Seminar by Professor Ilan Pappe about “The Myth and the Truth in the Question of Palestine between Yesterday and Today”

On February 20, 2024, ECFA held a virtual symposium, in coordination with Mr. Mohamed Kassem, ECFA member, in which Professor Ilan Pappe (an Israeli residing in London) spoke about “The Myth and the Truth in the Question of Palestine between Yesterday and Today.” The meeting was moderated by Mr. Kassem, and attended by a number of experts, academics, and researchers, including: Ambassadors Mohamed El-Oraby, ECFA Chairman, Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, Youssef Zadeh, Abdel Moneim Omar, and Dr. Ali El-Ghatit.

Mr. Kassem presented an overview of Professor Pappe, noting that he is the Director of the Center for Palestinian Studies, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and the author of about 23 books, in which he refutes Israeli slander and practices, including: the book “Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine” (2006); “On Palestine” (with Noam Chomsky, 2010); “The Ten Myths of Israel” (2019); and “The Biggest Prison on Earth.. a History of the Israeli Occupation” (2021).

On his part, Professor Pappe stressed that what happened on October 7 did not happen in a vacuum, but rather was the result of Israeli practices and violations against the Palestinians for more than 75 years. In fact, since its establishment, Israel has sought to create a geographical gap between the Palestinian territories, which it has always been very keen to seize. Therefore, the practices of settlement and ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories pushed many Palestinians to forced displacement either to the West Bank or to the Gaza Strip. Then, the Strip gradually turned into an open prison, with the largest population density on Earth.

In this context, Pappe pointed out that Zionist settler colonialism differs from the well-known classical colonialism, as it is characterized by geographical and demographic dimensions; The first refers to an attempt to control the land, while the second refers to promoting Jewish immigration to the occupied territories in order to change the demographic structure and its balance in these territories, and in a manner that confirms the Zionist state’s deliberate intention to exterminate the indigenous people, in violation of the rules of international law, which Israel does not respect. These practices also proved the myth of the Israeli democratic state. Meanwhile, Israeli current practices will undoubtedly lead to the creation of a new generation of Palestinians who will be hostile to it and will struggle to liberate its usurped land.

On the other hand, the guest stated that the Palestinian factions must achieve reconciliation as soon as possible, especially since what is ongoing now, along with many other indicators related to the huge discrepancies inside Israel, indicates the beginning of the end of the Zionist settlement project. Regarding Egypt, he pointed out that it is certainly in a difficult situation, since the Palestinian cause is pivotal to it, and many efforts have been made over the decades to settle it and defend the rights of Palestinians, as well as being a vital national security issue for Egypt. Therefore, he called for the need to be cautious, while making the necessary efforts to resolve this protracted cause.