Includes bibliographical references (pages 314-340) and index.
Contents
Introduction: debating the idea of Israel -- pt. 1. The scholarly and fictional idea of Israel -- The 'objective' history of the land and the people -- The alien who became a terrorist: the Palestinian in Zionist thought -- The war of 1948 in word and image -- pt. 2. Israel's post-Zionist moment -- The trailblazers -- Recognizing the Palestinian catastrophe: the 1948 war revisited -- The emergence of post-Zionist academia, 1990-2000 -- Touching the raw nerves of society: Holocaust memory in Israel -- The idea of Israel and the Arab Jews -- The post-Zionist cultural moment -- On the Post-Zionist stage and screen -- The triumph of neo-Zionism -- The neo-Zionist new historians -- Epilogue: brand Israel 2013.
Summary
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. Pappe himself was part of the post-Zionist movement that arose then. 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. 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.
