The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

In his newest, Sand (The Invention of the Jewish People), a professor of modern history at the University of Tel Aviv, seeks “to deconstruct the concept of the Jewish ‘historical right’ to the Land of Israel and its associated nationalist narratives.” Supported by religious and historical sources, he shows that the term “Land of Israel” gained primacy in the early 20th century, and that before that time, observant Jews thought of the land as “an internal spiritual state” rather than a “concrete territorial site.” However, early secular Zionist pioneers began to incorporate notions of redemption into their migrational aspirations. In the process, Zionist and Israeli leaders often rode roughshod over the rights of Palestinian Arabs. Finally, Sand unpacks the radical “Judaization” of Israel after 1948, and shows how, post-1967, a “mythic Land of Israel” that included the West Bank and East Jerusalem “continued to inhabit the interstices of Zionist consciousness.” A thought-provoking, readable, and important work. (Nov.)