The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories
Ilan Pappé
Pappé's archival history of how Israel's generals and politicians built the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — a 'mega-prison' by design.
Picking up where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off, Ilan Pappé turns to the territories Israel occupied in June 1967 — the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — and asks how their takeover was decided and how it has been sustained. Drawing on declassified Israeli government archives, he reconstructs the debates of 1967 and 1968, in which generals and politicians weighed annexation, partition, and prolonged control. What they built, he argues, was a prison model: maximum land with minimum Palestinians, run through a machinery of military orders, land seizure, settlement, permits, and closure. Later chapters carry the story through the Oslo years, which Pappé reads not as a peace process but as a refinement of the prison, and into the era of siege and periodic war on Gaza. The book was shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards in 2017.
About the author
Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian and professor at the University of Exeter, where he directs the European Centre for Palestine Studies. His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Idea of Israel, and Ten Myths About Israel.
Details
- Published by Oneworld Publications, London, 2017
- ISBN 9781851685875
The edition
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Connected in the archive
19 connected records19 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 3 records
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- Ilan Pappéإيلان بابيه
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Picking up where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off, Ilan Pappé turns to the territories Israel occupied in June 1967 — the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — and asks how their takeover was decided and how it has been sustained.
- Ten Myths About Israel
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Idea of Israel, and Ten Myths About Israel.
- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Picking up where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off, Ilan Pappé turns to the territories Israel occupied in June 1967 — the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — and asks how their takeover was decided and how it has been sustained.
names this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian and a leading figure among Israel's "New Historians." A professor at the University of Exeter, where he directs the European Centre for Palestine Studies, he is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Biggest Prison on Earth, and Ten Myths About Israel.
on a related subject — 15 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- +972 Magazine
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "occupation".
- 30 Seconds from Gaza: Diary of Genocide
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "gaza".
- A Long Walk from Gaza
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "gaza".
- Beit Hanounبيت حانون
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "gaza".
- Enter Ghost
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "west bank".
- Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "gaza".
- and 9 more
Cite this page
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- Chicago
“The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/library/the-biggest-prison-on-earth/.- MLA
“The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/library/the-biggest-prison-on-earth/. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-the-biggest-prison-on-earth, title = {The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/library/the-biggest-prison-on-earth/}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }