Shir Hever, Haim Bresheeth-Zabner

Join us for a launch event to mark the release An Army Like No Other: How the IDF Made A Nation (Verso, 2020, where Haim Bresheeth-Zabner will be in conversation with Shir Hever.

The Israeli army, officially named the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), was established in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, who believed that “the whole nation is the army.” In his mind, the IDF was to be an army like no other. It was the instrument that might transform a diverse population into a new people. Since the foundation of Israel, therefore, the IDF has been the largest, richest and most influential institution in Israel’s Jewish society and is the nursery of its social, economic and political ruling class. In this fascinating history, Bresheeth-Zabner charts the evolution of the IDF from the Nakba to wars in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and the continued assaults upon Gaza, and shows that the state of Israel has been formed out of its wars. He also gives an account of his own experiences as a young conscript during the 1967 war. He argues that the army is embedded in all aspects of daily life and identity. And that we should not merely see it as a fighting force enjoying an international reputation, but as the central ideological, political and financial institution of Israeli society. As a consequence, we have to reconsider our assumptions on what any kind of peace might look like

Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is a filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar. His books include the best-selling Introduction to the Holocaust (with Stuart Hood), also published in Turkish, Croatian and Japanese. His edited volumes include The Gulf War and the New World Order, (with Nira Yuval-Davis) published in 1992 by Zed Books, His films include the widely- shown State of Danger (1989, BBC2) and London is Burning, (2012).

Dr. Shir Hever is an independent economic researcher and journalist based in Germany, and is a graduate of the Freie Universität in Berlin. His second book: Privatization of Security in Israel, was published by Pluto Press in 2017. He is a board member of the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East.

Join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86552523773?pwd=VmpXaG9CZUFnU3ErQlF2eEJvZWJPUT09
Meeting ID: 865 5252 3773