Please recommend a book on the history of the conflict.

[HvalaALot]

One that looks at both sides of the conflict.

I need to understand the complexities of it all!

I remember thinking “Cursed Victory” by Ahron Bergman was quite good but been a while since I read it.

The Palestine-Israeli Conflict by Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami

"The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East" by David HirstDavid. Myth-breaking book explores the historical events, political decisions, and violence that have shaped the Israel-Palestine conflict, with a particular focus on the Arab perspective.

This one is OK but I would read a range of different books from authors with perspectives. I don't think anyone should take one writers point of view only

There's a podcast called Empire on Google Podcasts which covers this. It's also on Spotify I believe.

podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vZW1waXJlcG9kY2FzdA/episode/Yzk0M2E0YzAtY2NjNy0xMWVkLWJjOWEtNmZjM2M2ZmZhNzM4?ep=14

@HvalaALot
This one is written by a Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at a UK University:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZVYTSMF?smid=A1G3UP32AZJ14F&tag=pepperugc03-21&ascsubtag=2591751106

An eye opener!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palestine-Israel-Conflict-Fourth-Basic-Introduction/dp/0745399266/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25M2IQVUVZF7Q&keywords=gregory+harms&qid=1698135415&sprefix=gregory+har%2Caps%2C453&sr=8-1

This also by two great academics Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palestine-Noam-Chomsky/dp/024197352X/ref=pd_aw_vtp_h_pd_aw_vtp_h_sccl_1/259-3139523-3707461?pd_rd_w=joMel&content-id=amzn1.sym.98c8ff4c-edfd-4029-b8e3-2391e170277c&pf_rd_p=98c8ff4c-edfd-4029-b8e3-2391e170277c&pf_rd_r=ZJEHQD9GAQFHR5KE5SXN&pd_rd_wg=pBDuS&pd_rd_r=b261bdd4-a11a-4ca6-b464-9b220ef2b40f&pd_rd_i=024197352X&psc=1

There's a podcast on bbc sounds that helps a bit too - called understand

Son of Hamas, an insider's perspective.

This covers the years of the Mandate and is very good.

Rory Stewart did a podcast where the first 10 minutes covers the historical background - obviously in brief

Both these authors are antisemites Ohlalalalala. You won't get a nuanced history by reading anything they write. Dome Jews like Chomsky are also antisemitic.

My Promised Land by Ari Shavit.

Secret Landscape by Meron Benvenisti

Now even Jews are called antisemites???? Anti-themselves???? Please! Anti Zionists yes; anti-semites, definitely not. Both Chomsky and Pappe are great academics whose work is evidence-based research centered around facts.

You should rethink your definitions.

I don't need to rethink my definitions thank you. Both these men are antisemitic. Being academics doesn't preclude them from writing biased information. You do not get both sides of the history from them.

And yes there are Jews who are against other Jews. Sadly.

"The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East" by Sandy Tolan

"Palestine" by Joe Sacco

"My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel" by Ari Shavit

"The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World" by Avi Shlaim
"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pappé- this is a highly regarded book, by many

"Orientalism" by Edward Said

They are against Israel not Jews. It's laughable how some people want to stifle any criticism of Israel by branding anyone who does as antisemitic, even Jews themselves! They are just telling the truth as it is. Being accused of being antisemitic is beyond comprehension.

Edited to say this is a reply to @sunshinesupermum

I completely agree with the last two. I'll have a look at the other ones, thank you!

Questioning something is not the same as being against something.

But because people think it is, is why this issue will never be resolved.

Anyone willing to meet in the middle / compromise / talk / try to make progress / see the other side, i.e. be anything other than 100% supportive of their side is eschewed and dismissed.

This issue will never be resolved as long as people think like this.

To gain insights, you definitely need to consider multiple sources of information.

A Line in the Sand is also a great earlier history of the region which looks at how British and French foreign policy shaped the current conflict.

Also recommend a podcast called 'Conflicted' - season 3 looks at the broader regional dynamics and is a potted history of the conflict.

Incidentally (or not, in fact, incidentally), there are a lot of white men sharing their deep and meaningful on the conflict. There are very few non fiction Palestinian authors getting published (more fiction about, especially from the diaspora). Female authors are rare. Rashid Khalidi's book (100 Years War) is one of those but make sure you seek out Arab voices too, not just a bunch of retired diplomats and 'thinkers'.

@Croissantsandpistachio A Line in the Sand by James Barr is a good read. His other book, Lords of the Desert, Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East, is very relevant too.

Here's another book, by a Palestinian this time:
Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956 (New Directions in Palestinian Studies Book 6) https://amzn.eu/d/2z8mbZV

"Beginning in 1948, Israeli paramilitary forces began violently displacing Palestinian Arabs from Palestine. Nakba and Survival tells the stories of Palestinians in Haifa and the Galilee during, and in the decade after, mass dispossession. Manna uses oral histories and Palestinian and Israeli archives, diaries, and memories to meticulously reconstruct the social history of the Palestinians who remained and returned to become Israeli citizens. This book focuses in particular on the Galilee, using the story of Manna's own family and their village Majd al-Krum after the establishment of Israel to shed light on the cruelties faced by survivors of the military regime. While scholars of the Palestinian national movement have often studied Palestinian resistance to Israel as related to the armed struggle and the cultural struggle against the Jewish state, Manna shows that remaining in Israel under the brutality of occupation and fighting to return to Palestinian communities after displacement are acts of heroism in their own right."

@Ohlalalalala that looks an interesting one, thanks.

I've not seen Farha on Netflix yet but some Arab friends have recommended it. Whatever you may personally think about the events that Palestinians call the Nakba, it's really important to understand the importance of it and the experience of it by Palestinians to understand the current conflict. And it's a female filmmaker and a woman's story.

Anything by Fred Halliday