What is a homeland, and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for them throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land?Following the acclaimed and controversial Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest running national struggle of the twentieth-century. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of ‘historical right’ and tracks the invention of the modern geopolitical concept of the ‘Land of Israel’ by nineteenth cntury Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of israel; it is also what is threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.

Sand is an Israeli academic with a talent for outraging holders of mainstream Jewish opinions both within and outside of Israel while providing fodder for anti-Zionists. In his previous work, The Invention of the Jewish People (2010), he described the Jewish people as an artificial construct grafted upon disparate groups adhering to a religious confession. Here he builds on that premise, asserting that centuries-long Jewish attachment to “Eretz Israel” is a myth perpetrated by Zionists and Christian fundamentalists beginning in the late nineteenth century. Although Sand has some useful things to say about the fostering of a national identity, this is basically a one-sided polemic utilizing intellectually sloppy arguments. If one follows his criteria for “peoplehood,” one could exclude Arabs, Kurds, and many other groups. In “demolishing” opposing arguments, he takes statements by extremists and presents them as standard views. Sand’s real agenda seems to be to change current Israeli policy towards Palestinians. That may be a worthy goal, but it deserves a better advocate than Sand. --Jay Freeman
Review
“Anyone interested in understanding the contemporary Middle East should read this book.”—Tony Judt, In praise of The Invention of the Jewish People

“Perhaps books combining passion and erudition don’t change political situations, but if they did, this one would count as a landmark.”—Eric Hobsbawm, In praise of The Invention of the Jewish People

“A thought-provoking, readable, and important work.”—Publisher's Weekly

“... there is much to enjoy and learn in the evidence in the potentially incendiary material [Shlomo Sand] assembles here.”—Electronic Intifada

“[Sand] critically consider the ways in which the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel have been justified by claims of ancestral lands, historical rights, and millennia-old national yearnings, all of which he proceeds to critically undermine as either justifiable reasons for mastery over the land of Palestine/Israel or even representative of longstanding mass Jewish aspirations.”—Book News

“This groundbreaking new historical work from a highly controversial author undoes the myth of the Jewish people’s historical right to the ‘Land of Israel.’”—SirReadaLot.org
About the Author
Shlomo Sand studied history at the University of Tel Aviv and at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, in Paris. He currently teaches contemporary history at the University of Tel Aviv. His books include The Invention of the Jewish People, On the Nation and the Jewish People, L’Illusion du politique: Georges Sorel et le débat intellectuel 1900, Georges Sorel en son temps, Le XXe siècle à l’écran and Les Mots et la terre: les intellectuels en Israël.