A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine

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).