The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem [Paperback]

Nur Masalha (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0745321208 | ISBN-13: 978-0745321202 | Edition: 1

The 1948 war ended in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their villages and homes. Israeli settlers moved in to occupy their land and the Palestinian refugees found themselves in refugee camps, or in neighbouring Arab countries. Today there are nearly four million Palestinian refugees -- and they want the right to go home. Their problem is the greatest and most enduring refugee problem in the world. Since 1948 Israeli refugee policy has become a classic case of denial: the denial that Zionist "transfer committees" had operated between 1937 and 1948; denial of any wrong-doing or any historical injustice; denial of the "right of return"; denial of restitution of property and compensation; and indeed denial of any moral responsibility or culpability for the creation of the refugee problem.The aim of this book is to analyse Israeli policies towards the Palestinian refugees as they evolved from the 1948 catastrophe (or nakba) to the present. It is the first volume to look in detail at Israeli law and policy surrounding the refugee question. Drawing on extensive primary sources and previously classified archive material, Masalha discusses the 1948 exodus; Israeli resettlement schemes since 1948; Israeli approaches to compensation and restitution of property; Israeli refugee policies towards the internally displaced (‘present absentees’); and Israeli refugee policies during the Madrid and Oslo negotiations. Masalha asks what rights Palestinians possess under international law? How can a refugee population be compensated, and will they ever be able to return to their homes? Masalha questions the official Israeli position that the only solution to the problem is resettlement of the refugees in Arab states or elsewhere. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the subject that lies at the heart of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While this book is couched in the quiet, objective language of scholarship, there's little doubt about the author's intentions: he has written a treatise for the cause of Palestinian refugees. Masalha details in activist language the Palestinian case: the "Zionists" created the refugee problem during the Israeli war of independence in 1948, and Israel has been in denial ever since. Masalha (Imperial Israel and the Palestinians) displays a wide knowledge of the literature on the topic, and this allows him to make some valuable points: that Israel was built on the myth that Palestine was an empty land that needed settlement; that many Palestinians lost their homes in 1967, even though the 1948 refugees receive the most attention. But the author fails to display a nuanced understanding of both sides in the conflict-he fails to draw a distinction among the positions of various Israeli governments and different strands of Zionism. For example, he attributes one goal to all of Zionism in writing that in the 1967 victory, "Zionism at last had reached its aim of controlling the whole of Palestine." Ignoring Palestinian violence and its own national myths throughout, Masalha paints a complex situation in black-and-white, as when he dismisses the possibility that the refugees might have been better off assimilating into Arab countries rather than living for decades in squalid refugee camps and being used as diplomatic pawns by Arab nations. As a result, the author limits his readership to the already convinced.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Nur Masalha is the author of A Land Without A People (1997) and Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of 'Transfer' in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (1992). His previous book for Pluto Press is Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion (2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press; 1 edition (October 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745321208
• ISBN-13: 978-0745321202
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,309,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nur Masalha is a Palestinian historian and academic. He is currently Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of the Centre for Religion and History and the Holy Land Research Project at St Mary's University College (University of Surrey, UK) and Professorial Research Associate, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). He is also the editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, published by Edinburgh University Press, and the author of many books on Palestine-Israel.
Masalha is also the historian commentator in the award-winning, documentary film "La Terre Parle Arabe" (the Land Speaks Arabic) (2007), directed by Maryse Gargour, which tells the story of the background and build-up to the 1948 Nakba and the expulsion of the Palestinians from the newly-created State of Israel.