* Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2012* Since its release in 2009 Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide has become an essential primer for undergraduate students and activists getting to grips with the Palestine/Israel conflict for the first time. Ben White skilfully distills the work of academics and experts into a highly accessible introduction.  This new updated and expanded edition includes information on the Israeli blockade and attacks on the Gaza Strip since 2008, new policies targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel and the growth of the global Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign. Packed with vital information, quotations and resources, Israeli Apartheid never loses the human touch. The book is rooted in the author's extensive personal experience in Palestine and includes testimonies by Palestinians describing how Israeli apartheid affects their daily lives. ''A highly commendable effort to throw light on a fraught subject" - Archbishop Desmond Tutu "An excellent guide for understanding the magnitude of the crimes committed against the Palestinians and the nature of their present suffering and oppression."- Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter, UK, and author of Out of the Frame: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel (Pluto, 2010) "An essential guide for understanding Israeli apartheid - both the history, and the day to day reality." - Eyal Weizman, author of Hollow Land (2007) 'An essential guide for understanding Israeli apartheid - both the history, and the day to day reality' 'An excellent guide for understanding the magnitude of the crimes committed against the Palestinians and the nature of their present suffering and oppression' 'A highly commendable effort to throw light on a fraught subject' 'This book takes on the most complex arenas of injustice and contested history, and renders them accessible, lucid, and morally compelling' 'This little book is an invaluable tool' 'White's thesis is well researched, well argued and copiously referenced' Ben White is a researcher and analyst at the Middle East Monitor and Journal of Palestine Studies . He is the author of Palestinians in Israel : Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy (Pluto, 2011) and has written for the Guardian , New Statesman and Al Jazeera . Israeli Apartheid A Beginner's Guide By Ben White Pluto Press Copyright © 2014 Ben White All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7453-3463-9 Contents List of Maps, Figures and Photographs, x, Acknowledgements, xii, Foreword by John Dugard, xiii, Preface to the Second Edition, xvii, Introducing Israeli Apartheid, 1, Part I: Israeli Independence, Palestinian Catastrophe, 15, Part II: Israeli Apartheid, 44, Part III: Towards Inclusion and Peace – Resisting Israeli Apartheid, 110, Frequently Asked Questions, 126, Glossary, 142, Israeli Apartheid: A Timeline, 150, Resources, 151, Notes, 158, Select Bibliography, 189, Index, 195, CHAPTER 1 Israeli Independence, Palestinian Catastrophe We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it. Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister 'Ben-Gurion was right ... Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here.' Benny Morris, Israeli historian In August 1897, in the Swiss city of Basle, a meeting took place that would have profound and disastrous consequences for the Palestinians – though they were not present at the event, or even mentioned by the participants. The First Zionist Congress, the brainchild of Zionism's chief architect Theodor Herzl, resulted in the creation of the Zionist Organization (later the World Zionist Organization) and the publication of the Basle Programme – a kind of early Zionist manifesto. Just the year before, Herzl had published 'The Jewish State', in which he laid out his belief that the only solution to the anti-semitism of European societies was for the Jews to have their own country. Writing in his diary a few days afterwards, Herzl predicted what the real upshot would be of the Congress: At Basle I founded the Jewish State. If I said this aloud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive this. Herzl's Zionism was a response to European anti-semitism and, while a radical development, built on the foundations of more spiritually and culturally focused Jewish settlers who had already gone to Palestine on a very small scale. At the time, many Jews, for different reasons, disagreed with Herzl's answer to the 'Jewish question'. Nevertheless, the Zionists got to work; sending new settlers, securing financial support and bending the ear of the imperial powers without whose cooperation, the early leaders knew, the Zionist project would be impossible to realise. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the population of Palestine was around 4 per cen