@jricole I didn’t read the Financial Times piece and I am not a fan of Harari. Historian Yossef Rapoport analyzed the Hebrew text published in Haaretz in November 2025 (which appears to be a translation of the Financial Times piece, paywalled so can’t verify).
Rapoport basically says Harari’s “let’s have honest dialogue” piece is fatally flawed because it ignores the five things that actually matter: Palestinian Arabic-speaking cultural continuity stretching back a thousand years, Jerusalem’s religious centrality that makes separation impossible, the British colonial backing that created Israel (Balfour Declaration/settler colonialism), the Nakba’s systematic destruction of 1948, and the fact that over 5 million Palestinians are denied citizenship simply for not being Jewish. He presents a “both sides tell themselves lies” false equivalence that erases the actual colonial power dynamics - he’s asking Israelis to be “generous” to Palestinians instead of recognizing Palestinian rights as inherent, not dependent on Israeli goodwill. To write about Palestinian-Israeli history while leaving out the Arabic language, settler colonialism, and the #Nakba is either willful blindness or a failure so severe it disqualifies the whole project. Equality has to come first, and you can’t build “shared understanding” on top of ongoing domination and erasure.
[…] Harari falls into the colonial trap from which he tried to wean himself, and tries to convince Israelis to show generosity toward Palestinians and give them part of the land. But the Palestinians’ right to a state, or to integration into one state as equal citizens, does not depend on the goodwill of Israelis. In the 21st century, unlike the Middle Ages, this is a universal and natural right of every human being.
[…] And after equality, which should be self-evident, there will be a role for Palestinian and Israeli historians to conduct dialogue about the past, and to establish a shared foundation that will include the different communities that lived in this land—a shared vision of the past that will be necessary for a future of reconciliation. Harari is not wrong that historians have a special responsibility, and it is no accident that historians like Lee Mordechai and Liat Kozma are among the bravest of Israeli opponents of the war of extermination in Gaza. History will judge them kindly.
Hebrew https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A8-%D7%91%D7%94%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A5-%D7%94%D7%96%D7%95-%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9C-%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%94/
Hebrew https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/2025-11-13/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/0000019a-780b-d6d8-af9b-7e5f7af20000
The rights of the Palestinians should not be conditioned on Israeli good will. I think Harari’s generosity is misplaced, if not arrogant. But specifically he’s not addressing Israelis to begin with, as far as I can tell.
#nakba #zionism #palestine #histodons
