Out of the Frame

The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel

Ilan Pappe

Even before he wrote his bestselling book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, historian Ilan Pappe was a controversial figure in Israel. In Out of the Frame, he gives a full account of his break with mainstream Israeli scholarship and its consequences.

Growing up in a conventional Israeli community influenced by the utopian visions of Theodor Herzl, Pappe was barely aware of the Nakbah in his high school years. Here he traces his journey of discovery from the whispers of Palestinian classmates to his realisation that the ‘enemy’s’ narrative of the events of 1948 was correct. After completing his thesis at Oxford University based on recently declassified documents in the early 1980s, he returned to Palestine determined to protect the memory of the Nakbah and struggle for the rectification of its evils. For the first time he gives the details of the formidable opposition he faced in Israel, including death threats fed by the media, denunciations by the Knesset and calls for him to be sacked from his post at Haifa University.
 

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction
1. The Demons of the Nakbah
2. The Arming of the Zionist Mind
3. The Katz Affair
4. The Trial and the Acquittal
5. The Battle for the Historiography of 1948
6. The Home University
7. The Last Straw: Lebanon and Gaza
8. The Killing Fields of Gaza
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• Index

About the Author

Ilan Pappe is a Professor in the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies in Exeter and the Co-Director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. He was the academic head and founder of the Institute for Peace Studies in Givat Haviva, Israel (1992-2000) and the Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). His recent books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) and The Modern Middle East (2005).