The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History

Rating:
Summary: Rightfully points out that history plays a role in politics
Review: And then writes what is best described as a political tract. In this book, which purports to take politics out of the history of ancient Israel, there is no room for archaeology--no room for the collared-rim jars the ancient Israelites left behind, no mention the four-room houses at 'Izbet Sartah and, of course, none of Merneptah Stele, the ancient tablet (dated at 1212 BCE) which is also the first discovered recorded non-biblical reference to a people and a nation called Israel.

All these inconvenient facts are suppressed. Instead, Mr. Whitelam chooses to focus on how Israel has been portrayed in the Western World. Instead of contributing to the serious archaeological discussion on an Israel that was undoubtedly inhabited by Israelites, he instists on populating Israel with a people who came into being relatively recently and who were certainly not there in 1212 BCE and before.

However, this book does prove Mr. Whitelam's thesis: history is most certainly political and none more so than his.

Rating:
Summary: Re-evaluating our conception of Ancient History
Review: Historians everywhere have been re-evaluating and re-intrepreting their conceptions of history (especially ancient history) in light of new documents, new archeological discoveries, or new methods of interpretation and textual analysis. What we know now about the history of ancient China for example is radically different from what we knew 20 or 50 years ago. The same goes for ancient Egypt, the Indus valley, or any other part of the world.

The thin strip of land East of the Meditarranean nowadays called Palestine should be no exception. That, unfortunately, is not so. The main purpose of this book is to explore the special difficulties encountered in "updating" the ancient history of Palestine. The book focuses in particular about the ancient history in the last 1000 years B.C.E.

It is groundbreaking work, analyzing not just the available historical data, but the interaction and inner conflicts of the historian with this data. For example, what sets Palestine apart from other geographical areas is that entire generations of people, entire political movements, and entire religions have based themselves on one particular narrative and one particular interpretation of this ancient history. Any minor change in understanding, no matter how small, automatically sets off a whole chain of cause and effect that brings out enormous resistance to this new idea. Thus, what Keith Whitelam proves is the special enormous difficulty in changing historical knowledge about the land of Palestine. The ferocity of the negative reviews for this book testify to that fact. His contribution to ancient history is equivalent to the Theory of Evolution, and resistance to his book reminds us of the church's traditional opposition to science.

Whitelam's book is therefore very daring, and well worth your reading effort, although I warn in advance that is a somewhat difficult book, as necessitated by his impeccable scholarship and voluminous set of notes.

Rating:
Summary: Fraudulent
Review: Maybe Whitelam will start a trend. Maybe next we'll see books about how Parisians and Muscovites have "silenced" the German histories of their towns, or how the natives of North and South America a couple of millenia ago were actually Arabs.

This book is a seriously dishonest work, maliciously perpetrated by a trained scholar who knows better than to do something like this.

Anyway, if you want to read about the history of the ancient Israelites, try works by Baruch Halpern, Yohanan Aharoni, and William Dever. These are scholars who have written scholarly works for those who wish to read them. What Whitelam has produced is simply Jew-baiting propaganda. It is not sincere. And it isn't worth discussing any further.

Rating:
Summary: Well Done Whitelam
Review: Poor Withelam. Some reviews posted here on this book exactly prove the Whitelam theory. I think none of the reviewers, who commented on ideas based on theology and politics, have succeeded in understanding the author.

First, Withelam and other new scholars (revisionist but also eminent) in southern Syrian history, e.g. Palestinian, have shown how political unity and central state power have never been reached in this area in ages prior to 3rd BC. Later, in late 20th century, Israeli scholars and archeologists showed that this unity was never reached in what is known and called the Unified Kingdom, according to history (and not according to prayers made by believers). :)

Second, Whitelam and Thomas L. Thompson have shown why this central state over Phoenicia and southern Syria has never been reached. Please review them to understand this point again. In order to face Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian attacks, a coalition of these city-states was formed as proven by literary documents (Persian, Assyrian, and Egyptian).

Third, another point that Whitelam has focused upon in his studies is 'what' and 'how' other scholars up till the 1970's have studied this topic, and he provided real scientific criticism on their works. He simply included himself among this same old class of scholars and explained how he dared to change his views and cross the bridge from history-theology to history-real facts.

Israel, Judea, Samaria, Yezdrael, Shekem , Hasor, Saidon, Tyr , Byblos, etc. those city-states never made a unity in Syria as has been done in Egypt or old Iraq. Guess why? Simply because it never snows in Iraq and Egypt while it does in Lebanon! A joke that explains a lot.

This was fully explained by new revisionists including Whitelam in his book.

His Book is difficult to read, but also important to read for those interested in knowing truth about Bible and Scholars of the bible. Still i beleive this book is among the best in this domain.

Withelam's target was not to deny a theological idea or other people's beliefs related to their God, but rather to explain how things have been studied in a way to hide historical realities confronted to religious beliefs, where focusing on theology and politics and world's interests has lead history out of its natural track.

Again, poor Whitelam! He is not well understood. I think his book is among the best in this domain. With his book one can also review in detail a multitude of methodologies, bibliographical, and archeological works related to Palestine.

Assumptions previously made are retrieved later. Regardless of his ideas, his book can also be a source to study a multitude of theory and anthology for studying Ancient Palestine (Sorry, Ancient Israel).

Passages of the Quran, as one reviewer used it to prove a historical fact concerning Palestine, show again how Withelam was right. By the way, the holy Quran always distinguished between Sons of Israel and Jews. Sons of Israel in the Quran are tribes like Quraish, People of Lot, and People of Umran and Midyan, while Judaism is a religious sect as the Nazarenes [Nasarah] (Chritians).
...

Rating:
Summary: Worthless trash
Review: The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History has to be one of the most dishonest books that I have ever read.

Rather than blame the Israelis, Whitelam shold blame Palestinians. At it the Palestinians that gave birth to the suicide bombers of the world.

"The Greatest Obstacle to Peace in the Middle East" it turns out is not Jewish "settlements," but the United Nations, and specifically one of its agencies, UNRWA. This was the conclusion of experts at last week's Jerusalem Summit, an annual conference that brings together important thinkers from around the world on issues relating to Israel.

Established shortly after the Israeli-Arab armistice in 1950 to assist Arab refugees exclusively, UNRWA's mandate was specifically designed to perpetuate their status as refugees in order to further the Arab agenda of destroying Israel.

For half a century UNRWA has funneled billions of dollars to perpetuate the status of "Palestinians as refugees." But unlike all other refugees in the world, Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA's definition include not only those who became refugees, but all of their descendents as well.

UNRWA also includes anyone who applied for relief, regardless of when they arrived or where they came from. Even when they move out of the "camps" (actually neighborhoods and towns) and/or become citizens of another country (as in the case of Jordan), they still retain their status as "Palestinian refugees."

This explains why the number of refugees in other countries and areas of the world eventually dissipates, while for Palestinians, it amplifies.

According to Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, Arab refugees numbered around 700,000 at most in 1948. Over the years that should have diminished to around 200,000. Instead, being a "Palestinian refugee" is passed down from one generation to the next. Today there are an estimated four million (although no one really knows because of UNRWA's faulty records) - and the number is growing.

Terrorism prevents any progress towards peace. The "Palestinian Right of Return" (to Israel) -- a basic, non-negotiable demand - encourages the refusal to accept Israel's existence and fuels Palestinian terrorism. It reinforces Palestinians' belief in their innocence and victimization, promoting a culture of denial and self-pity, sabotaging any hope for change.

A main perpetrator of this policy is UNWRA which not only provides food, educational and medical assistance to generations of "Palestinians," but insists that they not be repatriated into their host countries - like all other refugees around the world. For "Palestinian refugees," their children and their great-grand children, UNWRA insists, their only home is "Israeli-occupied Palestine."

Not that these "refugees" have a choice. Martin Sherman, Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University presented recent polls which indicated that most Palestinians, given the opportunity, would prefer some form of compensation and the opportunity to move to another country and get on with their lives. They can't. The UN, UNRWA and the Arab countries won't allow it.

No Arab country except Jordan -- where they now constitute more than two-thirds of the population -- accepted them as citizens. Saudi Arabia, for example, recently passed a law allowing all foreigner workers in the country to apply for Saudi citizenship next year - except Palestinians.

In Lebanon, Pipes pointed out, where more than 400,000 "Palestinian refugees" live in UNWRA-supported "camps" residents cannot work or even go to school outside their designated areas. Ditto for Syria.

"UNRWA has outlived its utility and should be dismantled," Pipes suggested. Since more than a third of the funds for UNRWA come from the United States, he urged an immediate end to this policy.

(Saudi Arabia and the oil-rich Gulf states contribute about 2% of UNRWA's budget; the EU countries and Canada make up the rest.)

Dore Gold, Israel's former Ambassador to the United Nations and now head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and legal expert and Columbia University Professor Anne Bayefsky, characterized the UN as a total failure. Gold's recently published "Tower of Babble" (Crown, 2004) effectively documents the case.

A major source of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment, the UN has contributed to wholesale massacres and terrorism around the world in places like Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Its refusal to condemn Islamic-based terrorism against Israel has encouraged this scourge.

According to Bayefsky, nearly a third of the resolutions of the Committee on Human Rights condemn Israel; no resolutions are submitted against two-thirds of the rest of the countries in the world (including Sudan and North Korea). Official UN events supporting the "inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees" are part of the demonization of Israel and encourage a hard-line stance that undermines any progress towards peace. The effect, she said is lethal.

The Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) dominates much of what goes on in the General Assembly, Bayefsky said, and prevents even a definition of terrorism. The 56 members of the OIC are also part of the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement which constitutes an automatic majority in the 191-member U.N.

Dr. Avi Beker, professor at Tel Aviv University's School of Government, called for UNRWA's elimination and the creation of a new mechanism to resettle and rehabilitate the refugees. This, he emphasized, is a prerequisite to any peace process.

Of the 4 million "Palestinian refugees," listed by UNRWA for Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Gaza in 2002, about 1,250,000 reside in the areas controlled by UNRWA. The rest live comfortably -- sometimes luxuriously -- outside, often in nearby villages and towns. In addition to the free assistance and services they receive, as "refugees" they pay no taxes.

In Jordan, Syria and the West Bank only about 18% live in UNRWA administered areas; in Lebanon and Gaza that figure rises to more than half. The most violent and volatile areas are those with the highest number living under UNRWA.

Nearly all teachers in UNRWA schools belong to unions affiliated with terrorist organizations, like Hamas. Schools, textbooks, religious institutions and Palestinian media teach hatred of Jews and Israelis and glorify homicide bombing ("martyrdom"). This has been documented by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), and Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.

Recent revelations have shown that UNRWA receives funding from terrorist organizations (including al Qaida connected) and that "refugee camps" for which UNRWA is responsible are major centers of terrorism. Nearly all the missile attacks from Gaza into Israel originate from UNRWA-administered territory. In Jenin, the UNRWA-run camp is called "the terrorist capitol of the world." Except by UNRWA.

This does not seem to have alerted world attention to the problem. Rather than confront the issue honestly and openly, UN and UNRWA officials deny and obfuscate. UNRWA is not part of the solution, experts concluded; it is at the core of the problem.

This year's Summit gathering focused on shifting attention from political to humanitarian solutions, exposing the oppression of Moslem women in Moslem countries, and using the Koran to teach tolerance rather than bigotry and hatred as ways of encouraging positive change.

Rating:
Summary: what a fraud!!
Review: This guy clearly has a contemporary political agenda that has nothing to do with the reality of history, and he and his mates such as T. Thompson harm science by manipulating it to further their hatred of todays and yesterdays facts on the ground. There is no silencing of anything, neither is there an invention of ancient Israel. Let's not waste more words on this.

Rating:
Summary: An objective Reading of History
Review: This is one of the very few objective accounts one can find in the western world about the history of Palestine. The Creation of the so-called "Ancient Israel" is really but a Western literary idea. The Arabic historical reality of Palestine is confirmed in this fascinating Book. The conclusion of the book is that the Now-Israel is just a Myth which is enforced on the rest of the world through Western domination. A must read for any student of history and anyone who search for truth.

Rating:
Summary: Thank Heavens! History without the Hebrew Testament
Review: Whitelam has prepared a sorely needed work... Critics of Whitelam assert he is insensitive to current ...politics of the area. ...Whitelam provides the reader with a valued list of published materials useful for reseachers. I randomly checked on some of his citations and they are given within the context in which the original authors wrote. Hopefully this work ...will encourage a new generation of scholars to honestly explore historical, literary and archaeological data...

Rating:
Summary: Erasure of ancient Israel: invention of ancient Palestine
Review: Whitelam states from the outset that he is not attempting to write a history of Palestine: there was, he says, too much data for him to survey and, moreover, the historiography of Palestine is, in general, so suffused with 'Zionism' , conscious or not, to make an attempt at Palestinian historiography impossible.

These are too mutually exclusive assertions. Surely there cannot be too much data (except for Whitelam's limited ability to process)?

It turns out that Whitelam's definition of 'Zionism' means an over reliance on the Hebrew tradition.

This is a problematic assertion. Until recently, the Hebrew tradition, along with an ancient Greek text on the Canaanites, was simply almost the entirety of knowledge about ancient Palestine.

This, says, Whitelam, has 'silenced' Palestinian history.

However, what most Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians have believed about ancient Palestine, is what their respective Islamic and Christian traditions tell them. These are both entirely derived, second or third hand, from the Hebrew. Since Whitelam fails to address these authentic Palestinian Arab Christian and Islamic traditions, he could be accused of 'silencing', or censoring them himself -as inconducive to his political agenda.

The Hebrew tradition may not be history by 21st century standards (what ancient text or narrative is?), but it remains not only the oldest indigenous Palestinian narrative written by ancient Palestinians about ancient Palestine in an ancient Palestinian dialect, but the only indigenous Palestinian narrative written by ancient Palestinians about ancient Palestine in an ancient Palestinian dialect that has survived.

Moreover, there is no question there was an ancient Israel and Judah, nor David or his successors.

Exodus may be greatly exaggerated, but the context of Habiru slaves escaping from Egypt into Canaan is known from ancient records.

In any case, Whitelam addresses none of these issues from an archaeological or historical perspective.

He merely concerns himself with unmasking 'Zionism' in ancient Palestinian historiography.

Even Israel Finkelstein, who is responsible for a greatly revised history of ancient Israel, is too 'Zionist' for him.

Whitelam refers to Canaanites as 'Palestinians', but not Jews or Israelites, despite the fact that current historiography sees a large Canaanite component to ancient Israel (Hebrew, for instance, is the only surviving spoken member of Canaanite Semitic -in that sense the Hebrew tradition is the only indigenous 'Palestinian' Canaanite tradition that has survived).

This surely is a retrojection of his own political concerns into the past. The Hebrew bible antedates modern political Zionism and the Jewish state of Israel by several thousand years.

Whitelam's 'antiBible' does not predate the birth of modern Palestinian nationalism and its western supporters.

Moreover, the reason Palestine is the most excavated place in history, and consequently, why we know so much about it, is because of the Hebrew tradition, not despite it.

This tradition has inspired Christians to dig for their spiritual, Jews their spiritual and ethnic origins.

Whitelam presupposes this is de fact illegitimate, despite the fact that the data-that-is-too-extensive-for-him-to-process-to-write-a Palestinian-history has largely been recovered by Israeli Jews.

Israeli archaeologists have found the first Philistine (the origin of the term 'Palestine)inscription. Since it tells us nothing the bible does not, Whitelam's colleague, Niels Peter Lemche suspected it fake!

The reports of the demise of ancient Israel have been greatly exaggerated. True, there are some asynchronisms with the conventional chronology, and our picture, as was intended, greatly nuancd. But they are scarcely disastrous. A monumental Jerusalem, for instance, cannot be found at the precise time of Solomon dated conventionally. But it exists mere decades before. The chronology may be wrong.

Moreover, there is over a milliennium of 'Palestinian' Israelite and Jewish history, documented texually and artifactually, ensuing.

In any case, Whitelam addresses none of these issues as he says he is not writing a history.

Curiously, though professing to write an apology for modern Palestinian Arab nationalist ancient historiography, not once does Whitelam discuss the origin of the term 'Palestine', not its place in such an enterprise.

'Syria Palaestina' was created following the Roman suppression of the second Jewish revolt to erase all national Jewish existence for ever -in modern parlance 'ethnic cleansing'.

The term 'Palestine', when used of previous periods, is thus a convenient geographical metaphor.

Whitelam, however, uses it in a blatantly revisionist nationalist manner.

'Palaestina' means of the 'Plistim', or 'Philistines', the original European colonials in 'Palestine'.

But Whitelam has been saying for most of his book that ancient Israel is a 'European invention': he is hardly going to suggest that the eponymous ancestors of the Palestinians were themselves Europeans.

Whitelam attempts to label ancient Israel as a work of 'orientalism', a patronising European, essentially imperialist or colonialist invention or construct.

This is extraordinary. If the ancient Israelites and Jews were not themselves 'orientals', and the Plistim, Philistines, 'Palestinians', Europeans, then what were they?

The Hebrew text is an 'oriental' indigenous product of Palestine (before, in fact, it was Palestine).

The same can scarcely be said of 'The invention of ancient Israel: the silencing of Palestinian history'.

Rating:
Summary: Impartial History?
Review: Whitelam's total rejection of any historical accuracy in the Old Testament Canon is sad. Rather than grappling with the issues involved he is simply another pundant trying to force a square peg (the Old Testament) into a round hole (his personal opinions).
As a minimalist we can expect him to see little historical accuracy or value in the OT, but when he states that "It is now time for Palestinian history to come of age and formally reject the agenda of 'biblical history'...", without fully engaging the archaeological evidence to the contary, it appears he does so based only on his own secular worldview. Sad.
For an excellent book that lays out the other side of this issue see "ON THE RELIABILITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT" by K. A. Kitchen; William B. Eerdmans Publishers, 2003; ISBN 0-8028-4960-1. It is well written and it's scope is amazing.