Few Israeli historians have held the state’s national myths to account like Avi Shlaim. Emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, Shlaim is among the most celebrated historians of modern Palestinian and Israeli history.

Born into an Arab-Jewish family in 1945 Iraq and later moving to Israel, Shlaim’s academic journey is marked by his critical, nuanced and personal approach, shaped in no small part by his service in the Israeli army during the mid-1960s.

As one of the leading figures in the 1980s ‘New Historians’ movement, Shlaim helped dismantle some of the narratives around Israel’s founding, challenging traditional Zionist perspectives. His work on the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and Nakba, especially his seminal book The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, offers a critical analysis of Israeli actions leading up to the war and its aftermath. ….more

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