Ilan Pappé is a world-renowned Israeli historian and socialist activist, currently a professor at the University of Exeter in the UK. Born in Haifa to German Jewish parents who fled Nazi Germany, his Jewish identity profoundly informs his quest for historical justice. As a leading figure among Israel’s “New Historians,” he has dedicated his career to re-examining Israel’s founding history through declassified archives, challenging long-standing mainstream official narratives.
Pappé’s most significant academic achievement is his seminal book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” which meticulously argues that the 1948 Palestinian displacement was not an accidental byproduct of war, but a premeditated, systematic expulsion. This research has caused seismic shifts in global academia and provided a new paradigm for understanding the conflict. For his courage in exposing these truths, he is recognized as one of the most important and daring historians of the modern Middle East.
Due to his research touching on national taboos, Pappé faced long-term political pressure and boycotts within Israel, yet he has never ceased defending Palestinian rights through both action and discourse. He is a staunch supporter of the BDS movement and advocates for the dismantling of Zionist logic in favor of a single democratic state with equal rights for all. He sharply contends that true peace requires acknowledging the historical truth of the Nakba and consistently calls for international pressure to end what he views as a system of colonial oppression.