On Palestine

Two respected scholars, advocates for justice for Palestinians, because most Americans, and others, hear only the Israeli side of the history of Palestine-Israel. I've read several of ProfessorIlan Pappe's historical studies on the subject. Native-born Israeli and educated in Israel, as well as other universities, Pappe is nevertheless an objective, unbiased scholar who educates the reader about the history of injustices suffered by Palestinians at the hands of Zionist Jews, going back to the 1890's, and at the hands of the British beginning with their colonialism in the early 1900's--see the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which the British overlords promised all of Palestine would be given to the Zionist Jews, without consulting the Palestinians who comprised the vast majority of the residents on the land, maybe about 85 %.In a similar way, in November 1947 the fledgling United Nations approved the Partition of Palestine by which the Zionist Jews, mostly recent immigrants from Europe, would take over more than half of Palestine--again the long-time Palestinian residents were not consulted, even though they still made up the vast majority of Palestine's population. So when David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the political, military state of Israel in May 1948, and enforced the Partition of Palestine, it is understandable that the injustice done to the Palestinians resulted in resistance and conflict between the Palestinians and the Zionist Jewish colonizers.

Set in a conversational format, the discussions between the author & the key speakers lend a lot of context to the Palestinian issue & even though this book was published in 2015, it holds a lot of relevance today as it addresses the past , present & future of the Palestinian state

I didn't take notes on this book, I just read it, which is unusual for me. I won't be supplying my usual details comments. But I will say, if you're looking for some insight into the history and current state of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, you could do worse than read these interviews and essays.

This book offers a great discussion and critical analysis of historical facts by two of the greatest scholars on Palestine.

The info in this book rings true today

Chomsky, Pappe, and Barat have assembled an unvarnished discussion of the current horrors in Gaza and the West Bank imposed by Israel. They are Jewish eyewitnesses who point out all the injustice of the Zionist concept that requires brutal ethnic cleansing to achieve their ultimate goal of an Israel that includes all the land of historic Palestine but contains few Arabs. While grinding to that goal, Israel participates in pseudo peace talks intended only to stall while their campaign of settlement, crushing economic and military assaults advance toward that goal. With Barat's direction, Chomsky and Pappe engage in a thoughtful discussion of why a two-state solution is unlikely to be possible and why only a single, secular and democratic state can prevent Israel from leading to its own destruction. Don't think you understand the Israel-Palestine situation until you read this book.

Important literature, highly recommend

The book seems hastily put together from bits and pieces of dialog between the individuals featured. While there is no question of the validity of the claims, there is not much insight to build on for one who would be in a position to change a dirty piece of history.