The Israel-Palestine Question is the ninth volume in the
Routledge Series of Rewriting Histories. The series "focuses on
historical themes where standard conclusions are facing a major
challenge." The historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict with a
critical reassessment of Israel's past are the focus area of this
volume, presenting the most recent developments pertaining to them.
Palestinians are brought back into the pre-Mandate history of
Palestine, whereas Israeli and some Western sources have
traditionally neglected them and their presence in the country.
Some of Israel's and of Zionism's myths of early Jewish immigration
and those surrounding the establishment of the state come under
serious examination that calls for a new approach to understanding
Israel's past in light of the present.
The Significance of Rewriting History
As a collection of already published articles and papers on the
history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and on Palestinian and Israeli
perspectives, this volume provides a framework for understanding
the debate that goes on with respect to the rewriting of history in
Palestine and Israel. Rewriting history is a challenging
undertaking because it forces us to look at the past, knowing what
we, at present, know about ourselves and our adversaries. It
motivates some to undertake the rewriting or to posit new
approaches and methodologies that challenge old narratives and
ideologies.
Among the Palestinian contributors, Beshara Doumani seeks to
"Rediscover[ing] Ottoman Palestine: Writing Palestinians into
History." Doumani searches for the roots and sensitizes the reader
to them as he explores the economic and cultural life of those
inhabitants of the land who would eventually identify themselves as
Palestinians. By doing this, Doumani shows that communal and
national identification are not dependent on outsiders and their
selective definition, but rather on the experiences and shared
economy and culture that lie at the base of the common identity of
Palestinians.
Butrus Abu Manneh in "The Rise of the Sanjak of Jerusalem in the
Late Nineteenth Century" illustrates that boundaries of an
administrative nature, such as the rise of the Sanjak of Jerusalem
in 1872, affect group definition and the identification of the
people with Jerusalem as their center. As such, the rise of the
Sanjak of Jerusalem under Ottoman rule accelerated the process of
Palestinian communal identification in all parts of the country.
Thus administrative measures helped shape or mold communal
identities and prepared the ground for the eventual emergence of
the Palestinian national identity. Both Doumani's and Abu Manneh's
articles poignantly argue that the roots of Palestinian national
identity were there prior to the arrival of Jewish immigrants and
the Zionist movement. This argument goes counter to those Israeli
and Zionist historians who see the emergence of the Arab national
movement in Palestine as simply an answer to the Zionist
movement.
Zionist Origins
A central theme of the volume has to do with the reconsideration of
the origins of Zionism in Palestine. While the Palestinians have
argued that the Zionist enterprise in Palestine has been
colonialist from its start, Israeli historians and scholars have
discounted this argument. Uri Ram, among other scholars, has
applied a daring methodological and theoretical approach to look at
how Israeli sociology views the colonization perspectives. This
approach would not have been possible before the nineties with the
coming of age of Israeli society, especially as a result of the
occupation of Palestinian lands, the settlement policies of various
Israeli governments in the West Bank and Gaza, and the
Intifada.
Gershon Shafir argues in "Zionism and Colonialism: A comparative
Approach" that early Zionism was a colonialist phenomenon. He
relates Israeli colonialism post-1967 to pre-1948 Zionism. This is
a novel and radical departure from standard Israeli interpretation
of the Zionist movement and its beginnings. Shafir comes very close
to the Palestinian perspective on Zionism as colonialism. While
this can provide common grounds for rewriting history or for
writing an encompassing history of the land, the overwhelming
majority of Israelis are far away from even the contemplation of
such a proposition.
Rewriting history is not simply challenging to official myths and
interpretations, it also questions the elitist perspective on
history. "Forgotten communities" of workers, women, peasants and
youths are brought into history. Zachary Lockman in "Railway
Workers and Relational History" analyses the relationship between
Jewish and Arab railway workers in the twenties and shows how the
Zionist trade unions were not for class and worker solidarity
between Jews and Arabs.
Writing history "from below," as Doumani calls it, is also espoused
by Ted Swedenburg as he explores "The Role of the Palestinian
Peasantry in the Great Revolt (1936-1939)." Swedenburg sees the
Great Revolt of 1936 as an anti-elite movement that forced family
elite notables to follow suit. It was also an anti-colonialist
expression, par excellence, similar to the role that Palestinian
youth played in mounting the Intifada in the late eighties. The
accomplishments of peasants and youth may be harvested by others,
but any rewriting of history must take their revolt and uprising
into serious consideration to be accurately reflective of the
history of Palestine, its tribulations and achievements.
Avi Shlaim's "The Debate about 1948" shows that, on basic themes
surrounding the war and the eventual establishment of Israel, the
presentations by official Zionist bodies lack grounds and hence
amount to myths rather than facts. Among these myths, the pro-Arab
British policy that aimed at encouraging the Arab allies,
particularly Jordan, to invade Palestine upon the termination of
the British Mandate is definitely discounted. The Israeli victory
in the face of insurmountable military odds, i.e., the imbalance
between the Arab Goliath and the Jewish David, was put into
perspective. It turns out that "at each stage of the war, the IDF
[the Israel Defense Forces] significantly outnumbered all the Arab
forces ranged against it and, by the final stage, its superiority
ratio was nearly two to one" (p. 181).
A third question pertains to the origins of the Palestinian refugee
problem and revolves around whether they left of their own accord
or were forced to leave. Shlaim reviews Benny Morris's work on the
topic that principally argues that "the Palestinian refugee problem
was born of war, not by design, Jewish or Arab" (p. 182). As Shlaim
points out, Palestinian and Western reviewers of Morris's work feel
that the evidence found in his book implicates Israel in the
creation of the refugee problem in a more serious manner than
Morris cares to conclude.
A fourth issue is that of Israeli-Jordanian relations and, here,
contrary to official Israeli accounts, Shlaim points to collusion
rather than adversity. His book Collusion across the Jordan was, at
the time, sharply criticized by the old Israeli historians and was
certainly not well received east of the River Jordan.
A fifth topic is that of Arab war aims. Whereas the old historians
argued that the Arabs wanted to destroy the newly created Jewish
state, Shlaim sees the reality as more complex. In fact, he states
that "there was no single Arab plan of action during the 1948 war.
On the contrary, it was the inability of the Arabs to coordinate
their diplomatic and military plans that was in large measure
responsible for the disaster that overwhelmed them" (p. 187). This
statement by Shlaim would not surprise Palestinian and Arab
historians and certainly not the Arab and Palestinian masses who
have been arguing this since 1948.
The Cost of Peace
The last issue that divides old and new Israeli historians is that
of the elusive peace. The official Israeli position advances Arab
intransigence as the greatest obstacle to making peace between the
new state and the neighboring Arab states. Shlaim, however, argues
that Arab leaders were more willing to make peace with Israel than
the Israelis officially credited them with. Ben-Gurion himself
showed signs of intransigence since he felt that the cost of peace
with the Arabs could be so exorbitant, especially on the question
of the return of Palestinian refugees, among other things. Hence
Shlaim's agreement with the argument of the new historians that
"Israel's intransigence was the much more serious obstacle on the
road to peace" (p. 189).
Benny Morris examines "The Causes and Character of the Arab Exodus
from Palestine." While this selection is from Morris's second book
on the war of 1948, his first, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee
Problem, is the better-known work. Morris chooses to reflect
through a multi-causal analysis of the flight an understanding of
what happened. It rejects, on the one hand, "the Israeli claim of
voluntary flight and, on the other hand, the Palestinian narrative
of mass expulsion" (p. 193). Israelis do not subscribe to the
narrative of mass expulsion and insist that Palestinians left of
their own will and at the behest of their leaders. Morris
dismantles this latter perception and shows, in his first book, how
the expulsion of Palestinians "was accompanied by massacres and
brutal conduct" (p. 193). Clearly, Palestinian historians, as well
as Ilan Pappe, reject Morris's conclusion that is essentially of
the "flight of Palestinian refugees by mere war rather than by
preplanned design."
Nur Masalha presents "A Critique on Benny Morris." He does not
accept Morris's conclusion that the flight in 1948 was not the
result of "Zionist ideology or the implementation of a master plan"
(p. 211). Rather, Masalha sees what transpired in 1948 with the
expulsion of the Palestinians as the fulfillment of Zionist
transfer plans from as early as 1882. Nur Masalha's article points
to the wide gap that still exists between Israeli and Palestinian
historiography. Hence, to Masalha, expulsion did not occur
spontaneously as a result of the war, but was rather a planned
event that sought to empty the land of as many Arabs as
possible.
Both Nadim Rouhana and As'ad Ghanem address "The Democratization of
a Traditional Minority in an Ethnic Democracy." Their argument is
that the Palestinians in Israel have struggled throughout their
minority history for democracy and national identity. They posit
that the process of democratization did not reduce the national
commitment and cultural outlook of the Palestinians in Israel. In
fact, democracy among the Arabs in Israel, at least until 1993,
when the book from which this selection was taken was published,
proved to be a cementing block for community development. As such,
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Israelis, may
learn relevant things if they examined more intensely the
Palestinian experience within Israel.
Finally, Islah Jad focuses on another forgotten group as she spans
"From Salons to the Popular Committees: Palestinian Women,
1919-1989." Jad seeks to point out the similarities and
dissimilarities in women's participation in the Palestinian
national struggle throughout the crucial years. She notes the shift
in attitude towards women and their participation in public life,
especially, under the Intifada. And yet, the currents in
Palestinian society that seek to contain women and their
participation remain varied. Hence, the struggle for the
affirmation of women's role in society continues.
Reading History Anew
The challenge of Ilan Pappe's edited work is twofold: First, it
delineates the evolving historiography on both sides of the divide
that seeks to present a different authenticated narrative, on the
one hand, and that puts emphasis on the forgotten groups, on the
other. Second, rewriting history, as the collection of articles in
this work suggests, points to the existence of scholarly trends in
both societies that examine the potential of reading history away
from a narrow dualistic perspective that necessarily pits one side
against the other.
These two challenges force one to assess the potential of a new
historiography on both sides that would bring historians,
sociologists and other scholars and intellectuals to narrowing the
gaps that divide them in their historical analyses and
interpretations. The task is not a simple one and, I fear, it will
have to await transformations in the two societies that would
eventually push towards greater convergence in the assessment of
the present and the understanding of the past.