A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine discusses prospects and
methods for a comprehensive, evidence-based history of Palestine with a
critical use of recent historical, archaeological and anthropological methods.
This history is not an exclusive history but one that is ethnically and
culturally inclusive, a history of and for all peoples who have lived in Palestine.
After an introductory essay offering a strategy for creating coherence
and continuity from the earliest beginnings to the present, the volume presents
twenty articles from twenty-two contributors, fifteen of whom are of
Middle Eastern origin or relation.
Split thematically into four parts, the volume discusses ideology, national
identity and chronology in various historiographies of Palestine, and the
legacy of memory and oral history; the transient character of ethnicity in
Palestine and questions regarding the ethical responsibilities of archaeologists
and historians to protect the multi-ethnic cultural heritage of Palestine;
landscape and memory, and the values of community archaeology and
bio-archaeology; and an exploration of the “ideology of the land” and its
influence on Palestine’s history and heritage.
The first in a series of books under the auspices of the Palestine History
and Heritage Project (PaHH), the volume offers a challenging new departure
for writing the history of Palestine and Israel throughout the ages. A
New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine explores the diverse history
of the region against the backdrop of twentieth-century scholarly construction
of the history of Palestine as a history of a Jewish homeland with roots
in an ancient, biblical Israel and examines the implications of this ancient
and recent history for archaeology and cultural heritage. The book offers a
fascinating new perspective for students and academics in the fields of anthropological,
political, cultural and biblical history.
Ingrid Hjelm is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Copenhagen
and former Director of the Palestine History and Heritage Project
(PaHH) (2014–17). She is author of The Samaritans and Early Judaism
(2000) and Jerusalem’s Rise to Sovereignty (2004), and, with K. Whitelam,
T.L. Thompson, N.P. Lemche and Z. Muna, New Information about the
History of Ancient Palestine (Arabic; 2004); with A.K. de Hemmer Gudme
(eds.), Myths of Exile (2015); and, with T.L. Thompson (eds.), Changing Perspectives
6 and 7 (2016).
Hamdan Taha is Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at Al Istiqlal University,
Palestine, former Deputy Minister for Heritage (2012–2014) and the
Director General of the then newly established Department of Antiquities
in Palestine (1994–2012). He has directed several excavations and restoration
projects, and co-directed the joint expeditions at Tell el-Sultan, Khirbet
Bal’ama, Tell el-Mafjar, Kh. el-Mafjar and Tell Balata. He worked also as a
national coordinator of the World Heritage Program in Palestine. He is the
author of many books, field reports and scholarly articles.
Ilan Pappe is Professor of History at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies,
and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University
of Exeter. He is author of numerous books on Palestine and the modern
state of Israel, including A History of Modern Palestine (2004), The Ethnic
Cleansing of Palestine (2006), The Forgotten Palestinians (2011), The Idea of
Israel (2014) and The Biggest Prison on Earth (2017).
Thomas L. Thompson, Professor Emeritus, worked at the University of Copenhagen
from 1993 to 2009. He was Research Fellow for the Tubinger Atlas
des vorderen Orients from 1969 to 1976. He has produced more than twenty
books, five of which have been translated into Arabic, and 170 lesser works
related to the history of Palestine and biblical literature, the best known of
which are The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974), The Settlement
of Palestine in the Bronze Age (1979), The Early History of the Israelite People
(1992), The Bible in History (1999), The Messiah Myth (2005) and Biblical
Narrative and Palestine’s History (2013).
