Shlomo Sand Glasgow book launch and discussion: 18 August 2011

Israeli best-selling author Shlomo Sand will speak on his book

The Invention of the Jewish People

Thursday August 18th 7.00pm for 7.30pm start
STUC Building, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG

Limited seating - to reserve your seat please text your name to 07958 002 591 or email campaign@scottishpsc.org.uk

Shlomo Sand will also be speaking at Wordpower's Edinburgh Book Fringe and the Edinburgh International Book Festival

"Countering official Zionist historiography, Sand 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. In short, the Jewish People, according to Sand, are not really a "people" in the sense of having a common ethnic origin and national heritage. They certainly do not have a political claim over the territory that today constitutes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem."
Leon T. Hadar in Middle East Policy

"Extravagantly denounced and praised" New York Times

"The outrage surrounding Sand's book in Israel has positioned him as an enemy within, an arch-revisionist working out of the university of Tel Aviv. Sand's contentions – that much Zionist history derives from deeply unreliable sources and that Jewish identity is essentially defined by religion rather than race or nationalism – are thorough and reasonable, but this has not prevented his attackers from claiming he wants to write Israel out of history. Sand's arguments are considerably more subtle; he does not question the right of Israel to exist; rather, he calls for a more rigorous examination of the premises on which that existence is based and suggests that they require redefinition."
Lisa Hilton in The Independent

"It was the year's biggest helping of humble pie. Less than a month after a heated takedown of Shlomo Sand's "The Invention of the Jewish People" in the Financial Times, the very same reviewer, writing in Italy's respected business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, offered the book qualified praise, calling it his book of the year. So distinct was this follow-up appraisal, it could have been written by a different person...The critic in question, British historian Simon Schama, did not offer a reason for this about-face..."
Joel Schalit in Jewish Daily Forward

Shlomo Sand is also speaking at Word Power bookshop on Wednesday 17 August 2011 at 1.00pm
Venue:
Word Power Books
43-45 West Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
EH8 9DB
Scotland

Admission Free!