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A review by pushingdessy
Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question by Edward W. Said, Christopher Hitchens
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
❌️ CEASEFIRE NOW ❌️
To further educate myself on Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine, I’m still going through some of the books I downloaded for free through the Verso Books website.
This is a collection of essays and editorials set out to disprove some of the lies fabricated through academic research and supported in the USA to uphold the myths of Israel, and it's split into four parts.
“Part one: The Peters affair” is devoted to contesting Joan Peters' book “From time immemorial”, which maintained that there isn’t such thing as a Palestinian or Palestinian history (!!).
“Part two: Myths old and new” presents findings on alleged broadcasts from Palestinian leaders that urged the people to leave, as well as how the notion of terrorism operates in the USAmerican ideological system and how it’s been weaponised against the Middle East.
“Part three: The ‘Liberal’ Alternative” is a review of Michael Walzer’s “Exodus and Revolution: A Canaanite reading”.
“Part four: Scholarship ancient and modern” offers a profile of Palestinian history and politics, including the role of peasant resistance, and the Zionist negation of the Palestinian Question.
While unquestionably valuable, this wasn’t an easy book to get through. Largely, it’s a conversation with other texts, and so it’s dense with references, facts and figures to challenge long-held lies. While I did learn some new information, this is more of a specialized book aimed at scholars than an intro to the subject - I would recommend “Ten myths about Israel” or “The punishment of Gaza” instead.
To further educate myself on Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine, I’m still going through some of the books I downloaded for free through the Verso Books website.
This is a collection of essays and editorials set out to disprove some of the lies fabricated through academic research and supported in the USA to uphold the myths of Israel, and it's split into four parts.
“Part one: The Peters affair” is devoted to contesting Joan Peters' book “From time immemorial”, which maintained that there isn’t such thing as a Palestinian or Palestinian history (!!).
“Part two: Myths old and new” presents findings on alleged broadcasts from Palestinian leaders that urged the people to leave, as well as how the notion of terrorism operates in the USAmerican ideological system and how it’s been weaponised against the Middle East.
“Part three: The ‘Liberal’ Alternative” is a review of Michael Walzer’s “Exodus and Revolution: A Canaanite reading”.
“Part four: Scholarship ancient and modern” offers a profile of Palestinian history and politics, including the role of peasant resistance, and the Zionist negation of the Palestinian Question.
While unquestionably valuable, this wasn’t an easy book to get through. Largely, it’s a conversation with other texts, and so it’s dense with references, facts and figures to challenge long-held lies. While I did learn some new information, this is more of a specialized book aimed at scholars than an intro to the subject - I would recommend “Ten myths about Israel” or “The punishment of Gaza” instead.