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Recommended Reading

By Schlomo Bloom, May 2009

The history of Israel/Palestine is not terribly complex, nor does it take a PhD to come to definitive conclusions about the injustices that the Zionist movement and the state of Israel have wrought in the land of Palestine and against the Palestinian people. However, pro-Israeli groups and interests in the media and political worlds have created an air of hysteria and obfuscation about this uncomplicated subject.

Nevertheless, important details are available from an abundance of sources. Many important books as well as the growing presence on the web are crucial to shoring up one’s knowledge while also growing in the pursuit of peace and justice. The following is by no means a comprehensive list of sources, just a few that I think are particularly good.

Websites

www.palsolidarity.org/ (International Solidarity Movement)

One of the best sites for eyewitness reports, and it has been upgraded recently. As someone who helped staff the media office in past years in Palestine, I take pride in the fact that it thrives to this day.

www.palestineremembered.com/ (Palestine Remembered)

Whenever I need info on the Nakba (ethnic cleansing), I go here. The pictures, data, and stories are a great tool for academia and the wider community as well.

http://imeu.net/ (Institute for Middle East Understanding)
http://electronicintifada.net(Electronic Intifada)
www.palestinechronicle.com/(Palestine Chronicle)

The above are all great sites for commentary and news on current events in and relating to Palestine.

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/ (Angry Arab News Service)

What is a day without the unswerving and entertaining observations of Asad Abukahlil? For information, inspiration, and always for a good laugh, I check out what the Angry Arab has to say.

http://www.zochrot.org (Zochrot)

If you go to Israel, visit this site first and then take a trip with Zochrot while you are there. They tour the remains of hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948, erect signs to attest their existence and promote knowledge of the Nakba in Jewish Israeli culture.

Books

Edward Said:

• The Question of Palestine

This book was one of the first to tell the story of Israel from the perspective of Palestine. Until Said, many in the US and Europe had read the story of the victors, but not seen Zionism from the viewpoint of its victims.

Books (continued)

Nur Masalha:

• The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem
• Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948
• The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine- Israel
• Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees

Nur Masalha’s books on “transfer” in Zionist thinking are his best. Transfer is usually relegated to the ‘right’ wing of Zionism, but Masalha shows that it has always been firmly in the mainstream of Zionist thought.

Benny Morris:

• The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
• The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
• Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956

Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe are known as the “New Historians” of Israel. They brought credibility to what Palestinian historians had been had been documenting for years, partly because racism favored Israeli credentials and partly because Israeli archives opened the late 1980’s confirmed the reports of genocide and expulsion. That it took Israelis to make people believe what Palestinians had already documented is unfortunately not surprising.

Benny Morris has been a crucial source of information and facts about Israel’s early years, although the conclusions that he draws are racist and disgusting in their disparagement of Palestinians (see http://is.gd/xVAn for an online interview). That said, the three books listed are each worth reading simply for the wealth of Israeli declassified data they present.

Avi Shlaim:

• The Politics of Partition
• The Iron Wall

These are two of Schliam’s best books even though, for all his valuable political commentary, he is still a committed supporter of the 2-state solution and does not seriously question the basic racism and colonialism inherent in Zionism.

Ilan Pappe:

• Modern History of Palestine (2nd Edition)
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Ilan Pappe is a true hero academically and politically. His writing and research cover the crimes of Israel and the nature of Zionism, as do his political conclusions and convictions; in fact, it has ostracized him in Israeli academic circles, forcing him to relocate to England. Both books are excellent, but The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a must read. He focuses on the 1948 Palestinian expulsion, which is the core event of the inherent injustice of the state of Israel.

Ghada Karmi:

• Searching for Fatima

This book stands out as the personal story of a Palestinian refugee. We go from the streets of Jerusalem under siege by the Haganah and the Karmi family’s narrow escape to Ghada’s later political awakening and growth. As the author has points out, the Jewish Holocaust has been disseminated effectively through personal stories like those of Anne Frank. The stories of Fatima and Ghada similarly allow us to see the true meaning of the phrase ‘Never Again,’ with the important caveat that it applies to us all.

Other excellent authors include: Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Maxine Rodinson, Joel Kovel, Rashid Khalidi, and Joe Sacco.

Schlomo Bloom is a founding member of Jews Against Genocide (J.A.G) and an ISM Volunteer