Idea of Israel

Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has drawn onZionism, the movement behind its creation, toprovide a sense of self and political direction. In thisgroundbreaking new work, Ilan Pappe looks at thecontinued role of Zionist ideology. The Idea of Israelconsiders the way Zionism operates outside of thegovernment and military in areas such as the country'seducation system, media, and cinema, and theuses that are made of the Holocaust in supportingthe state's ideological structure. In particular, Pappe examines the way successivegenerations of historians have framed the 1948 conflict as a liberation campaign, creating afoundation myth that went unquestioned in Israelisociety until the 1990s. Pappe himself was part ofthe post-Zionist movement that arose then. He wasattacked and received death threats as he exposedthe truth about how Palestinians have been treatedand the gruesome structure that links the productionof knowledge to the exercise of power. The Ideaof Israel is a powerful and urgent intervention in thewar of ideas concerning the past, and the future, ofthe Palestinian-Israeli conflict.