Ilan Pappe is a historian and University of Exeter academic (MEE)
London, March 11 (RHC)-- Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has predicted that Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza signals the start of the decline of the Zionist regime. Pappe, a professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies in the UK, said in recent remarks that the ongoing war in Gaza is the most perilous chapter in the “history of a project fighting for its existence.”
“It’s not the darkest moment in Palestine’s history; it would be written as the beginning of the end of the Zionist project,” Pappe said. He further noted that when the Israeli regime fights for its existence, it acts very cruel, ruthless and violent, more than it ever has been which would indicate the “darkness before the dawn” in the history of Palestine.
Pappe argued that in the long term, the basic moral, economic and military infrastructure that holds the Israeli regime together and allows it to oppress the Palestinians has been eroded very significantly, a trend which he said will continue in the future.
The UK-based historian said that various upcoming transformations in global public opinion, government stances in the Global South, and within Jewish communities suggest a promising opportunity for a more impactful alliance to assist Palestinians in achieving their liberation, decolonization, and survival goals.
Israeli society, he continued, even prior to October 7, had become increasingly extreme, racist, and resistant to recognizing the humanity of the Palestinians, while also being unreceptive to external criticism. Earlier in November, Pappe said the dehistoricisation of what is happening in Gaza, aids Israel and Western governments to pursue genocidal policies they shunned in the past due to either ethical, tactical, or strategic considerations.
“The October 7 attack is used by Israel as a pretext to pursue genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip. It is also a pretext for the United States to try and reassert its presence in the Middle East. And it is a pretext for some European countries to violate and limit democratic freedoms in the name of a new ‘war on terror’,” he said.
Pappe also signed a joint letter by 300 prominent activists, politicians, academic, and religious figures from around the world in October addressing the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, demanding an end to Israel’s “bloodbath” in the besieged Gaza Strip.
He has published many best-selling books about Palestine such as ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,’ ‘Ten myths about Israel,’ ‘The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty,’ ‘The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel’ and so on.
