• Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Hey, I’m glad you went out of your way to check for criticism. Holding skepticism and looking for verification is a great habit to have. However, I think it’s just as important to go farther and look into the criticisms to find out how credible they are. I have already looked into both the criticisms and their counters when it comes to Ilan Pappe. I was completely skeptical about what he writes considering what I thought I knew about the conflict. It was only after checking the criticisms, their counters, and seeking independent verification that I came to trust Pappe as a reputable source.

    Here’s Pappe’s response to Benny Morris, where he debunks Morris’ claims

    https://electronicintifada.net/content/response-benny-morris-politics-other-means-new-republic/5040

    Make your own conclusions, to me it’s clear Morris is the one with myopic sources as he uses only the Israeli archives while Pappe and others cross reference them with Arab sources and oral history.

    The CAMERA criticisms are easily debunked

    https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/42571

    https://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/we-must-expel-arabs-and-take-their-place-institute-for-palestine-studies-publishes-1937-ben-gurion-letter-advocating-the-expulsion-of-palestinians/

    “Ben-Gurion’s 5 October 1937 letter thoroughly vindicates Ilan Pappé’s reading; indeed, the Pappé quotes to which CAMERA objects seem almost mild when compared to the actual words Ben-Gurion penned to his son. The more literal translation of the Ben-Gurion direct quote (“We must expel Arabs and take their place”) is actually stronger than Pappé’s freer rendering (“The Arabs must go”), although the meaning is basically the same. As for Pappé’s paraphrase, it is as accurate and comprehensive as any so succinct a sentence could possibly be.”

    I don’t know why you’d take a reddit thread as evidence when there’s plenty of actually reputable historians praising Pappe’s work and credibility. You can find links to them in his wiki page.

    Yeah, he openly admits his bias unlike others like Benny Morris. That doesn’t make what he’s talking about any less true, he’s just not hiding his bias. It’s an “alternate narrative” because the conventional narrative is a revisionist form of history. That’s what differentiates “new historians” compared to the old Historians of Israel, once the Israeli gov archives became declassified in the 1990’s.