False Prophets of Peace

The Israeli Left has long held the view that the historic Zionist Labor movement stands firmly in the humanistic, democratic, and even socialist traditions. These progressive credentials are routinely called forth as cause to dismiss any of Israel’s leftwing critics and their charges of injustice. Yet, a closer examination of these claims reveals a carefully constructed mythology used to obscure a more sordid reality.

False Prophets of Peace unearths the central role played by the Israeli Left in laying the foundation for the colonial settler project and its campaign of dispossession. Far from its professed radicalism, Honig-Parnass deftly exposes Left Zionism’s contributions to Israel’s exclusivist ideology and its participation in attempts to legitimize the apartheid treatment of Palestinians. Its fervent support of a Jewish-only state not only undermined the ?peace process” from the very start but continues to serve as a barrier to reaching a just peace that recognizes the national and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Tikva Honig-Parnass was raised in the Jewish community of pre-state Palestine, fought in the 1948 war and served as the secretary of the then Radical Left Zionist Party of Mapam (The Unified Workers Party) in the Knesset ( 1951-1954). In '60 she definitively broke with Zionism and joined the ranks of the Israeli Socialist Organization, known as "Matzpen". Since then she has played an active role in the movement against the '67 occupation as well as in the struggle for the Palestinian national rights.