In this idea ‘ideology and fact were fused and manipulated to produce the same story’.Ĭhapter 2, ‘The Alien Who Became a Terrorist: the Palestinian in Zionist Thought’, describes the way Palestinians were generally viewed by settlers from the beginning of the 20 th century: primitive, non-modern, savage and aggressive ‘a disease that threatened a healthy body … a disease that had to be cured’, ‘malignant evil’, ‘a cancer in the heart of the nation’. What follows is a summary of each chapter, including several longer quotations which convey the main argument of the book and illustrate the kind of detailed material that is presented.Ĭhapter 1, ‘The Scholarly and Fictional Idea of Israel’, is an account of the idea of Israel as it developed in the years after 1948, in which Israel was portrayed as ‘the ultimate and most successful project of modernity and enlightenment’. It is a book on Israel as an idea, and it evolved from that short-lived and abortive attempt to challenge it from within.’ Of the story of Israel, he said “I accept that there are two narratives, but ours has been proven scientifically to be the right one.” That remark, and my fond memories of that event and of the period as a whole – unique in the history of power and knowledge – inspired me to write this present book. ‘The most memorable remark that evening came from Moshe Lissak, the doyen of traditional sociology and a winner of the prestigious Israel Prize. And yet that event contributed to the excitement of a historic moment when Israelis doubted the moral validity of the idea of Israel and were allowed for a short while, to question it, both inside and outside the ivory towers of the universities. But some did and, like me, eventually left the country in despair, unable to alter the status quo. Most, however, would not walk the extra mile that such a position demanded of them. If approval can be judged by applause, the audience sided by and large with my colleague Shlomo Svirsky and myself, representatives of the new history and sociology of Israel, and were less impressed by Anita Shapira and the late Moshe Lissak of the old guard.
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‘The question posed was significant: Was the Israeli academy an ideological tool in the hands of Zionism or a bastion of free thought and speech? The vast majority of the audience attended because they leaned towards the former conclusion, doubting the independence of Israeli academics. He explains how the idea of writing the book developed out of ‘a debate about knowledge and power’ in Tel Aviv in 1994: In twelve chapters Pappe describes how the pendulum has swung from ‘Classical Zionism’ (the ideology of successive governments until around 1993) to ‘post-Zionism’ (when between 19 the ‘new historians’ and others raised fundamental questions about the accepted narrative of 1948) and then to ‘neo-Zionism’ (in which, following the Intifada of 2000, post-Zionism is decisively rejected and a new formulation of Zionism developed). The Idea of Israel is a powerful and urgent intervention in the war of ideas concerning the past, and the future, of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ He was attacked and received death threats as he exposed the truth about how Palestinians have been treated and the gruesome structure that links the production of knowledge to the exercise of power. Pappe himself was part of the post-Zionist movement that arose then. ‘In particular, Pappe examines the way successive generations of historians have framed the 1948 conflict as a liberation campaign, creating a foundation myth that went unquestioned in Israeli society until the 1990s. The Idea of Israel considers the way Zionism operates outside of the government and military in areas such as the country’s education system, media, and cinema, and the uses that are made of the Holocaust in supporting the state’s ideological structure. In this groundbreaking new work, Ilan Pappe looks at the continued role of Zionist ideology. ‘Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has drawn on Zionism, the movement behind its creation, to provide a sense of self and political direction. This is how the blurb explains the title: If ten pages are too long to read, just read this first page to get an idea of what the book is about!
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I wanted therefore to write a fairly full summary of the book (not a review or a critique) because I believe it sheds so much light on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although Verso have recently published it as a paperback, its title and length (313 pages) may not immediately appeal to many readers. I bought this book in March 2014, soon after it was published, at the bookshop at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.
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