Nur-eldeen Masalha
Nur-eldeen (Nur) Masalha (Arabic: نور مصالحة) (born 4 January 1957, Galilee, Israel) is a Palestinian writer and academic.
He is Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of the Centre for Religion and History and the Holy Land Research Project at St. Mary's University College, University of Surrey. He is currently also Professorial Research Associate, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). He is also a member of the Kuwait Programme, Department of Government, London School of Economics (forthcoming paper, with Stephanie Cronin, on ‘The Islamic Republic of Iran and the GCC States: From Revolution to Realpolitik?).
He is also the editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, and the author of many books on Palestine-Israel, including The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel (2007), A Land Without a People (1997), Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (1992), Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion (2000) and The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem (2003).[1]
Masalha has also served as an honorary fellow in the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University; Research Associate in the Department of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies; and has taught at Birzeit University, in Ramallah, West Bank.
Masalha is also the historian commentator in the award–winning, documentary film “La Terre Parle Arabe” (the Land Speaks Arabic) (2007), directed by Maryse Gargour, which tells the story of the background and build-up to the expulsion and flight of the Palestinian Arabs in 1948 from the newly-created State of Israel.
Education
Masalha studied as an undergraduate and a postgraduate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He obtained a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
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. A Spanish-language edition, Estudios de Tierra Santa: Una Revista Multidisciplinaria', is published by Editorial Canaán, Buenos Aires, and Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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; the politics of reading the Bible in Israel and Palestine; ecumenism and interfaith relations; modernisation, religious revivalisms and fundamentalisms; Zionism, Neo-Zionism, Post-Zionism and Jewish Opposition to Zionism; biblical archaeology and ‘new’ archaeology of ancient Palestine; theologies of liberation; the 'new historiography' of Israel and Palestine; oral history, collective memory and subaltern narratives; the two-states and one-state solutions. Conventionally these diversified discourses are kept apart. This journal brings them together.
The journal was co-founded with 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.[2][3][4]
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.[5]
Expulsion of the Palestinians
Edward W. Said, London Review of Books (1993), wrote of Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of 'Transfer' in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (1992): “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.”
Ian Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, 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.”
Academic 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 University College (University of Surrey)
- 2001-2002: Research Fellow, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- Since February 2001: Director of Holy Land Research Project, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- 2002-2006: Senior Lecturer, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- 2005-2008: Director of MA Programme in Religion, Politics and Conflict Resolution, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- 2006-2009: Reader in Religion and Politics, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- Since 2009: Professor of Religion and Politics, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
- Since January 2007: Director of the Centre for Religion and History, St Mary's University College (University of Surrey)
Books in English, Spanish and Arabic
- (ed. with Saad Chedid), La Biblia leída con los ojos de los Cananeos: [Reading the Bible with the Eyes of the Canaanites]: Recordano a Edward W. Said (Bones Aires: Editorial Canaán, 2011), 241 pp.
- La Biblia y el sionismo: Invención de una tradición y discurso poscolonial (Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra, 2008),440pp.
- La Expulsión De Los Palestinos: El concepto de "transferencia" en el pensamiento político sionista, 1882-1948 (Madrid: Bósforo Libros 2008); La Expulsión De Los Palestinos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Canaán, 2008), 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 professor 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.
• 'Jérusalem, la ferveur et la guerre: Le Droit international,’ Qantara (magazine des cultures arabe et méditerranéenne, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris), No. 73 (Automne 2009),pp.40-42.
- 'Di/solving the Palestinian Refugee Problem: Israeli Resettlement Plans in the First Decade of the State’, in Ilan Pappe and Jamīl Hilal (ed.) Across the Wall: Narratives of Israeli-Palestinian History (I.B Tauris, 2010), pp.107-155.
- 'Reading the Bible with the Eyes of the Canaanites: Neo-Zionism, Political Theology and the Land Traditions of the Bible (1967 to Gaza 2009)', Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 8, No.1 (May 2009), pp.55-108.
- 'Collective Memory, Indigenous Resistance and the Struggle for Return: Palestinians inside Israel Six Decades after the Nakba’, Jadal, (Mada Al-Carmel-Arab Center for Applied Social Research, Haifa), No.3 May 2009).
- 'New History, Post-Zionism and Neo-Colonialism: A Critique of the Israeli “New Historians”’, Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 10, No.1 (May 2011), pp. 1-53.
- 'Edward W. Said: El sionismo y la visión democrática laica’, in Saad Chedid and Nur Masalha (eds.) La Biblia leída con los ojos de los cananeos: Recordano a Edward W.Said (Bones Aires: Editorial Canaán, 2011), pp.135-184.
External links
- ^ University of Surrey School of Theology, Philosophy, and History
- ^ N. Finkelstein, 1995, ‘Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict’, Verso, London, ISBN 1-85984-339-5
- ^ N. Finkelstein, 1991, ‘Myths, Old and New’, J. Palestine Studies, 21(1), p. 66-89
- ^ N. Masalha, 1991, ‘A Critique of Benny Morris’, J. Palestine Studies 21(1), p. 90-97
- ^ Morris, 1991, 'Response to Finkelstein and Masalha', J. Palestine Studies 21(1), p. 98-114
| Persondata |
| Name |
Masalha, Nur-edeen |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
4 January 1957 |
| Place of birth |
Galilee, Israel |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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