocities against the indigenous Palestinian people that had taken place since the mid-to-late 1940s in order to bring about the current existence of Israel. An ongoing case of ethnic cleansing against Arabs that is still neglected by the world powers whilst Israel continuously fabricates a false history for themselves to shroud the centuries of Palestinian presence they eradicated.
A book that overcomes the ignorance surrounding Palestine and reveals Israel’s plans for a calculated occupation long before it had even existed.

Beginning from the emergence of the ‘Red House’- the headquarters for the Hagana- Pappe brings to light the planning and transcripts that enabled the systematic removal of Palestinians from their homeland. Through exploiting the UN resolution 181, and with the unwillingness of intervention from the British mandate, Zionist Militia were able to march ahead with their ‘cleansing’ scheme whilst those in place to protect the civilians idly watched it unfold.

The steady removal of villagers and Bedouin tribes through violent attacks of shelling, air bombardments and massacres/executions left the once beautiful rural areas of Palestine in rubble and ash. Arab Muslims were primarily the victims of expulsions but Christians endured a similar fate, and sights/landmarks of both religions faced complete destruction. Looting, rape and shooting sprees became common game for the Zionist military. Palestinian boys and men were systemically removed from their families, leaving their women and young children to be haunted by the question of their return.
The refugees were completely stripped of their own financial assets, which went to the ownership of the Zionist government only to be distributed and sold amongst Israeli organisations and Jewish settlers.

Pappe also notes the involvement of Arab military aid, both their contributions and failures. Although the Egyptian and Jordanian army were able to protect certain areas of Palestine, the King of Jordan succumbed to an armistice with the Israeli prime minister for negotiations over Jordanian ownership of the West Bank (which in reality led to conflict over Jerusalem).

After the steady process of the Nakba, Pappe discloses the administrative changes in Israeli policies for dealing with the small remaining percentage of Palestinians- how to ‘legally’ strip away their rights and prevent the repatriation of refugees. This also includes the continuous removal of Arab history, the falsification of a historic-geographic Jewish presence in Palestine, and also complete denial of the Nakba.
‘Zionist ideology and erasure of the past often go hand in hand’…‘in order for Israel to tell one narrative and erase another’.

The book delves into further UN and American intervention for peace (the first being infirm, the latter being principally exclusive to the Israeli demands), and the increasing fear of the Zionist government that their actions of the Nakba will be unveiled, forcing them to accept accountability for committing the same atrocities that the Jewish victims of the Holocaust underwent- which has been used by Zionism to harbour sympathy for their efforts of a solely Jewish state.
Pappe finally discusses the processes which led to Palestinian revolts throughout this ongoing occupation- an uprising for the return of their rights, and also the demand of liability upon Israel for not only the crimes during the Nakba, but also for the current crimes against the Palestinians and their centuries long history of indigenous communities to the land.

‘…for close to sixty years now the Palestinians have remained steadfast as a nation in their demand to have their legal rights acknowledged, above all their Right of Return, originally granted to them by the United Nations in 1948. They continue to confront an official Israeli policy of denial and anti-repatriation that seems to only have hardened over the same period.’

Overall, Pappe not only establishes a shocking yet vivid timeline of events leading up to the creation of Israel and its current position, but he also exhibits the sentiment of understanding in regards to the desperate struggle of Palestinians in fighting for their rights, their history and their homeland.

[Yassmeen Altaif · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكاتب إسرائيلي لكن الكاتب منصف ذكر كل ما حدث في الأراضي الفلسطينية منذ القدم على أيام البيت الأحمر وبن غوريون.

رغم كون الكتاب كتاب بحثي إلا أن احتواءه على مشاهدات الكثير من الشهود وغيرها من يوميات بن غوريون وغيره جعل الكتاب خفيف وكأنك تقرأ قصص.

الكتاب سلس، ويحتوي على الكثير من المعلومات للمهتمين وحتى غير المهتمين لتعرف إنما يحدث اليوم في الشيخ جراح وغيرها من الأراضي الفلسطينة ليس بالجديد على الصهاينة الاسرائليين فهو ورثًا ورثوه من أجدادهم، وحتى ما حصل من تطبيع مع الصهاينه ليس بالجديد فقبلهم تعاونت بعض من الدول العربية مع الصهاينة.

كتاب غير الألم التي تقرأه لما حدث من تطهير بطرد وقتل وإعدام إلا انك تستمع بقراءة كل هذه الحقائق لتكون داخل الحدث التاريخي.

جميل الكتاب وأنصح به.