READING LIST | THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Middle East Choke Points

READING LIST | THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL-PALESTINE

(prepared by Alex Boodrookas, Ph.D.  He is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He teaches World History since 1500, Modern Middle East and History of Islam. His areas of expertise are in labor, migration, politics and the Persian Gulf.

BOOKS & ARTICLES

Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” MERIP. A
clear, reliable, article-length overview of the conflict available for free online.

Rashid Khalidi, Hundred Years War on Palestine. A readable and personal history of the
conflict by a respected historian.

James Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. A solid and
accessible summary written by a respected historian.

Edward Said, “Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims,” and Ella Shohat, “Zionism from
the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims.” Two older but influential and well-written articles.

Edward Said, Out of Place: A Memoir or The Question of Palestine. Classic older works by
perhaps the best-known Palestinian academic.

Shay Hazkani, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War. A bottom-up history of the
pivotal 1948 war and its aftermath.

Meron Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948. A
personal but still scholarly account of the aftermath of the expulsions of 1948.

Shira Robinson, Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State.
A more academic but important work focused in the immediate aftermath of 1948.

Noura Erakat, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Focuses on the questions
of international law raised by the discrimination directed against Palestinians.

Joe Sacco, Palestine. A bit old, but a classic nonfiction graphic novel.

For fiction, see Literary Hub’s article entitled “40 Books to Understand Palestine”

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

Zachary Lockman on Zionism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrUWHZgGaxk

Tareq Baconi on Hamas: https://thedigradio.com/podcast/hamas-w-tareq-baconi/

Teach-in at UC Berkeley, Hatem Bazian

Teach-in series at Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights

DOCUMENTARIES

Five Broken Cameras | The Law in These Parts | The Gatekeepers | Reel Bad Arabs | Tantura

TRUSTWORTHY SOURCES FOR NEWS & ANALYSIS ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST
MERIP | Ottoman History Podcast | New Lines Magazine | Jadaliyya | MadaMasr

TIMELINE

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1882: First Aliyah, or Zionist immigration to Palestine. Plantation economy established.
1917: Balfour Declaration announces British imperial support of the Zionist movement.
1917: British forces seize Palestine from the Ottomans after 400 years of rule.
1922: Britain named Mandatory power in Palestine by the League of Nations.
1920-21 & 1928-9: First cases of intercommunal violence.
1936-9: Palestinian Great Revolt. Palestinians launch general strike and armed uprising against
the British and their Zionist allies, but are militarily crushed.
1937: Peel Commission, led by British imperial official, drafts first plan for the partition of
Palestine
1939: British White Paper restricts Jewish immigration and land sales in response to the Revolt.
1939-45: WWII. The Holocaust kills six million Jews and turns hundreds of thousands more into
refugees, many of whom migrate to Palestine.
1948: Israeli Independence & the Palestinian Nakba. Thousands of Palestinians killed and
over 700,000 expelled and barred from returning home. Israel seizes most Palestinian land.
1956: Israel, Britain, and France attack Egypt after Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal and are
forced to retreat under pressure from both the US and USSR.
1967: Sweeping Israeli victory in the Six-Day War. Israel occupies Sinai, Gaza, and the West
Bank. Palestinians in the West Bank remain under military occupation to this day.
1970: Black September. The Hashemite monarchy in Jordan expels Palestinian fighters and the
PLO leadership after a challenge to their rule.
1972: Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian organization Black September, leading to international
backlash against Palestinian cause.
1973: Yom Kippur / October War. Surprise Egyptian attack nearly destroys Israeli army. US
arms and diplomatic support save Israeli forces and cement the US-Israel alliance.
1979: Camp David accords signed between Israel and Egypt. Guaranteed by the United
States, the treaty removes Israel’s only real military rival from the geopolitical equation.
1982: Israel invades Lebanon during Lebanese civil war. Attacks on civilian population centers,
including a number of massacres, trigger backlash internationally.
1987: First Intifada, or grassroots Palestinian uprising, begins. Mass wounding, incarceration,
and killing of usually peaceful Palestinian protestors generates global backlash.
1991: The “Peace Process” begins. PLO eventually gains limited governing powers in the West
Bank, but at the price of collaborating with the occupation, eroding its popularity.
1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated, signaling the rise of the Israeli far-right
and the ineffectiveness of peace negotiations.
2000: Second Intifada. Hamas and Islamic Jihad begin first major bombing campaign, and
Israel kills thousands of Palestinians. About 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian deaths.
2006: Hamas wins Palestinian elections, taking control of governance in Gaza.
2007: Israel declares the Gaza Strip “hostile territory” and imposes a siege, prohibiting all travel
and restricting access to basic goods, including food, electricity, internet, and fuel.
2008, 2012, 2014, & 2021: Israel attacks Gaza, sometimes after Hamas rocket attacks, killing
hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian civilians each time.
2018-2019: Great March of Return in Gaza. Peaceful Palestinian protests at the Gaza border
wall. Israeli forces kill about 200 Palestinians and wound about 10,000 more.
2023: October 7 & its aftermath.