The renowned Israeli historian revisits the formative period of the State of Israel. Between 1947 & 1949 over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed civilians were massacred & around a million men women & children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades had it happened today it could only have been called ethnic cleansing". Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that from its very inception a central plank in Israels founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in the Middle East."