Reviews and Comments

I read this book because given the current conflicts in Israel-Palestine I thought I should learn more about how it got that way. This book is a comprehensive analysis of Jewish history and systematically pulls apart the Zionist mythistory of an ethnically cohesive, nomadic Jewish people returning to a long-lost homeland. It does so not by spending the whole book pulling apart Zionism (though that is peppered throughout), but by looking at the evidence available as to the origin of Jewish peoples, their migratory patterns and where a strong likelihood of mass proselytising occurred. Certainly, this was a bit of a dry read. It is every sense an academic text but if you've managed to make it through even part of a humanities degree you'll probably be able to smash this. For me personally, it further cemented my unfavorable opinion of Israeli statehood as it addressed the 'justification' for the existence of the state and for its ethnocentric, genocidal actions. Even if you disagree with me on those points, I think this is worth a read as an interesting history of the Jewish people, though be aware Sand does not make his own beliefs a secret either.

Quite an interesting coming-of-age sort of story interspersed with recipes, poetry and historical anecdotes. Central themes of colonialism and slavery were interestingly applied and made me think more about my own Mauritian ancestry and it's likely less than savoury beginnings.

Had some issues but it did open my mind to a new (to me) problem in the world.

Sort of forgot I was reading this - guess it wasn't enough to keep me there

The format here was for me a limitation. While there are 3 or 4 significant essays or speeches, most of the book is transcribed conversations. I did learn from this book and it's perspective though so would recommend if you don't mind that.