Here is a draft of this paper, the final version of which has now been published in Holy Land Studies, 9, 1, May 2010, and presented to the International Network of Genocide Scholars’ conference at the University of Sussex on 30 June 2010.
Palestine in an International Historical Perspective on Genocide.doc
Martin Shaw 
[…] Studies (Vol 9, No1, 2010, pp 1–25). [Readers of this blog can find a version of the full paper here.] Coincidentally, Shaw was asked to contribute to a conferenceorganized by the Wiener Library in […]
[…] of this blog may be aware that in a recent article I discussed the 1948 removal of the Arab population of Palestine within a genocide perspective, and […]
[…] relies for his comments on my views entirely on the JGR debate, and has not bothered to go back to the original article in Holy Land Studies, in which I set out my arguments in full. In this respect he could be accused […]
[…] Israel’s destruction of the larger part of Palestinian Arab society in 1948 was not exceptionally murderous (‘only’ a few thousand Arabs were massacred), nor was it complete (an Arab minority remained within the Israeli state). Yet it can be argued that the consequences for Israel and the region have been more severe than in many other cases. In part this is because the Palestinians mostly survived, including within Israel, and were able to develop a national movement, with support from the Arab world. Yet it is also because for Israel’s leaders, the national project was evidently incomplete. Subsequent phases of the conflict, although not marked by large-scale violent expulsions and induced flight as in 1948, have provided Israel with opportunities to extend its confiscation of Arab land and to continue piecemeal the displacement of population. Israel has of course used its security concerns as a rationale for settlement and complex geographical control, both designed to make Palestinian communities unviable and force individuals and families to move. These continuing policies can be seen as the ‘slow-motion’ extension and consolidation of the genocide of 1948. [. . . .] . . . the consequence of a society founded on genocide in these circumstances is a situation of more or less permanent war. So long as Israel does not come to terms with the genocide of 1948 and its enduring injustice, its leaders will continue to resort to brutal, degenerate war as a method of keeping the Palestinians in their place. A society thus founded cannot hope either for integrity or for security. FULL ARTICLE […]
Hi Martin,
It is with much regret that I have only just come across your site. More balanced debate on Palestine/Israel and the question of genocide is much needed.
Kind regards
Narelle