The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of Gaza and the Occupied Territories

By Ilan Pappé

Book Overview

Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2017

A powerful, groundbreaking history of the Occupied Territories from one of Israel's most influential historians

From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up the story where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off.

In this comprehensive exploration of one of the world's most prolonged and tragic conflicts, Pappe uses recently declassified archival material to analyse the motivations and strategies of the generals and politicians - and the decision-making process itself - that laid the foundation of the occupation. From a survey of the legal and bureaucratic infrastructures that were put in place to control the population of over one million Palestinians, to the security mechanisms that vigorously enforced that control, Pappe paints a picture of what is to all intents and purposes the world's largest 'open prison'.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1786073412
• ISBN13: 9781786073419
• Release Date: June 2019
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli Historian telling the truth

Pappe's books are a scathing critique and moral view of the settler colonial ethnic cleansing and slow but deliberate genocide of the Palestinian people starting with the Balfour doctrine first and continuing with the US support of Israel's extreme right-wing administration and agenda. The Palestinians have never been offered peace or the decency that you would treat another human being by the Israelis, the US and Europe. Shame on all of us. Thanks to Pappe, Chomsky, Finkelstein, Feinstein, Klein, Khalidi and the thousands of others using their platform to tell the truth over the decades!

A Must Read!

If you think the current escalation of the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, as well as the increasing occupation and killing of civilians in the West Bank, began on October 7th 2023, or that the main-stream media has ever told you what's REALLY going on in what they call the "state of israel", and what I still call Palestine, READ THIS BOOK! Hamas is NOT a terrorist organization! It is a resistance group, striking out against an evil, right-wing militaristic government that has been slowly killing and removing the indigenous peoples of Palestine since Great Britain colonized the STATE of Palestine in 1917, deciding it was their right to "create" a "state of israel" on land that was already occupied, and then leaving in the late 1940's after having helped israel fight the peoples of Palestine and populate their land with Zionist Jews, in order to create a so called "state of Israel" in a land that was already populated! What you are hearing and seeing in the main-stream media are lies, as it acts as a bullhorn for the israeli government, as well as the the U.S government and their evil Zionist agenda! I would also recommend books by Noam Chompsky, Norman Finkelstein, Rashid Khalidi, Max Blumanthal, Edward Said, and this authors first book on the subject. If you don't understand what the Nakba was...if you don't understand what the 1st the 2nd Intifada's were and why they took place...if you don't understand that the people of Palestine have NEVER been offered a "peace plan" that gave them civil rights or autonomy in THEIR OWN LAND, or that when Great Britain colonized Palestine in 1917 the population was 95% Arabs, then find alternative news sources such as Democracy Now, Aljazeera, The Real News Network, as well as so many others, who are telling the truth about this history and what REALLY happened on October 7th and why! To ignore an ethnic cleansing that is taking place and televised daily and not speak out; to watch free speech being taken away from those here and abroad who are trying to give the victims of this tragedy a voice, is to be an unwitting participant in that Ethnic Cleansing!