In an interview on Israel and Palestine in Art

Benny Morris is actually another of your choices with his book, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001.

Benny Morris, together with Ilan Pappe and other historians, is an historian who took it upon himself to check what really happened here in early Zionism. He describes, for example, what happened in 1948. Usually with Israel we tell ourselves that in the 48 War the Palestinians ran away and didn’t want to come back. And he showed that in some cases the situation was quite different. People were expelled or were forced to go and were threatened, and so on. So I chose his book because he gave me the supporting evidence and facts that I needed to describe accurately the situation back then. 

What kind of reaction do people have to this version of history?

Well, for example, Ilan Pappe worked at the University of Haifa and was part of this group of new historians, and because of it he didn’t get promotion, was forced to leave Israel and now he works in the UK. So he paid a personal price for trying to retell the mainstream narrative and he now cannot teach in Israel. 

And how about when you try to write what you see as the correct version of history?

My last book was under attack as well. It won Israel’s equivalent of the Man Booker Prize in 2009 but, two weeks after I was announced as the winner, the prize was revoked. They found a legal reason to do that – there was talk of a conflict of interests – but I think they did it for political reasons. They saw the book as controversial, attacking the foundation of Israel, questioning our narrative, so they revoked the prize. Israel right now is very patriotic: if you don’t follow the mainstream you are seen as a traitor.