ISBN: 9781844676231

Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Verso (14 June 2010)
Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.7 x 3 cm

In this brazenly opinionated volume, Sand counters official Zionist historiography, and questions whether the Jewish People ever existed as a national group with a common origin in the Land of Israel/Palestine. He concludes that the Jews should be seen as a religious community comprising a mishmash of individuals and groups that had converted to the ancient monotheistic religion but do not have any historical right to establish an independent Jewish state in the Holy Land.  An intellectual committed to the secular and liberal traditions of the West, Sand criticizes the Zionist historians and ideologues — he suggests that Zionist historians are ideologues — who introduced a mythical conception of the Jewish People as an ancient race.