“After decades in which Israeli and Diaspora Jews were raised on the belief that the refugees left of their own volition, Shavit models a different narrative tack”

Shavit offers new insight into the motivations of Israeli soldiers and officers involved in the Lydda action through a series of interviews he conducted with them.  But, more importantly, he symbolizes the shift in the way Israelis tell the story of the Palestinian refugees.  After decades in which Israeli and Diaspora Jews were raised on the belief that the refugees left of their own volition, Shavit models a different narrative tack:  No more denial of the fact of Israeli expulsion.  The new claim is that there was no choice.  The nascent state was in a war of survival and, unfortunately, bad things happen in war.  “Either reject Zionism because of Lydda,” Shavit proposes, “or accept Zionism along with Lydda.”

David N. Myers, “The Failed Promise of ‘My Promised Land'”, The Jewish Journal (28 February – 6 March 2014), 29.