The Invention of the Land of Israel From Holy Land to Homeland

<b>This groundbreaking work deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the ‘Holy Land’ of Israel—and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it.</b><br><br> 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 20thcentury? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial <i>Invention of the Jewish People</i>, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest running national struggle of the 20th century.<br><br> Sand’s account dissects the concept of ‘historical right’ and tracks the invention of the modern geopolitical concept of the ‘Land of Israel’ by 19th-century 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.