Summer reading on Palestine

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Being on holiday has given me time to read two new books about Palestine.

Unfortunately, the one I have just finished is disappointing. 

Deluge, a collection of essays on Gaza edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner, notes that Israel’s allegations that Hamas forces “engaged in widespread mutilation, beheading and rape [on 7 October 2023] had not been substantiated” before the book’s publication. “If those claims prove accurate, this would constitute another grim novelty from an organization that has historically eschewed such tactics.”

In fact, the allegations were always dishonest. Through this phrasing, Stern-Weiner and his team hint that there may be some truth in lies told so that Israel could get away with genocide.

Despite that major flaw, the book contains a devastating critique of Ursula von der Leyen, who abused her position as European Commission president to offer Israel total support while it was massacring Palestinians. The critique was written by Clare Daly, until recently an elected representative.

I strongly recommend, too, the contribution from Ahmed Alnaouq, whose family were obliterated in an Israeli air strike. Ahmed lists the names of his father, siblings, nieces and nephews who were slaughtered.

Tears welled up as I got to the end of his list. Among the many victims were Mahmoud, “my little brother.” 

My own little brother Aindriú died almost two years ago, albeit under vastly different circumstances (he had cancer).

The other book I have managed to finish is Ilan Pappé’s Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic.

It traces how Israel’s state ideology has its roots in the activities of Protestant preachers during the nineteenth century. 

The alliance between Israel and right-wing Christians remains strong to this day. Benjamin Netanyahu has been courting Americans who regard Israel’s foundation as the fulfilment of a biblical prophecy for decades. 

Of course, support for Israel is not confined to the evangelical. Pappé demonstrates how Israel’s advocates have insisted that nominally liberal politicians back a vicious apartheid state. 

According to Israel’s logic, anyone genuinely sympathetic towards Palestinians must be defeated. That explains why the lobby - with more than a little help from the mainstream media - repeatedly made baseless accusations of anti-Semitism against Britain’s Labour Party when Jeremy Corbyn was its leader.

Pappé’s erudition is beyond dispute. His great strength is that he shares his knowledge in a way that is accessible and even entertaining.