Please recommend a book re the history/conflict/politics

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

Watching the news now and I realise my knowledge of events leading up to where we are now in Israel and Palestine is lacking. Being completely honest, this is what I’m hazy on:

• who lived on the mass of land known as Israel/Palestine originally, because both sides feel it is there’s.
• why was that particular mass of land designated a homeland?
• Why does two states not work?
• who are the “settlers”
• are there parts of the country that neither side is prepared to concede - Jerusalem for example?

Can anyone recommend a straightforward book explaining the history? DH has suggested Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk. Any others? *I know I should know all this, but I don’t and I want to. I’ve tried to make the OP as nonpartisan as possible. TIA

I recommend The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. He presents most of it and it’s succinct

Edward Said’s books are really informative as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16770310.Edward_W_Said

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
(Anything by Ilan Pappe is worth reading, but that's a good one to start with).

Second both of the above!

Also, someone on Twitter has compiled this - I have read most (but not quite all) of these: https://twitter.com/aaolomi/status/1721638808729670117

On 1948, for someone from another POV, also read Benny Morris. I find him hard to stomach because his take is, basically "yes, rape, murder, etnic cleansing - just not quite complete enough". But it is good and necessary reading to get a better grasp on various perspectives!

You will struggle with /a/ book, because you will find that particular books present particular visions of the past.

For a book about 'who lived where when', although only focused on Jerusalem, I quite enjoyed Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem: The Biography. In the more modern sections, it talks also about the early 20th century fights over the region more generally, including the British making competing promises to the Jews, the Arabs, and the French.

For some discussion in 'moments' of modern Israeli history, I quite liked Avi Shavit's My Promised Land (except for its a short useless sex-focused chapter on Tel Aviv nightlife.). Although see also this essay dealing with one chapter of Shavit's book, and questioning it:

Anything by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Rashid Khalidi. They are academics and their work is excellent.

Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
On Palestine
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00SUFJ61Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1699513489&sr=8-1

Ilan Pappé
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe-ebook/dp/B07ZVYTSMF/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1ZND16NIISGSE&keywords=the+ethnic+cleansing+of+palestine&qid=1699513555&sprefix=the+eth%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1

Rashid Khalidi
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: The New York Times Bestseller
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07PJXLBTW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Brilliant thank you all so much for taking the time to do this. Right, time to start.