The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace by Michael Scott-Baumann; New York: The Experiment; © 2021, updated 2023; ISBN 9781615-199501; 279 pages including notes, glossary, appendices, and index; $15.95
SAN DIEGO – Although this book claims to be an objective history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it clearly is a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel narrative.
The author, Michael Scott-Baumann, a resident of Cheltenham, England, had volunteered for a group calling itself “the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.” He concludes his history of the conflict with an account of his personal experiences on the West Bank helping an Arab olive-growing family “too afraid to harvest their olives because they have been harassed by armed settlers so often.”
I know many friends of Israel would take one look at Scott-Baumann’s credentials and throw his book in the trash. “Nothing but propaganda,” they might say.
I have spent every year since 1985 reporting about Jewish affairs in San Diego, across the U.S., in various countries of the Diaspora, and very often, in Israel. My outlook on the world is shaped by being a Jew and an American.
So, any Palestinian or friend of their cause might look at my resumé and assume that anything I might write is tainted by my allegiances. He or she might take my columns and send them to Internet hell, otherwise known as deleting them.
I believe it is a mistake to dismiss summarily Scott-Baumann’s work, just as I would hope that notwithstanding my background someone would at least read what I have to say.
Scott-Baumann portrays what he sees as a consistent pattern of harassment and violence by Israeli Jews and their governments to deprive the Palestinians of their native lands and to marginalize their existence in the Middle East. He blames Great Britain for favoring Jews over Arabs in the years between World War I and World War II (but not during WWII, when its White Paper forbade Jewish immigration). He is equally critical of U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians following the Jewish State’s establishment in 1948. In his chronicling of the Middle East struggles, he seems to maximize Israeli abuses and minimize or forgive entirely Palestinian atrocities. His is one of the few books I’ve read that sympathetically portrays Yasser Arafat.
I found his summary to be an interesting and very readable presentation of the conflict as it is seen by Israel’s adversaries. It is the kind of pro-Palestinian scholarship that seems to be popular on American college campuses, one-sided though it might be.
I don’t agree with its apparent message that the Israelis are the bad guys and that the Palestinians are the innocent victims.
Nevertheless, I am glad I read the book.
What is true and what is fiction in this book I cannot say without attempting to fact-check every assertion within its pages. It is clear to me, however, that if this is the story that Palestinians and their allies repeat to each other in their echo chamber, then it is understandable why resentment and frustration sometimes boil over into rage, as has been more and more evident in recent days.
If there is one clear message that should be taken to heart by both sides of the conflict is that hate begets hate, and violence results in counter-violence.
Both sides could benefit by making conciliatory gestures toward each other. Offering adversaries respect along with a sincere wish for a peaceful relationship might be a start.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com