Controversial Historian To Quit Israel For UK

Taken from The Jerusalem Post, Apr. 1, 2007
By JONNY PAUL

Ilan Pappe, a senior lecturer in the University of Haifa's Department of Political Science, says he is moving to the UK because it is "increasingly difficult to live in Israel" with his "unwelcome views and convictions."

In an interview in The Peninsula, Qatar's leading English-language daily, during a visit last week to Doha as a guest of the Qatar Foundation, Pappe said: "I was boycotted in my university and there had been attempts to expel me from my job. I am getting threatening calls from people every day. I am not being viewed as a threat to the Israeli society but my people think that I am either insane or my views are irrelevant. Many Israelis also believe that I am working as a mercenary for the Arabs."

Pappe is to join the History Department at Exeter University, in southwest England. He is active in anti-Israel academic boycott efforts.

Referred to in the Peninsula article as "the onlyJewish academic in Israel who is vehemently critical of Zionism," Pappe said the only solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the creation of a single state, shared by Jews, Arabs and others. He said that two independent states cannot coexist in "the land of Palestine."

He also said there was "no immediate solution to the crisis and only international pressure can force Israel to end the occupation and the continuing atrocities against the Palestinians.""Over the past six years, the Israeli government has become more oppressive, thanks to the strong support from the Bush administration. They now feel that they can do anything they want," he said.

The interviewer in Qatar admitted to being "a bit surprised" by Pappe's support for Hamas.

"A bit surprisingly," the paper wrote, Pappe said: "I support Hamas in its resistance against the Israeli occupation, though I disagree with their political ideology. I am for separating state from religion."

Pappe also questioned Israeli democracy: "Any state that perpetrates occupation cannot be called a democratic state," he said, adding that Israeli democracy was meant "only for Jews" and there is "no space for other communities."

The interview then looks at what has shaped Pappe's opinions: "Pappe's transformation from a 'typical Jew' to a strong critic of Zionism started in the 1980s while studying in the UK," it wrote.

"I reexamined the events of 1948, which changed my perceptions, and I realized how the Israeli state was formed at the expense of the Palestinians. I don't subscribe to the view that a community which has a claim to a land that goes back thousands of years had the right to occupy it by dispossessing indigenous communities," Pappe said.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "After taking full advantage of all the freedoms accorded to him in Israel, a country he has so shamelessly attacked, Pappe has decided to set up shop here. Whilst this provides the opportunity for academics here to challenge him on his revisionist agenda, the uncomfortable fact is that in the lecture theaters and seminar rooms at Exeter, many impressionable young minds will be exposed to his partial and biased views."

Mitch Simmons, campaign director of the Union of Jewish Students, said: "We not angry or frustrated that he's coming to the UK. What is of concern is that he may use his position to vocalize support for the boycott of Israeli academics."

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Dr. Ilan Pappe is a great man. He is one of many Jews in Isreal that tries to point the wrongs that have been done by the State of Israel. He has been correcting misinformation of Israeli history from citing the atrocities done by the Israeli regime against the Palestinians (which had been wiped off from history) but he also stated unhelpfulness of some Arab states against the Palestinians. He is a person who is not afraid to speak his mind and tell the truth. Alas now he is paying the price. There has been a campaign in Israel against lecturers who sway to the left. Many university professors and lecturers have been targeted by Zionists and hate groups and had been overlooked for promotion.

A recent book by Ilan Pappe “The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine” is out in all good bookshops. It offers a scorching indictment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people in The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine. Through a meticulous account of events around the 1948 'War of Independence', he effectively demonstrates that the mass displacement of about 1million Palestinians was not a voluntary exodus but rather a planned act of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government against a defenceless people. Using recently declassified Israeli military archives, cabinet meeting minutes and memoirs of key players such as David Ben-Gurion, he shows that direct comparisons can be drawn with events in the former Yugoslavia. Pappe makes the case that peace can never be achieved as long as Israel denies committing war crimes and refuses Palestinians the right of return. He also offers an antidote to Israel's attempt to wipe out Palestinian heritage by recording where some razed towns and villages once stood, amassing a sad litany of destruction and loss.

Read the book and read his blog.

http://www.ilanpappe.org/