The book by an American Jew critical of the founding fathers of the Zionist regime has caused fiery reactions among the supporters of Tel Aviv in the United States.

In his work "A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two People" Ilan Pappe narrates the Palestinian view on the occupation and the Middle East conflict.

"My bias is apparent despite the desire of my peers that I stick to facts and the 'truth' when reconstructing past realities. This book is written by one who admits compassion for the colonized not the colonizer; who sympathizes with the occupied not the occupiers," the author explains in the introduction to A History of Modern Palestine.


Pappe also regards Zionism and Israeli history "more than a century of colonization, occupation, and dispossession of
Palestinians."
In his doctoral dissertation, subsequently published as Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51 in 1988, the author had also tried to explain the Palestinians view of the formation of Israel.

In his recent book, he refers to Herzl's attempts to "enlist British help in installing a temporary Jewish state in British Uganda."
According to Pappe, this offer was "seriously considered by some in Whitehall." However it was foiled by Weizmann who suggested the occupation of Palestine instead.

Those who support Israel are angered by the publication of the book.

A case in point is a critical review by Efraim Karsh director of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London, and editor of the quarterly journal Israel Affairs.

Karsh is the author of Arafat's War: the Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest in 2003.

In a review recently published in The Middle East Quarterly, Karsh accuses Pappe of "distorting" the history and "subscribing to a relativist view of history and repeating the Arabs' cliches concerning the being victims of foreign invasion".

In criticising Pappe's account, Karsh reveals that it was British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, not Herzl, who conceived of the East Africa idea.

Karsh said that the "Uganda Plan", contrary to what Pappe says, narrowly passed by last Zionist Congress in 1903 but was buried after Herzl's death in July 1904.

Trying to cast doubt on the accuracy of Pappe's account, he asks, "Does Pappe count on the ignorance of the general reader to accept it? Does he expect his peers to give him a pass?"
The editor of Israel Affairs goes on to claim that publication of books such as the one by Pappe "symbolizes the crisis in Middle East studies."

London, April 9, Iranian News Agency.