stephen  d. leece

Ilan Pappe's book has all the appearances of coffee table trash- an emotive title, thick paper and a slightly larger than one would expect font used for the main text.

At first glance the lack obvious footnotes is disturbing; but appearances can be deceptive. George Orwell wrote, "In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Pappe, Professor of Histroy at Exeter, has done that with this book.

In a thorough examination of the early days of Israel through to the present day, Pappe has demonstrated that successive Israeli Governments have manipulated the law to exclude Palestinians and others that are non-Jewish within Israeli borders from public life and that any ammendments to the law can and are circumnavigated by careful use of language e.g job adverts that state, 'looking to hire a young person after completion of military service' because Israeli-Palestinians are excluded from serving with the IDF.

Pappe readily admits his researches have cost him friends but does not elaborate on the whys and hows of this, which perhaps would be another interesting book for another time, although I suspect it has less to do with his researches and more to do with the company that he keeps. He has co-authored works with Noam Chomsky, every champagne Socialist's favourite 'useful idiot' and this particular piece has been endorsed by John Pilger, who self-righteously set himself up as the moral conscience of the world many years ago, but I digress.

If Pappe has a flaw it is his regular use of Nazi allusons, comparing IDF operations in 1948, 1967 etc to Einsatzgruppen Operations in Eastern Europe in 1941 and Lidice is referenced also. While there may be a degree of truth in this, it reminds me Godwin's Law of the Internet: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches." Another slightly annoying aspect is Pappe refers to Israel sarcastically as the only democracy in the region. Ever heard of Lebanon mate? Nevertheless there is much good information and analysis of Israeli society and its attitudes towards non-Jewish Israelis be they Palestinian Muslim, Christian or Druze. His description of the development of Palestinian Pop-Culture in the form of poetry, pop music and cinema is particularly interesting, as well his valuable insight into the growth of Political Islam ie Hamas via Hezbollah in a desperate search for some semblance of a national identity following the failure of Communist and Socialist Secular Palestinian Political Parties.

This polemical piece has one main flaw however. It assumes the reader is stupid, and this cross-eyed attitude, due to looking down the nose at others for so long is reflected in its title. Everyone KNOWS there are Palestinian Israelis. It's a given; a State cannot be set-up artificially the way Israel was, without indigenous people making up the official population of the new country- think USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand; the UK from the Celts onwards. So Israeli-Palestinians are hardly 'forgotten. I'd go so far as to say, Pappe with this title, has displayed the same utter contempt for people, that he accuses the Jewish-Israelis of possessing towards Arabs. A more fitting title would have been, "The Hidden Israelis" or, if you wanted to keep it polemical and slightly blood-curdling, "The Unwanted Israelis." But 'forgotten'? I don't think so.
Overall, good factual information, but the opinion and overall argument is still in the Student Union bar pole-axed on cheap watery lager in a plastic cup. With a crack in it.