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sunshinecapturer's review
interesting and packed with information; I will come back and finish it one day! When I have a physical book instead of an ebook
lukes_ramblingwritings66's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Blaming the Victims is a dense read. Each essay, written by different authors, gives us a glimpse into the lives and histories of the Palestinians under the occupation. I have found this book an invaluable resource for the contextual history of the displacement of the Palestinians in their native land.
The second section, titled “Myths, Old and New” tackles with the idea of Palestinian Identity and the Israeli occupation’s justifications of invasion. The essays deconstructing and flipping the narrative behind the word “terrorist”, written by none other than Noam Chomsky and Edward Said, prove that the Israeli narrative and propaganda uses a large brush to generalize all Arabic people as “Terrorists”, making it easier for their allies, (the United States to name a prominent one) to spread said propaganda and misinformation to further gather support for the Israeli regime on a global scale. Both authors also address the blatant war-crimes and terrorist acts that the state of Israel continues to employ on Palestinian refugees in other countries, most notably, Lebanon. One of my favorite essays in this collection, titled “Palestinian Peasant Resistance to Zionism Before World War I”, illustrates with great detail and research that even before the British Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians were already being displaced by Zionist settlers, as much of the land were under registered ownership to non-Palestinian absentee landlords, due to a property law established by the ending Ottoman Empire. What astounds me is that this book was originally published in the late 80s, yet the information here still remains relevant to what is going on in Palestine right now.
This is an important book for many reasons, and I implore all who support the Palestinian Right to Resistance and Right to Return to read what is written here.
The second section, titled “Myths, Old and New” tackles with the idea of Palestinian Identity and the Israeli occupation’s justifications of invasion. The essays deconstructing and flipping the narrative behind the word “terrorist”, written by none other than Noam Chomsky and Edward Said, prove that the Israeli narrative and propaganda uses a large brush to generalize all Arabic people as “Terrorists”, making it easier for their allies, (the United States to name a prominent one) to spread said propaganda and misinformation to further gather support for the Israeli regime on a global scale. Both authors also address the blatant war-crimes and terrorist acts that the state of Israel continues to employ on Palestinian refugees in other countries, most notably, Lebanon. One of my favorite essays in this collection, titled “Palestinian Peasant Resistance to Zionism Before World War I”, illustrates with great detail and research that even before the British Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians were already being displaced by Zionist settlers, as much of the land were under registered ownership to non-Palestinian absentee landlords, due to a property law established by the ending Ottoman Empire. What astounds me is that this book was originally published in the late 80s, yet the information here still remains relevant to what is going on in Palestine right now.
This is an important book for many reasons, and I implore all who support the Palestinian Right to Resistance and Right to Return to read what is written here.
powersureater's review
Themes: misinformation, propaganda, censorship, deflection using the term “terrorism”, US and UK complicity
Would recommend: only if you have a particular interest in the topic. It’s very scholarly so picks key publications and analyses their sources, citations, the foundation of arguments, etc. and how that affected public perception.
Would recommend: only if you have a particular interest in the topic. It’s very scholarly so picks key publications and analyses their sources, citations, the foundation of arguments, etc. and how that affected public perception.
bookishmillennial's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
This reads as quite academic (which the title says "Spurious Scholarship," so it's kind of my fault for being surprised), and is a bit dense to get through. It sometimes felt like a chore to finish each essay because some of the paragraphs were so long (I *need* frequent indent breaks, it's a me problem, I know!), there were tables or charts that were not the easiest to read in my digital copy of the book(but I got it for free from Verso Books, so thank yall for continuing to provide so many amazing resources!) and provides a LOT of historical context.
I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is just beginning to learn about the oppression and apartheid treatment of Palestine, but maybe to someone who wants an additional reference to Palestinian history to complement their other reading from Palestinian voices. What was really illuminating about this book was the sheer amount of data the contributors provided as far as numbers of Palestinian refugees in surrounding countries, where the Palestinian diaspora ended up, socioeconomic methods of control over Palestinians, and more.
What's most saddening though, is that this book was written in the 80s, and it's eerie how some contributors predicted the future regarding Israel's goal of forcing all Palestinians out of Palestine, and pushing forward continued mass exodus. It's devastating to read, as we are now past 100+ days of targeted Palestinian genocide in Gaza.
This reads as quite academic (which the title says "Spurious Scholarship," so it's kind of my fault for being surprised), and is a bit dense to get through. It sometimes felt like a chore to finish each essay because some of the paragraphs were so long (I *need* frequent indent breaks, it's a me problem, I know!), there were tables or charts that were not the easiest to read in my digital copy of the book(but I got it for free from Verso Books, so thank yall for continuing to provide so many amazing resources!) and provides a LOT of historical context.
I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is just beginning to learn about the oppression and apartheid treatment of Palestine, but maybe to someone who wants an additional reference to Palestinian history to complement their other reading from Palestinian voices. What was really illuminating about this book was the sheer amount of data the contributors provided as far as numbers of Palestinian refugees in surrounding countries, where the Palestinian diaspora ended up, socioeconomic methods of control over Palestinians, and more.
What's most saddening though, is that this book was written in the 80s, and it's eerie how some contributors predicted the future regarding Israel's goal of forcing all Palestinians out of Palestine, and pushing forward continued mass exodus. It's devastating to read, as we are now past 100+ days of targeted Palestinian genocide in Gaza.
"We can therefore expect continued attrition of the Palestinian population in Palestine, a steady drain occasionally accelerated by violent events. If Israel finds this process too slow, it will undoubtedly redouble its combined pressures of economic strangulation and violent suppression to speed the exodus of Palestinians."
"This evoked a huge protest over alleged atrocity-mongering and fabrication in a 'broad-scale mass psychological war' waged against pitiful little Israel, another sign of the inveterate anti-Semitism of world opinion; Israel became the victim, not the aggressor."
"These sufferings consequently imposed upon people in its dispersions and political difficulties are legion. All these sufferings derive, however, from the complete inability of every Palestinian man, woman, and child to exercise a fundamental set of inalienable rights. No Palestinian has a Palestinian passport, no Palestinian has Palestinian nationality, no Palestinian can vote in a national election as a Palestinian, no Palestinian can voluntarily return to Palestine and take up residence there. In most places, the very word 'Palestine; is either denied or in some way made the object of particular (usually injurious) juridical, political, social, and cultural discrimination."
"How many more Palestinians must die, be incarcerated, or expelled from their land before this people's identity is acknowledged and its national purpose consummated in an independent and sovereign state?"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Genocide, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Death
bacchicecstasy's review
5.0
Good for providing context to current events, especially the extreme effort Israel has made to disenfranchise and eliminate the Palestinian people.