Avi Shlaim: Israel has lost the argument but….
JVL Introduction
Professor Emeritus Avi Shlaim has published a new book of essays, “Genocide in Gaza: Israel’s Long War on Palestine”.:“the book’s essays stem from a deeply felt (and historically inflected) sense of “moral duty to speak truth to power and to stand by the Palestinians in their hour of need”. With exactitude and ethical clarity, he records the many war crimes, including genocide, that Israel has perpetrated and normalised against the Palestinian people, whose right to self-determination and basic humanity have been relentlessly assaulted and died, in full view of the world. In doing so, the book offers an unflinching dissection of the racist and settler-colonial logic that frames Israeli political and military practices.”,
In this interview with Novara Media he talks about the book and his own journey from zionism, which largely resulted from finding out the truth from the archives. As Ilan Pappe found when researching for his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, the IDF archives from the 1940s provided valuable and incontrovertible information. But as Avi Shlaim says:” That’s how I became radicalised – by calling out what I saw from Israel’s actual records as opposed to its propaganda. Netanyahu has now closed the reading room in Israeli state archives.” (my emph. Ed) Even in the face of so much hasbara, Israel’s leaders are frightened that its own citizens might discover the truth!
LL
This article was originally published by Novara Media on Fri 21 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
‘We’re Witnessing the Last Gasp of Israeli Violence’: In Conversation With Avi Shlaim
‘Zionism is in the process of destroying itself.’
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I have heard Avi Shlaim speak in Oxford many times and have always been impressed. The other historian to heed is Ilan Pappe at Exeter university. He was driven out from his university post by terrorist threats from Israeli Jews who did not like the history he wrote.
Avi Shlaim states it all in clear simple terms which all the activists for freedom and justice for Palestinians feel. He is right in saying Israel and Zionism are self destructing . Israel always went too far in its complete lack of humanity and it’s impunity bolstered by the US, UK and many EU countries. Zionism must be dismantled as it has shown itself as a genocidal cruel ideology that is pathological. Those leaders who collaborate with Israel should all be in the dock at the ICC, particularly Trump. But we need them to stop the agony of the Palestinian people under the cruel genocide NOW!!!!