St Mary’s Professor Publishes The Zionist Bible

Prof Nur Masalha, Historian and Professor of Religion and Politics at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham has published a new book, The Zionist Bible: Biblical Precedent, Colonialism and the Erasure of Memory (London: Acumen, 2013). The book focuses on the Bible, nationalism, collective memory and the politics of modern archaeology. It explores the ways in which modern political Zionism used the Bible to justify settler-colonialism in Palestine and the renaming of sites in the Holy Land. In the book Prof Masalha, who is also Director for the Centre of Religion and History, and the Holy Land Research Project at St Mary’s, examines how the birth and growth of the State of Israel has been shaped by this Zionist reading of the Bible, how it has refashioned Israeli-Jewish collective consciousness and renamed indigenous, multi-layered Palestinian toponymy. The book also explores how new critical responses to this reading have challenged both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism. The Zionist Bible is due to be released on 31^st July 2013. You can pre-order your copy here