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A review by an_library_stan
On Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.0
This was a solid read. I sometimes have a hard time with published interviews, because they presume a lot of prior knowledge. I got some high level takeaways and things to read more about, but I think a lot of the details could have used more explanation.
One theme that kept coming up over and over are comparisons to South African Apartheid. Noam Chomsky in particular kept saying that Israel/Palestine is dissimilar in key ways. First, that Cuba defeated the Apartheid government militarily (something I was completely unaware of). Second, that the Apartheid government relied on it's Black population for labor, in a way Israel does not.
The two other gists I took away from the book are that 1) Israel has generally led the charge in breaking ceasefire agreements (continuing to annex land, blockade Gaza etc.). Followed by Hamas responses that Israel then responds to by "mowing the lawn". And 2) that Israel negotiates in bad faith by never considering right to return. So the Oslo accords, while meaningful, gave Israel a much better deal. In general, they set up negotiations to fail as a pretext for continuing their settler project.
One theme that kept coming up over and over are comparisons to South African Apartheid. Noam Chomsky in particular kept saying that Israel/Palestine is dissimilar in key ways. First, that Cuba defeated the Apartheid government militarily (something I was completely unaware of). Second, that the Apartheid government relied on it's Black population for labor, in a way Israel does not.
The two other gists I took away from the book are that 1) Israel has generally led the charge in breaking ceasefire agreements (continuing to annex land, blockade Gaza etc.). Followed by Hamas responses that Israel then responds to by "mowing the lawn". And 2) that Israel negotiates in bad faith by never considering right to return. So the Oslo accords, while meaningful, gave Israel a much better deal. In general, they set up negotiations to fail as a pretext for continuing their settler project.