Avi Shlaim, Israeli-British historian: ‘Netanyahu wants to drag the US into a confrontation with Iran’ The Arab-Jewish essayist claims that the current Israeli government is set on ‘the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the actual annexation of the West Bank’ Avi Shlaim , born to a Jewish family in Baghdad in 1945, is one of the most respected historians specializing in the Middle East. A self-described Arab and Jew, he is an emeritus professor at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he lives. He is very careful with his measured speech.
His smile cuts across his eyes, drawing a fine line behind his glasses. With curly, grey hair, Shlaim, who emigrated with his family to Israel in the 1950s, reflects for a few seconds before answering each question during the interview, held by video conference on October 4. Once he begins his presentation, tough and well-argued, the essayist seems to be pulling on a thread that he has built up on the fly, but with great consistency.
Author of works such as The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (1999) and his latest, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew (2023), Shlaim is part of a group known as the “New Historians,” who challenge the traditionally held version of Israeli history. Almost a year ago, at the end of October, Liverpool Hope University cancelled a lecture he was scheduled to give due to pressure from the Jewish community. Question : You have said on occasion that you still hope that Israel will begin to act in .