ABSTRACT
This is the fi rst of four chapters examining the analytics of the discourse of Palestinian-Israeli relations. Archaeologically, truth is rule governed knowledge. In order to be counted as truthful a statement must abide by extratextual rules. In this chapter I describe three silences that systematized thought on Palestinian-Israeli relations from the late 19th century until the start of the Oslo Process in 1993. These silences or discursive exclusions involve the guiding principles of Zionist thought and practice. What is not talked about in the discourse of Palestinian-Israeli relations pre-1993 are: 1) the Zionist idea of transfer intended to realize demographic homogeneity in Israel, 2) the territorial maximization inherent in Zionist thought and 3) Zionism’s denial of the existence of the Palestinian nation and this nation’s right to self-determination. This chapter takes as its point of analytical departure the critical scholarship of Simha Flapan as presented in his The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities.
