Nur Masalha

Nur Masalha (Arabic: نور مصالحة)
Born	1957 (age 66–67) Galilee, Israel
Occupation	Historian

Nur Masalha (Arabic: نور مصالحة) (b. 4 January 1957) is a Palestinian academic born in Galilee Israel, he is now a British citizen. He studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the University of London, from whom he received a Ph. D in Politics. Masalha was Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University, England, and Research Associate in the Department of Law, SOAS University of London. He also taught at Birzeit University, Palestine. He is now Reader in Religion and Politics at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, University of Surrey, England. In addition to publishing several books, Nur Masalha is also Director of the Centre for Religion and History and Holy Land Research Project, and Editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, published by Edinburgh University Press. A Spanish-language edition, Estudios de Tierra Santa: Una Revista Multidisciplinaria', is published by Editorial Canaán, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Masalha is Co-founder and Editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, a fully refereed journal, published by Edinburgh University Press. The journal publishes new and provocative ideas, paying particular attention to issues that have a contemporary relevance and a wider public interest. It is aimed at an academic and wider public readership. It draws upon expertise from virtually all relevant disciplines (history, culture, politics, religion, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, biblical studies). It deals with a wide range of topics: ‘two nations’ and ‘three faiths’; conflicting Israeli and Palestinian perspectives; social and economic conditions; Palestine in history and today; ecumenism and interfaith relations; modernisation, religious revivalisms and fundamentalisms; Zionism and Post-Zionism; the 'new historiography' of Israel and Palestine. Conventionally these diversified discourses are kept apart. This journal brings them together.

The journal was co-founded with the late Michael Prior (theologian) in 2002. Members of the Editorial Board and International Advisory Board included the late Edward W. Said, Hisham Sharabi and Samih Farsoun. Current members include Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe, Yaser Suleiman, Stephanie Cronin, Tim Niblock, Dan Rabinowitz, Naseer Aruri, As’ad Ghanem, Naim Ateek, Donald Wagner, Ismael Abu-Saad, Oren Yiftachel, William Dalrymple, Salim Tamari, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Thomas L. Thompson.

Critique of Benny Morris

Along side Norman Finkelstein, Masalha has been critical of Benny Morris's first publication on the 1948 Palestinian exodus : The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (1988). Masalha argues that Morris’s conclusions have a pro-Israeli bias, in that:

• Morris did not fully acknowledge that his work rests largely on selectively released Israeli documentation, while the most sensitive documents remain closed to researchers.
• Morris treated the evidence in the Israeli documents in an uncritical way, and did not take into account that they are, at times, apologetics.
• Morris minimized the number of expulsions: Finkelstein asserts that in the table in which Morris summarizes causes of abandonment, village by village, many cases of "military assault on settlement (M)" should have been "expulsions (E)".
• Morris’s conclusions were skewed with respect to the evidence he himself presents, and when the conclusions are harsh for the Israelis he tended to give them a less incriminating spin.

Both Finkelstein and Masalha prefer the central conclusion that there was a transfer policy.

In a reply to Finkelstein and Masalha, Morris answers he "saw enough material, military and civilian, to obtain an accurate picture of what happened," that Finkelstein and Masalha draw their conclusions with a pro-Palestinian bias, and that with regard to the distinction between military assault and expulsion they should accept that he uses a "more narrow and severe" definition of expulsions. Morris holds to his central conclusion that there was no transfer policy.

Praise for Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of 'Transfer' in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (1992)

Edward W. Said, London Review of Books (1993): “A recent book by the Israeli-Palestinian scholar Nur Masalha documents the concept of ‘transfer’ in Zionist thinking from Herzl, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion to their heirs, Shamir and Rabin. Going over mountains of Hebrew-language documents Masalha shows that every Zionist leader of the Left, Right or Centre, with no significant exceptions, was in favour of ridding Palestine of Palestinians, by all means necessary, force and bribery included.”

Rt. Hon. Lord Gilmour, The Guardian (1993): “Almost entirely based on declassified Israeli archival material, Dr. Masalha’s sober and carefully researched account shows conclusively that “transfers” — a euphemism for expulsion — was from the start an integral part of Zionism… (an) impressive and timely book… quietly devastating research.”

Michael Adams, Middle East International (1993): ”Dr. Masalha's book will excite controversy, not because his conclusions can be challenged — the sources leave no doubt about the facts — but because the book exposes in detail the notion of the Zionist design and the means by which it was achieved...an important and scrupulous piece of revisionist history.”

Edward Mortimer, Financial Times (1992): ”(Dr. Masalha) shows using documents from the Israeli archives, that the flight of the Arab population from what became Israel in 1948 — which Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann hailed as 'a miraculous clearing of the land' - was in fact 'less than a miracle than the culmination of over a half century of effort, plans and (in the end) brute force.”

Lawrence Tal, Times Literary Supplement (1993): “Nur Masalha helps to contextualize the debate with an articulate, well-research analysis of the concept of ‘transfer’ in Zionist thought … Relying almost exclusively on Israeli sources, Masalha demonstrates that the notion of transfer was held by both Labour and revisionist Zionists.”

Paul Adams, BBC World Service radio (1993): “A bald, unadorned account of a dominant strain in Zionist thinking, from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. Through exhaustive reference to various Israeli archives, Masalha builds a convincing picture of a national movement constantly preoccupied with one central dilemma: how to rid the land it wanted of the people who live there.”

William B. Quandt, Foreign Affairs (1993): “Zionist leaders, as this carefully researched study shows, were frequently outspoken in their belief that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine would be possible only if the existing Arab population could somehow be persuaded to leave.”

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nakba: Commemoration, Oral History and Collective Memory

This year Palestinians commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba – the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell them. The rupture of 1948 and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Nakba are central to both the Palestinian society of today and Palestinian social history and collective identity. Masalha’s recent work explores ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba. It deals with the issue within the context of Palestinian oral history, ‘social history from below’, narratives of memory and the formation of collective identity.

The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel (2007)

Does the bible justify Zionism? Since the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, Torah and tank have become increasingly inseparable, resulting in the forced expulsion and subjugation of millions of indigenous Palestinians. Masalha's 'The Bible and Zionism' traces Zionism's evolution from a secular settler movement in the late 19th century, to the messianic faith it has become today. He shows how the biblical language of 'chosen people' and 'promised land' has been used by many Christian and Jewish Zionists as the 'title deeds' for Israel, justifying ethnic division and violence. With Edward Said, Masalha argues that a new politics of peace can only be achieved through a single, democratic state, which replaces religious zealotry with secular equality.

Accademic qualifications

1979: BA in International Relations and Politics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

1982 : MA in Middle East Politics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

1988: PhD in Middle Eastern Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Posts held

1985-86: SOAS (University of London), Part-time Lecturer in Middle East Politics

1988-93: Constantine Zureik Research Fellow, Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington DC

1994-95 : Assistant Professor of the Modern History of the Middle East, Birzeit University, Palestine

1997-2000 : Part-time Lecturer, Richmond-The American International University in London

2000: Visiting Lecturer, St Mary's College (University of Surrey)

2001-2002: Research Fellow, St Mary's College (University of Surrey)

Since February 2001: Director of Holy Land Research Project

2002-2006: Senior Lecturer, School of Theology, Philosophy and History

Since September 2005: Director of MA Programme in Religion, Politics and Conflict Resolution, School of Theology, Philosophy and History

Since October 2006: Reader in Religion and Politics

Since January 2007: Director of the Centre for Religion and History

Books in English, Spanish and Arabic

• La Expulsión De Los Palestinos (2008) (Madrid and Buenos Aires: Bósforo Libros and Editorial Canaán), 265pp.
• The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-colonialism in Palestine-Israel (2007) (London: Zed Books) ISBN 1842777610
• Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees: Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said (2005) (London: Zed Books) ISBN 1842776231
• Politicas De La Negación: Israel Y Los Refugiados Palestininos (2005) (Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra), 350 pp.
• The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem (2003) (London: Pluto Press) ISBN 0745321216
• Israeel wa-Siyasat al-Nafi (2003) (Ramallah, Palestine: Madar-the Palestinian Centre for Israeli Studies, [Arabic]), 320 pp.
• Teorias De La Expansion Territorial (2002) (Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra), 321 pp.
• Israeel al-Kubra wal-Filistiniyyun: Siyasat al-Tawasu' (2001) (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, [Arabic]), 399 pp.
• Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion (2000) (London: Pluto Press) ISBN 0745316158
• A Land Without a People (1997) (London: Faber and Faber) ISBN 0571191134
• Ard Akthar wa-Arab Akal (1997) (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, [Arabic]), 331 pp.
• The Palestinians in Israel: Is Israel the State of All its Citizens and Absentees? (1993) The (Haifa: Galilee Centre for Social Research)
• Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought (1992) (Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies) ISBN 0887282350
• Tard al-Flistiniyyun (1992) (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, [Arabic]), 293 pp.

Articles and Chapters in Books

• 'On Recent Hebrew and Israeli Sources for the Palestinian Exodus, 1947-1949', Journal of Palestine Studies (Autumn 1988), pp.121-137.
• 'Israeli Revisionist Historiography of the Birth of Israel and its Palestinian Exodus', Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives (March 1990), pp.71-97.
• 'Faysal's Pan-Arabism, 1921-1933', Middle Eastern Studies (October 1991), pp.679-693.
• 'Debate on the 1948 Exodus: A Critique of Benny Morris', Journal of Palestine Studies (Autumn 1991), pp.90-97.
• 'Operation Hafarferet and the Massacre of Kafr Qassem, October 1956', The Arab Review (Summer 1994), pp.15-21.
• 'Sovereignty over Jerusalem: The Status of the City under International Law', Middle East International, 6 January 1995, pp.17-18.
• 'Who Rules Jerusalem?' Index on Censorship (September-October 1995), pp.163-166.
• 'The 1956-57 Occupation of the Gaza Strip: Israeli Plans to Resettle the Palestinian Refugees', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 23, No.1 (1996), pp.55-68.
• 'A Different Peace', Index on Censorship (May-June 1996), pp.18-21.
• Yosef Weitz and Operation Yohanan, 1949-1953, Occasional Paper no.55, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Durham, August 1996, 31 pp.
• '1967: Why Did the Palestinians Leave?' Shaml (Ramallah, West Bank, July 1997), pp.2-5.
• 'Transfer', in Philip Mattar (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Palestinians (New York: Facts on File, 2000), pp.401-404.
• 'The 1967 Palestinian Exodus', in Ghada Karmi and Eugene Cotran (eds.), The Palestinian Exodus, 1948-1998 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1999), pp.63-109.
• 'A Galilee Without Christians?' in Anthony O'Mahony (ed.), Palestinian Christians: Religion, Politics and Society in the Holy Land (London: Melisende, 1999), pp.190-222.
• 'The Historical Roots of the Palestinian Refugee Question', in Naseer Aruri (ed.), The Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (London: Pluto Press, July 2001), pp.36-67.
• Ariel Sharon: A Political Profile, Occasional Paper (London: Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, 2001).
• 'The PLO, Resolution 194 and the 'right of return': Evolving Palestinian attitudes towards the refugee question from the 1948 Nakba to the Camp David summit of July 2002', Eugene Cotran (ed.), Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 7 (2002), pp.127-155.
• 'Reinventing Maimonides: From Universalist Philosopher to Religious Fundamentalist (1967-2002)', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol.1, No.1 (September 2002), pp.85-117.
• 'Le Concept De 'Transfer' Dans La Doctrine Et Dans La Pratique Du Mouvement Sioniste', in Farouk Mardam-Bey and Elias Sanbar (eds.), LE DROIT AU RETOUR: LE PROBLEME DES REFUGIES PALESTINIENS (Sindbad, Paris, 2002), pp.15-59.
• 'Israel and the Palestinian Refugees', La Vanguardia (Barcelona), (July 2002).
• 'The Palestinian Nakba', Global Dialogue (Nicosia, Cyprus), Vol.4, No.3 (Summer 2002), pp.77-91.
• 'La responsabilita morale di Israele verso rifugiati palestinesti', Afriche e Orienti (Italy), Vol. 4, No.3 (2002), pp.106-109.
• 'From Propaganda to Scholarship: Dr Joseph Schechtman and the Origins of the Israeli Polemics on the Palestinian Refugees', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol.2, No.2 (March 2002), pp.188-197.
• 'La importancia historica de la comunidad palestinin en libano', Vanguardia Dossier (Barcelona), No. 8 (October/December 2003), pp.55-60.
• 'Sectarianism and the Rejection of Tawteen: Lebanon and the Palestinian Refugees', in Eugene Cotran and Martin Lau (eds.), Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004), pp.110-130.
• Dissolvere' il problema dei rifugiati palestinesi: Proposte israeliene di 'reinsediamento' 1948-1957)', in Jamil Hilal and Ilan Pappe (eds.), Parlare co il Nemico: Narrazioni Palestinesi e Israeliane a Confronto [Talking to the Enemy: Palestinian and Israeli Narratives], (Torino: Bollati Boringghieri editore, 2004), pp.169-215.
• 'Edward W. Said and Rethinking the Question of Palestine', The Arab World Geographer (University of Akron, US), Vol. l7 (Spring/Summer 2004), pp. 4-21.
• 'Jewish Fundamentalism and the 'Sacred Geography' of Jerusalem in Comparative Perspective (1967-2004): Implications for Inter-faith Relations', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol.3, No.1 (May 2004), pp.29-67.
• 'Prólogo: Leyendo la Biblia con los ojos de los cananeos, En homenaje al profesor Michael Prior', in Michael Prior, La Biblia y el colonialismo: Una critica moral [The Bible and Colonialism: A Moral Critique] (Buenos Aires: Editorial Canaan, 2005), pp.xi-xxiv.
• 'A Comparative Study of Jewish, Christian and Islamic Fundamentalist Perspectives on Jerusalem: Implications for Inter-faith Relations', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol.5, No.1 (May 2006), pp.97-112.
• ‘Die Nakba, Die Katasrophe von 1948’, INAMO (Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten) (Berlin) 54 (Summer 2008), pp.4-7.
• ‘Remembering the Palestinian Nakba: Commemoration, Oral History and Narratives of Memory', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol.7, No.2 (November 2008), pp.123-156.

External links

• Institute of Palestinian studies Critique of Benny Morris
• Institute of Palestinian studies "On Recent Hebrew and Israeli Sources for the Palestinian Exodus, 1947-49" in 18, no. 1 (Aut. 88): 121-37.
• [1] Edinburgh University Press Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal
• Editorial Canaán Holy Land Studies / Estudios de Tierra Santa