The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

The book is not only historical statements but it is the true story of the Palestinian hardship started way before the 2WW.

This book is an honest and detailed account of how the Zionist movement planned and carried out the heinous crime of systematically forcing the Palestinian people out of Palestine and establishing Israel as a state for Zionist settlers coming from foreign lands. This was committed under a huge campaign of misinformation and coverup utilising the vast resources of the western governments who conspired to victimize the Palestinians.Humanity owes Ilan Pappe, the author of this book, a big favor for his efforts for finally setting the record straight, and documenting the facts of Palestinian 'Nakba' or catastrophe. This book unveils the true and ugly face of Zionism as a racist movement.It is quite clear now after over a hundred years since the first Zionist conference in Basel, Switzerland, that Zionism was a bad idea turned into a nightmare when implemented. So far, Israel is embattled and living in a state of continuous war with all its surroundings. Keeping Israel alive proved to be very costly undertaking both in terms of lives wasted everyday in fighting and in terms of financial cost to sustain the economy and military machine of Israel. The hefty financial cost is mostly carried by the USA but for how long? How can the wise people in Israel fail to see this failure of the Zionist idea? How can they not see that there are alternatives that will ensure peaceful coexistence with Palestinians in a democratic Palestine?The author represents the voice of conscience and fairness as well as academic honesty and professionalism. The atrocities committed by Zionists against the Palestinian people will never be forgotten and will come back to haunt the Israelis for generations to come. Nothing short of the full recognition of the Palestinian people's right to their homeland of Palestine, as well as full reparation for the enormous suffering and damages inflicted on them by the creation of the State of Israel, would bring closure to this problem.The area will not see peace before the Palestinians restore their full rights. The unconditional return of any and all Palestinians to Palestine is an unalienable right that may not be compromised.It is ironic to note that the Palestinians (generally Muslims and Christians) have never had any issues with jews as followers of another religion. Jews have never been mistreated or persecuted by the Palestinians. Jews, on the other hand, were persecuted in Europe. Why should the Palestinians pay the price?The advent of the Zionist movement appeared to have poisoned relations in the region as a whole. The wretched camps of Palestinian refugees scattered in various Middle Eastern countries and inside Palestine still stand for almost 60 years as a harsh reminder of the problems created by the creation of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people.Inspite of all what happened, just and equitable peace is still possible. This is not to say that the Israelis should necessarily be forced out of the land they unlawfully usurped from the Palestinians. It only means that Israel as a Zionist i.e. racist state should be peacefully dismantled, and in its place a democratic state is established where all citizens are equal regardless of their religion or race. Any Israeli who accepts to live in a democratic Palestine as an equal citizen shall be welcome to stay. Those who do not accept equality with other citizens should find another place to live (perhaps return to the countries where they originally came to Palestine from).In its long history, Palestine has seen many invaders come and go. But the Palestinian people always emerged back and maintained its identity. The Israeli barbaric atrocities to obliterate, vilify, and eradicate the Palestinian people and its culture will not succeed despite the unprecedented savagery the Israelis used gainst the Palestinians.The ethnic cleansing of Palestine did not stop after achieving the massive depopulation of Palestine in the years 1948 and 1949. In fact, ethnic cleansing continued to the present time and is still ongoing. It takes various forms such as deportation of Palestinians, demolition of Palestinian houses, and denying the Palestinians permits to build houses or rebuild old ones. Israel also resorts to the strangulation of Palestinian economy forcing people to finally leave the country to seek jobs and settle abroad. If all that does not work, outright assassination is used to get rid of Palestinians. This is taking place under the watch of the whole world who gives lip service to human rights and Palestinian right to self-determination.History will not forgive the world which stood by totally oblivious to the Israeli crimes, and ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians.This book is must reading for anyone interested in peace and justice on Earth.

Great history book by an Israeli historian who speaks of the truths of the injustices that the Palestinians face for decades and how the racism and ethnic cleansing was allowed, and ignored by the west and Europeans. Heartbreaking massacres with dates and evidence to prove it. It’s amazing how much you will learn when you open your eyes, ears and heart. Makes you question the indoctrination we have been taught. What else are they not telling us that they are doing?!?! Hats off to the man who has the courage to write this.

In-depth, excellent explanation of how that part of the world got to be the way it is today. I bought the book but I also downloaded the audiobook version from my local library and listened to it. I think that was a better way to do it because there are a lot of names (people and places) I would have really mispronounced if I read the book.

What really happened during Israel's War of Independence? Ilan Pappé attempts to answer this question in "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," which is, without a doubt, the most controversial book I have read in my life. In it, Pappé presents the controversial thesis that Palestine has been subject to a systematic ethnic cleansing policy pre-dating Israel's Independence Day on May 14, 1948. This policy, Pappé argues, continues up to the present day.For this review, it is important to note, and Pappé clarifies right off the bat, that he is not using the phrase ethnic cleansing in the colloquial sense in which it is a synonym for genocide. Instead, Pappé refers to formal definitions in which ethnic cleansing's goal is to rid a geographical area of people of a specific, often ethnic, group. This contrasts with genocide, in which the goal is to wipe them out of existence. Pappé notes that although the goal of ethnic cleansing is different, it is also generally accompanied by massacres to scare the population into fleeing. Pappé argues this is precisely what happened in Israel/Palestine during the 1947-8 War. Indeed, in the epigraphs preceding most chapters, there is a running comparison to Serbian ethnic cleansing in the 1990s. A Cleansing Plan Pre-Dating the 1947 UN Partition Resolution?Before the late 1980s, there was a notion in much of the West that the answer to the question of where all the Palestinian refugees came from was that they were told to flee their homes around the time Israel's Arab neighbors invaded on the very day of Israel's independence. Pappé is one of Israel's "new historians" who was granted some access to the IDF's archives from the 1947-8 War and began to challenge the notion that those fleeing generally did so voluntarily at the request of Arab leaders. Some more moderate historians, like Benny Morris, found evidence of massacres of Palestinians by Jewish force but did not feel there was a systematic plan behind them and the forced expulsions. Pappé, by contrast, disagrees. Pappé concluded that there was a systematic plan centering around Plan Dalet by considering other sources such as the diaries of key Israeli leaders, interviews, and other oral history.According to Pappé's research, Zionist leaders, especially Ben-Gurion, had decided well before 1947 that they should try to capture much more of Mandatory Palestine than was likely to be offered. Pappé describes how the planning included detailed Jewish intelligence on every village following the 1936 uprising in preparation for this effort. The Zionists' main fear, Pappé writes, was having too small a majority in Israel to protect Jewish interests. This was because, at the time of the 1947 resolution, the Jewish state had about 60% Jews, while nearly all the rest were Arabs. Pappé quotes Ben-Gurion saying that 80% Jews was needed for stability. Pappé further argues that while Ben-Gurion publically accepted the UN partition plan, he only did so knowing Arabs would reject it. This, he realized, would allow Israeli leaders to not recognize Palestinian land as other than "disputed."Pappé further recounts how Ben-Gurion felt it was a problem that Arabs did not react violently enough to the 1947 partition plan. Indeed, they just resigned themselves to living under another "foreign" ruler as they had adapted to others for centuries before. According to Pappé, Ben-Gurion and a cabal called "The Consultancy" worked to increase provocations against Arabs, hoping for reactions that could be used as pretexts for attacks, expulsions, and inevitable massacres. Pappé portrays this as not having the success hoped for initially, thus leading Israeli forces to become increasingly aggressive in their strategies and tactics, often deliberately crossing the line into war crimes. My Evaluation Evaluating this book is, unfortunately, rather difficult. The two main reasons are:1. There is disagreement between Pappé and fellow new historian Benny Morris as to the proper historical methodology. Pappé criticizes Morris for confining his conclusions to IDF archives and treating them as gospel (or, perhaps, rather, Tanakh?) Morris, in turn, criticizes Pappé for over-reliance on oral history. Since Pappé, unfortunately, does not dive deeply into the methodological questions, it is hard for a non-professional to weigh the merits and detriments of the different approaches. 2. Much of Pappé's source material is not readily available, at least to non-professionals. This is either because it is IDF archival material, books that no longer appear to be in print or interviews. Fortunately, there is much that Pappé and Morris, who draws more conservative conclusions, agree on. The main points are:1. Many Palestinians only left their homes involuntarily in 1947-8; Israeli forces were definitely pushing many of them out2. Jewish forces did commit war crimesOne thing Pappé and Morris disagree on significantly is the number of Palestinians massacred. Morris puts the figure around 800, whereas Pappé has it around a few thousand. Even more significant, however, is whether it was all part of a systematic plan or not. Pappé's quotes, especially from Ben-Gurion's diary, do seem compelling, however. With regard to the massacres, Pappé admits there is no smoking gun in official documents regarding a central directive. Instead, he argues that it was implicitly understood that they would be tolerated and necessary in the case of stubborn resistance. Pappé points out how those involved were generally careful not to leave a paper trail behind. Is a Systematic Plan Believable?I do believe that Pappé makes a compelling case that there was a systematic plan. Pappé's discussion of how Palestinians were treated after the war adds to the believability of his argument. Much of this post-war treatment is more open to verification. Remaining Palestinians were moved from their homes; the property of those who had fled was confiscated through some extraordinary legal machinations; those of Arab descent did not receive equal treatment under Israeli law; Palestinian history was systematically erased.However, even if things were not part of a Zionist grand strategy to permanently claim 80% of Mandatory Palestine, it is remarkable that they worked out, in practice, as if that were the plan all along. Sympathizers of Israel will argue that Israel simply wanted to live in peace, but their Arab neighbors kept attacking them unprovoked for no good reason. After reading this book, however, especially the parts most open to verification, and considering Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and denial of their right to return (or, if no longer practical, monetary compensation in lieu of it), the credibility of Israeli claims regarding history fell into even greater doubt for me.The Book's Style and WeaknessesA little over two-thirds of the book is highly engaging reading. Nevertheless, the book took me about twice as long to read as expected. Part of the reason this is a difficult book to read is that it is a very somber subject. Nor is it so far removed from the present as to provide the usual degree of detachment that studying more distant history allows. That contribution to making the book difficult is inevitable, given the subject.However, some of Pappé's choices made the book difficult and were not inevitable. For instance:- The Jews seemed very concerned about Arab aggression, given what happened in 1936. Pappé does not detail 1936 enough to understand why they were worried. - Too many massacres are detailed even once one gets the gist of what happened overall. Likely, Pappé is trying to ensure that the victims are not forgotten. Still, unfortunately, it leads to an emotional numbing and time spent here that could have been better spent on issues such as what happened in 1936 and discussing the debate over methodology.Finally, Pappé is clearly biased. For instance, he correctly states that Palestinians objected to Israel being given the majority of the land in the 1947 resolution, even though they were only one-third of the population. What Pappé omits is the Jewish position that they needed more land because of the large number of immigrants into Israel expected. Pappé also, although he does not omit it altogether, spends scant time discussing massacres by Arabs, for example, as retaliation for Deir Yassin.Conclusion Given the current war in Gaza, this book is vital reading to understand how we got to this point and what may lie ahead. Readers will be better able to evaluate whether the accusations of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and apartheid leveled against Israel are fair. At the same time, however, it is essential to check what sources Pappé uses, compare with others, and look up contrary interpretations of history, such as Benny Morris's.