This is a controversial book by a controversial author. The Forgotten Palestinians pushes the envelope of the “New Historians,” treading where many New Historians will not even venture.
Pappé asserts that he needs to re-write history and tell the story of how there was a clear plan by those who established the State of Israel to disenfranchise and even expel Palestinian Arabs. He further asserts that the events that took place were not ad hoc but were, rather, a planned, systematic program to make it impossible for anyone who was not a Jew to be an equal in Israel.
Pappé approaches history as an unapologetic ideologue who has called for the boycott of Israeli universities and academics. (His biography states, “He previously taught at Haifa University before leaving Israel for political reasons.”) In fact this work was hotly debated in the media and in court when it was published in Israel. His work has been strongly criticized by Benny Morris, the founder of the New Historians, the group that wants to rewrite the history of Israel to show that the founding of the modern state was fraught with missteps, mistakes, even unethical deeds. Evidently Pappé’s book goes beyond what even Morris can accept.
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