Today, we are confronting nothing short of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians of Gaza, not seen since the Nakba or Catastrophe of 1948. Yet many in the Western world are silent about the suffering. Much of what justifies Israel and its actions in the West is premised on history, and many European and American historians have been ready to present a compelling argument for Zionism and the case for Israel in the heart of the Middle East.
This historical justification, based on persecution and antisemitism, gives the story of Israel a potency that has for many years served to find acceptance in the West – of impunity to act without restraint - that is not offered to any other state. At the same time, the Palestinian story has been undermined by these same historians. They were a Bedouin community, readily able to vacate their land – it is said. Palestinians, according to leading Israeli politicians, are a mythical people.
Today, we are honoured to have Professor Avi Shlaim with us to untangle historical facts from fiction. Avi Shlaim is an eminent historian. He is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford University and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2014) and Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations (2009). Professor Shlaim is a dual Israeli British citizen who lived in the country as a child. His family originated from Iraq and migrated to the newly founded state in 1950.
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#thethinkingmuslimpodcast episode131
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:21 – Persecution of Jewish Arabs
07:21 – His Story
14:40 – Bombing attacks
26:28 – His critics
27:51 – False flag operations
33:04 – Jews under the Ottomans
38:00 – Israel and Race
43:14 – Palestinian Identity?
46:36 – Balfour Declaration
57:25 – David Lloyd George
59:46 – His wife?
1:01:17 – 1948 Nakba
1:08:30 – Gaza
1:15:07 – Context to 7 October
1:23:20 – Israeli right
1:28:10 – Israeli left
1:31:18 – Keir Starmer and Israel
1:35:08 – His memory
