Praise for The Invention of the Jewish People
“Zionism’s quest for a historical homeland is brilliantly excavated by Shlomo Sand in his recent The Invention of the Jewish People.”
Alex Cockburn, The Nation
“Shlomo Sand, historian and author of The Invention of the Jewish People—much reviewed and rebutted, and recently translated into English—is provoking the international community by arguing that Jews have never been genetically or otherwise ‘a people’ … Sand’s larger point, that Israel needs to become more like other Western democracies and less obsessed with ethnic purity, is welcome.”
Newsweek
“Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People is both a welcome and, in the case of Israel, much needed exercise in the dismantling of nationalist historical myth and a plea for an Israel that belongs equally to all its inhabitants. Perhaps books combining passion and erudition don’t change political situations, but if they did, this one would count as a landmark.”
Eric Hobsbawm, Observer, Books of the Year
“The translated version of his polemic has sparked a new wave of coverage in Britain and has provoked spirited debates … The book has been extravagantly denounced and praised.”
Patricia Cohen, New York Times
“A formidable polemic against claims that Israel has a moral right to define itself as an explicitly and exclusively Jewish society, in which non-Jews, such as Palestino-Israelis, are culturally and politically marginalised.”
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
“I am one of many Jews who would agree with Sand that a decisive factor in the future of Israel will be its capacity to be far more attentive to the narratives and rights of its Palestinian and other non-Jewish citizens.”
Jonathan Wittenberg, Guardian
“[Shlomo Sand’s] quiet earthquake of a book is shaking historical faith in the link between Judaism and Israel.”
Rafael Behr, Observer
“A string of firecrackers.”
Independent, Book of the Week
“It is certainly one of the bravest [books of the year].”
Terry Eagleton, Times Literary Supplement
“Sand takes on a formidable tradition in claiming that moral validity in the Middle East needs good history, and no discussion of the region any longer seems complete without acknowledgement of his book.”
Independent on Sunday, Best History Books of 2009
“No serious reader who is interested in Zionism or Israel—whatever their personal views—can avoid being shaken up … by Sand’s impressive redrawing of the major religious and ‘racial’ boundaries that are usually taken for granted in most discussions of these subjects.”
Bertell Ollman, MR Zine
“[Sand’s] conclusion is that Israel has to become a democratic state of all its citizens, including the 20 per cent who are Muslims and Christians, not a state of all the Jews. This book must be as seen as a milestone on that road.”
The National
“His latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo.”
Jonathan Cook, Al Jazeera
“Sand makes a very strong case against the neo-biblical story of the Jews that has been used by both Christians and modern Jews, and forms the religious underpinning of Zionism.”
Colorlines
“His book is a trip through a landscape of illusions which Sand aims to explode, leaving the scenery freer for a Middle East built … from the hard bricks of truth.”
Simon Schama, Financial Times
The Invention of the
Jewish People
Shlomo Sand
Translated by Yael Lotan
English edition first published by Verso 2009
© Verso 2009
Translation © Yael Lotan
This paperback edition published by Verso 2010
The Invention of the Jewish People was first published as Matai ve’ekh humtza ha’am hayehudi? [When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?] © Resling 2008 All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
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Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-623-1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Typeset in Minion by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh Printed in the US by Maple Vail
To the memory of the refugees who reached this soil and those who were forced to leave it.
Contents
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION
INTRODUCTION: BURDENS OF MEMORY
1. MAKING NATIONS: SOVEREIGNTY AND EQUALITY
The Nation: Boundaries and Definitions
From Ethnic Myth to Civil Imaginary
The Intellectual as the Nation’s “Prince”
2. MYTHISTORY: IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE PEOPLE
The Early Shaping of Jewish History
The Old Testament as Mythistory