Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine, The

The renowned Israeli historian revisits the formative period 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. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in the Middle East. Review: 'If not the last word, this is a major intervention in an argument that will, and must, continue. There's no hope of lasting Middle East peace while the ghosts of 1948 still walk.' - The Independent 'Ilan Pappe is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian.' - John Pilger 'Ground breaking research into a well kept Israeli secret. A classic of historical scholarship on a taboo subject by one of Israel's foremost New Historians.' - Ghada Karmi, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, England Table of Contents: List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables; Acknowledgements; Preface1. An 'Alleged' Ethnic Cleansing?2. The Drive for an Exclusively Jewish State3. Partition and Destruction: UN Resolution 181 and its Impact4. Finalising a Master Plan5. The Blueprint for Ethnic Cleansing: Plan Dalet6. The Phony War and the Real War over Palestine: May 19487. The Escalation of the Cleansing Operations: June--September 19488. Completing the Job: October 1948--January 19499. Occupation and its Ugly Faces10. The Memoricide of the Nakba11. Nakba Denial and the 'Peace Process'12. Fortress IsraelEpilogue; Endnotes; Chronology; Maps and Tables; Bibliography; Index Author Biography: Ilan Pappe is a senior lecturer in Policital Science at Haifa University. He is Academic Director fo the Research Insitute for Peace at Givat Haviva and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies, Haifa.