The Saladin Days 2011 Seminar with Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappé
The events that took place in connection to the 1948 creation of the state of Israel has long been referred to, in Israeli public debate, as an undisputable nationalist climax. The history writing dominating among the country’s academics emphasized the stories of the Jewish minority simultaneously fighting an Arabic majority and troops from the British Mandate.
The ”new historians” of Israel challenged this form of history writing. The release of official documents from 1948 enabled them to highlight aspects of the war that so far had been non-existent in Israeli discourse. Lately, debates between traditional Zionists and revisionists have been central in Israeli historians’ circles.
Ilan Pappé and Avi Shlaim are among the leading figures of new Israeli historians. At the House of Literature, they will discuss Israeli history writing. What distinguishes the work of the revisionists from that of traditional Zionist history writing? Who are the new historians, and of what are they criticized? What is the role of the historian when s/he writes the history of an ongoing conflict?
The seminar is lead by Hanne Eggen Røislien.
Litteraturhuset Amalie Skram