Heidegger, Pappe, History And Concealment
Saturday, July 5, 2014 at 5:21PM Gilad Atzmon 
A few days ago, I published a comment on Dr Ilan Pappe’s performance on BBC Hardtalk. In my comment, I argued that Pappe’s struggle to make his point was not because of his opponent’s bulldozer tactics and certainly not because of Dr Pappe lacked either scholarship or courage, but simply because Ilan Pappe, in his desperation to conceal Jewish shame, is completely and utterly unable to utter the J word. In effect this means that he was unable to give voice to the blatantly obvious fact that Israeli barbarism is, unfortunately, totally consistent with certain yet common interpretations of Jewish culture, Jewish religious and heritage.
In a short article published today in Dissident Voice, William James Martin, asserted that I accused Pappe of ‘cowardice’. This is not true. In fact, on the contrary, I am well informed about all that Pappe has endured in his home country and I regard him as a very brave man indeed. Of course, I certainly cannot know precisely what it is that prevents Ilan Pappe from examining the real ideology that led to the expulsion of the Palestinians, though I can think of some possible reasons: Pappe occupies a position in a British university which must alone limit his freedom of expression. And of course, it may also be that Pappe really doesn't believe that the criminal actions committed by the Jewish state have anything to do with Jewish culture, Jewish heritage, Jewish ideology or even Judaism.
But here is something that William James Martin probably doesn’t know: Twice in my life I have met Ilan Pappe (both meetings confirmed that he is indeed one of the nicest people within the solidarity movement) and in one of the meetings I discussed the above matter with him.
Eight years ago, Palestinian film maker Dima Hamdan, who was producing a film on Israeli dissent, gathered Israeli film maker Eyal Sivan, Ilan Pappe and myself for a filmed discussion. Hamdan began the session by asking the three of us what differentiated us from the Israeli Left. Sivan, was first to answer and said, quite correctly, that “the Israeli Left is willing to critically examine 1967, but we look into 1948, the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing and so on.” Pappe was quick to affirm that this was indeed also his position.
Me, being the notorious trouble maker, immediately challenged both Sivan and Pappe. I agreed that 1948 demanded scrutiny but why, I asked, stop there? Why not go on and extend our enquiries and try to grasp the power structure that made, for example, the Belfour declaration possible? After all, how can we possibly look at the Balfour declaration without also understanding the power of the Lobby behind it, a lobby already firmly in place in 1917? Furthermore, what was the nature of the ‘Jewish question’ already much under discussion at that time? How did it emerge and why did emancipation not work out as had been expected? What about the role of culture and heritage? Was not the Jewish ‘homecoming’ then and the Nakba later driven by the same interpretation of the bible as a call for a genocide?
