ABSTRACT
It is not an overstatement to assert that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is fueled largely by different understandings of history. Of course, the conflict is ultimately about land. But the rights to the land that are asserted by Israelis and Palestinians respectively rest on how they interpret the events of the past – some ancient, some very modern. Most of the ‘‘facts’’ – i.e., names, dates, the bare bones of events – are not seriously in dispute. But the interpretation and very meaning
of those facts have been exacerbated by later events and, especially in the last few decades, by their association with theological perspectives.
