Say the words Israel or Palestine, and here are the knee-jerk reactions that arise from both sides. Everyone (or almost) has an opinion on the clashes that have undermined the Middle East for more than a century. Opinions are sometimes clear-cut, but often declaimed, it must be said, out of hand. The book by French authors Vincent Lemire and Thomas Snégaroff has the great merit of setting the record straight in an attempt to better understand the situation between Israel and Palestine. While restoring a dispassionate historical perspective, they dissect the tortuous thread of history while clarifying the present.
The duo of aggregate historians ensured that their work – which follows an eponymous podcast presented in October 2023 on the France Inter website – is as clear as possible. The educational book is indeed very pleasant to read. He deploys fifty questions and as many answers. Everything is enriched by infographics created by the graphic designer and illustrator Alizée De Pin and by the person responsible for daily cartography. The worldDelphine Papin.
Thus, the chronological chapters are interspersed with contextual reminders, short biographies of personalities and reference documents, such as extracts from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 or UN resolutions. They date back as far as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century.e century, which allowed the colonial powers of the French and English era to carve up the Middle East as they wished.
The authors recall the false promises and the double discourse of England, which assured the Arabs a great homeland while facilitating the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The work is all the more important because historical reminders can in certain cases help us understand the political phenomena at work, such as the rise to power of the Israeli ultranationalist religious right or the control of Gaza by the Islamist movement Hamas. In this regard, the work stands out for its conciseness and accessibility.
Following the Socratic method of teaching through dialogue, the two historians share their expertise by focusing in particular on six major dates that they consider crucial to understanding the complex events taking place in the region: the first Zionist congress of 1897 until the disengagement then the blockade of Gaza, including the proclamation of Israeli independence in 1948, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo peace process and the victory of Hamas in 2006. The deadly offensive in Gaza launched in retaliation by the IDF after the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 against Israel continues to this day to have multiple consequences on an international scale. In the Middle East, history is being written before our eyes.