Deconstructing Israeli mythology by Daphna Thier on Socialist Worker

PAPPE PROVIDES a clear historical overview of the 1948 and 1967 Israeli wars, describing the expulsion and genocide these campaigns were integral to.

Even before 1948, the Zionists aimed “to take over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible,” Pappe writes… He describes the military regime that controlled the lives of Palestinians in Israel before 1967 and the one that still dominates in the occupied territories today. And within Israel proper, he documents the denial of land and building permits to Palestinians, as well as the discriminatory division of social benefits and employment. When he’s finished, there’s no way anyone could describe Israel as a land offering full civil rights to all its inhabitants. The denial of equal citizenship, says Pappe, is part of the ultimate goal of Zionists to maintain a Jewish state in Palestine, which in a country with so many Palestinians requires “non-democratic means.