Nur Masalha

Biography

Nur Masalha is a Palestinian historian and academic born in the Galilee, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who later built his scholarly career in the United Kingdom. He has held positions including professor of religion and politics and director of the Centre for Religion and History at St Mary's University, and has been a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He is editor of the journal Holy Land Studies. Masalha is best known for his pioneering archival study of the concept of "transfer" in Zionist thought. His 1992 book Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 drew on extensive primary sources to argue that the removal of the Palestinian population was not an accidental byproduct of the 1948 war but a long-standing strategic objective embedded in mainstream Zionist planning from the movement's earliest decades. He extended this analysis in subsequent works, including A Land Without a People and The Politics of Denial, examining Israeli policy toward refugees and the ideological frameworks that shaped dispossession. His scholarship has been central to the historiographical debate over the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem and is widely cited alongside the work of the Israeli "new historians." In his later work Masalha turned to questions of memory, identity, and the longue durée of Palestinian history. His 2012 book The Palestine Nakba developed the idea of "memoricide," the deliberate erasure of Palestinian collective memory, while his ambitious 2018 study Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History sought to recover the deep, continuous history of the land and its peoples against nationalist erasures. Through rigorous archival research and a sustained focus on dispossession, denial, and memory, Masalha has become one of the most influential contemporary historians of Palestine, shaping both academic scholarship and wider public understanding of the roots and meaning of the Nakba.

Why This Person Matters

Masalha's archival work proved that population "transfer" was central to Zionist thought, and his concept of "memoricide" reshaped scholarship on the Nakba and Palestinian memory.

Historical Context

Masalha was born in the Galilee in 1957 as a Palestinian citizen of Israel, part of the community that remained inside the new state after 1948 and lived under military rule and systematic marginalization. That experience of dispossession from within shaped his scholarly preoccupation with the ideology behind the Nakba. He built his career in British academia in the 1990s and 2000s, contributing to the historiographical reckoning that accompanied the Israeli "new historians" and the opening of archives on 1948. His later turn to memory and erasure responded to ongoing struggles over how the Palestinian past is remembered, denied, or recovered.

Historical Context

1. 1957 — Born in Galilee, Israel
2. 1967 — Six-Day War and occupation of West Bank and Gaza

Legacy & Influence

Masalha's archival study of "transfer" in Zionist thought demonstrated that the removal of the Palestinian population was a long-standing strategic objective rather than an accident of war, reshaping the debate over the origins of the refugee problem alongside the Israeli new historians. His concept of "memoricide," the deliberate erasure of Palestinian collective memory, has become a key term in scholarship on the Nakba. His ambitious Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History sought to recover the deep history of the land against nationalist erasure. He stands today as one of the most influential contemporary historians of Palestine, shaping both academic and public understanding of dispossession and memory.

Topics & Themes

• Nakba Generation
• Diaspora

References & Sources

1. Nur Masalha | This Week in Palestine — https://thisweekinpalestine.com/nur-masalha/
2. Expulsion of the Palestinians (review) | IJMES — https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/nur-masalha-expulsion-of-the-palestinians-the-concept-of-transfer-in-zionist-political-thought-18821948-washington-dc-institute-of-palestinian-studies-1992-pp-238/80C5259D86F25C31FA0547B42D3C31EF
3. Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of Transfer — https://www.amazon.com/Expulsion-Palestinians-Transfer-Political-1882-1948/dp/0887282350