Out of the Frame: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel

Even before he wrote his bestselling book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, historian Ilan Pappe was a controversial figure in Israel. In Out of the Frame, he gives a full account of his break with conventional Israeli scholarship and its consequences.

Growing up in a conventional Israeli community influenced by the utopian visions of Theodor Herzl, Pappe was barely aware of the Nakbah in his high school years. Here he traces his journey of discovery from the whispers of Palestinian classmates to his realisation that the 'enemy's' narrative of the events of 1948 was correct. After producing his phD at Oxford university based on recently declassified documents in the early 1980s he returned to Palestine determined to protect the memory of the Nakbah and struggle for the rectification of its evils. For the first time he gives the details of the formidable opposition he faced in Israel, including death threats fed by the media, denunciations by the Knesset and calls for him to be sacked from his post at Haifa university.

This revealing work, written with dignity and humour, highlights Israel's difficulty in facing up to its past and forging a peaceful, inclusive future in Palestine.

Ilan Pappe is a professor in the Institute for Arab and Islamic studies in the University of Exeter; the Director of the European Centre for Palestine studies in Exeter and the co-director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was the academic head and founder of the Institute for Peace studies in Givat Haviva Israel (1992-2000) and the Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). His recent books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) and The Modern Middle East (2005).