Nur Masalha

A Four-thousand-year History

Palestine

In 2009, Palestinians commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Nakba - the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell them. The Palestine Nakba explores ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba, dealing with the issue within the context of Palestinian oral history, "social history from below," narratives of memory, and the formation of collective identity. Masalha argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practice a professional historiography but a moral imperative. The struggles of the ordinary refugees to publicize the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting the refugees' rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive. With the history, rights, and needs of the Palestinian refugees being excluded from recent Middle East peacemaking efforts and with the failure of both the Israeli state and international community to acknowledge the Nakba, "1948" as an "ethnic cleansing" continues to underpin the Palestine-Israel conflict. This book is vital for a real understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Decolonising History and Reclaiming Memory

The Palestine Nakba

The Concept of "transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948

Expulsion of the Palestinians

Ahmad H. Sa'di

Indigenous Perspectives and Settler Colonialism after Elia Zureik

Decolonizing the Study of Palestine

Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem

The Politics Of Denial

Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees

Catastrophe Remembered

This text investigates the Biblical justification for Zionism & charts the historical rise of Zionism since its 19th century roots. Providing a contribution to the argument for a single democratic & secular Israeli state, it shows how the biblical language of 'chosen people' & 'promised land' is used to justify ethnic division & violence.

Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel

The Bible and Zionism

In this magisterial cultural history of the Palestinians, Nur Masalha illuminates the entire history of Palestinian learning with specific reference to writing, education, literary production and the intellectual revolutions in the country. The book introduces this long cultural heritage to demonstrate that Palestine was not just a 'holy land' for the four monotheistic religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Samaritanism – rather, the country evolved to become a major international site of classical education and knowledge production in multiple languages including Sumerian, Proto-Canaanite, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. The cultural saturation of the country is found then, not solely in landmark mosques, churches and synagogues, but in scholarship, historic schools, colleges, famous international libraries and archival centres. This unique book unites these renowned institutions, movements and multiple historical periods for the first time, presenting them as part of a cumulative and incremental intellectual advancement rather than disconnected periods of educational excellence. In doing so, this multifaceted intellectual history transforms the orientations of scholarly research on Palestine and propels current historical knowledge on education and literacy in Palestine to new heights.

A History of Literacy, Learning and Educational Revolutions

Palestine Across Millennia

Doctor Nahla Abdo

Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine's multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.

A Four Thousand Year History

‫فلسطين

Throughout the history of European imperialism the grand narratives of the Bible have been used to justify settler-colonialism. "The Zionist Bible" explores the ways in which modern political Zionism and Israeli militarism have used the Bible - notably the Book of Joshua and its description of the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land - as an agent of oppression and to support settler-colonialism in Palestine. The rise of messianic Zionism in the late 1960s saw the beginnings of a Jewish theology of zealotocracy, based on the militant land traditions of the Bible and justifying the destruction of the previous inhabitants. "The Zionist Bible" examines how the birth and growth of the State of Israel has been shaped by this Zionist reading of the Bible, how it has refashioned Israeli-Jewish collective memory, erased and renamed Palestinian topography, and how critical responses to this reading have challenged both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism.

Biblical Precedent, Colonialism and the Erasure of Memory

The Zionist Bible

Transfer - a euphemism denoting the organized removal of the Arab population of Palestine to neighbouring or distant countries - is deeply rooted in Zionism. Palestine, in Zionist thought, is a land without a people for a people without a land - a vacant territory waiting for settlers, with Palestinian residents who are not attached to the land by historical or cultural ties.

Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians, 1949-96

A Land Without a People

Analyses Israeli policies towards Palestinian refugees from 1948 to the present.

The Politics of Denial

In 2018, Palestinians mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when over 750,000 people were uprooted and forced to flee their homes in the early days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even today, the bitterness and trauma of the Nakba remains raw, and it has become the pivotal event both in the shaping of Palestinian identity and in galvanising the resistance to occupation. Unearthing an unparalleled body of rich oral testimony, An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba tells the story of this epochal event through the voices of the Palestinians who lived it, uncovering remarkable new insights both into Palestinian experiences of the Nakba and into the wider dynamics of the ongoing conflict. Drawing together Palestinian accounts from 1948 with those of the present day, the book confronts the idea of the Nakba as an event consigned to the past, instead revealing it to be an ongoing process aimed at the erasure of Palestinian memory and history. In the process, each unique and wide-ranging contribution leads the way for new directions in Palestinian scholarship.

An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba

A critical history of Israel's expanisionist politics that reveals how imperialist tendencies run the gamut from Left to Right.

The Politics of Expansion

Imperial Israel and the Palestinians

Writing about Palestine and the Palestinians continue to be controversial. Until the late 1980s, the question of Palestine was approached through Western social theories that had appeared after World War 2. This endowed European settlers and colonists the mission of guiding the "backward" natives of Palestine to modernity. However, since the work of Palestinian scholar Elia Zureik, the study of Israel, and the "ethnic relations" in Palestine-Israel has been radically shifted. Building on Zureik's work, this book studies the colonial project in Palestine and how it has transformed Palestinians' lives. Zureik had argued that Israel was the product of a colonization process and so should be studied through the same concepts and theorization as South Africa, Rhodesia, Australia, and other colonial societies. He also rejected the moral and civilizational superiority of the European settlers. Developing this work, the contributors here argue that colonialism is not only a political-economic system but also a "mode of life" and consciousness, which has far-reaching consequences for both the settlers and the indigenous population. Across 13 chapters (in addition to the introduction and the afterward), the book covers topics such as settler colonialism, dispossession, the separation wall, surveillance technologies, decolonisation methodologies and popular resistance. Composed mostly of Palestinian scholars and scholars of Palestinian heritage, it is the first book in which the indigenous Palestinians not merely "write back", but principally aim to lay the foundations for decolonial social science research on Palestine.

Nur Masalha

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