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A review by schopenhauers_poodle
The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.25
Pappé's follow-up to "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" details how the Palestinian territories were converted into prisons without explicitly being called so, comparing and contrasting the transformation and fates of the West Bank and Gaza.
"The Biggest Prison on Earth" picks up where Pappé's first book ends, after the end of the Nakba and initial ethnic cleansing campaigns by Zionists in the late '40s/early '50s. If "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" is about the violence of the founding Zionists and militias, "The Biggest Prison" is a story of the violence of bureaucracy, something that David Graeber also discusses in "The Utopia of Rules." In Palestine, we have a real-world example of how bureaucrats and academics are not only complicit in but the architects of the vivisection of Palestinian land and society.
In the process, he strips the state of Israel of its various narratives and myths: that some Israeli political parties were more progressive or kind to Palestinians, that the Intifadas were spontaneous, violent, and without cause, that the international community and diplomacy made any meaningful, positive change to the lives of Palestinians, that the head of the PLO, Arafat, was the reason for the failure of the Camp David accords. By placing these events within the context of obscured historical events and not Israeli and Western propaganda, we're left with a stunning account of violence and betrayal. Even the Munich Olympics and later suicide bombings now make sense as the last resort of desperate people.
Besides restoring humanity to Palestinians' public image via recontextualizing historical events, Pappé again clearly identifies tactics used by the state of Israel to control Palestinians and sway international opinion. The twelfth chapter on the Second Intifada and Gaza is probably the most prescient of the current genocide and warrants an attentive reading.
In the last third or so of the book, Pappé repeatedly mentions the chilling UN prediction that by 2020 the Gaza Strip would become uninhabitable due to Israeli warfare. It is now 2024. The people of Gaza have persisted in surviving 4 years past this date. Reading a work like this is the very least we can do for Palestinians and essential if we're to strategically and successfully free Palestine.
"The Biggest Prison on Earth" picks up where Pappé's first book ends, after the end of the Nakba and initial ethnic cleansing campaigns by Zionists in the late '40s/early '50s. If "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" is about the violence of the founding Zionists and militias, "The Biggest Prison" is a story of the violence of bureaucracy, something that David Graeber also discusses in "The Utopia of Rules." In Palestine, we have a real-world example of how bureaucrats and academics are not only complicit in but the architects of the vivisection of Palestinian land and society.
In the process, he strips the state of Israel of its various narratives and myths: that some Israeli political parties were more progressive or kind to Palestinians, that the Intifadas were spontaneous, violent, and without cause, that the international community and diplomacy made any meaningful, positive change to the lives of Palestinians, that the head of the PLO, Arafat, was the reason for the failure of the Camp David accords. By placing these events within the context of obscured historical events and not Israeli and Western propaganda, we're left with a stunning account of violence and betrayal. Even the Munich Olympics and later suicide bombings now make sense as the last resort of desperate people.
Besides restoring humanity to Palestinians' public image via recontextualizing historical events, Pappé again clearly identifies tactics used by the state of Israel to control Palestinians and sway international opinion. The twelfth chapter on the Second Intifada and Gaza is probably the most prescient of the current genocide and warrants an attentive reading.
In the last third or so of the book, Pappé repeatedly mentions the chilling UN prediction that by 2020 the Gaza Strip would become uninhabitable due to Israeli warfare. It is now 2024. The people of Gaza have persisted in surviving 4 years past this date. Reading a work like this is the very least we can do for Palestinians and essential if we're to strategically and successfully free Palestine.