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Catastrophe: Nakba II
‘The lips of the present give depth to history, and Fintan Drury certainly knows that there are several sides to every story. He rows the boat out – for some it will be a drowning experience, but for others it will be a pure lifeboat. The truth is polygonal, but it eventually settles down into a single shape and this book will certainly contribute to where the shape finally falls.’ – Colum McCann
The Nakba or ‘Catastrophe’ occurred between 1947 and 1949 and saw 15,000 Palestinians massacred and more than 700,000 expelled from their homeland by Israel. Today, we’re witnessing a second Nakba – one being played out in front of our eyes.
In Catastrophe, Fintan Drury offers an unflinching exploration of Israel’s genocidal campaign. Through extensive research, he argues that the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 was the inevitable result of almost eight decades of violent oppression of indigenous Palestinians. In his view Israel’s response was totally disproportionate and without the active sponsorship of the US and other major Western powers could not have happened.
Provocative, eye-opening and unapologetically direct, Catastrophe is a call to understand the unique suffering of the Palestinians.
The Nakba or ‘Catastrophe’ occurred between 1947 and 1949 and saw 15,000 Palestinians massacred and more than 700,000 expelled from their homeland by Israel. Today, we’re witnessing a second Nakba – one being played out in front of our eyes.
In Catastrophe, Fintan Drury offers an unflinching exploration of Israel’s genocidal campaign. Through extensive research, he argues that the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 was the inevitable result of almost eight decades of violent oppression of indigenous Palestinians. In his view Israel’s response was totally disproportionate and without the active sponsorship of the US and other major Western powers could not have happened.
Provocative, eye-opening and unapologetically direct, Catastrophe is a call to understand the unique suffering of the Palestinians.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
Published July 17, 2025
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August 28, 2025A Title That Glorifies Terror
The title alone appropriates and inverts historical terminology to glorify terrorism. I was asked to read this book, and I reserved my judgment, because unlike a lot of people, I do not live in my own echo chamber - I like to think critically and humanely. But "Catastrophe: Nakba II" is appalling on multiple levels.
This is a long review - and it has to be. I can only imagine how much longer it would be if I went through every page of this work of propaganda, exposing its distortions and lies.
The Misuse of History
Calling October 7th - a day when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,000 innocent civilians, burned families alive, and committed mass rape - “Nakba II” is obscene. It takes a term that originally described Arab military defeat and twists it to frame the butchering of Jewish families as some kind of liberation.
It’s also historically illiterate. The origins of the term "Nakba" wasn’t about Palestinian suffering - it was coined by a Syrian, Constantin Zureiq’s to describe the humiliation of Arab armies losing to c.600,000 Jews. Drury either doesn’t know this basic fact or deliberately ignores it to construct his propaganda narrative. ‘Nakba’ meant a humiliating catastrophe: five Arab nations, a catchment of 40 million people, tried to destroy c.600,000 Jews (including Holocaust survivors) - and failed. Hitler even met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin in 1941 to plan spreading the Holocaust to the Middle East; the transcripts are public.
The title reveals the author’s true agenda: to reframe the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as a justified “catastrophe” for their oppressors. That’s not anti-colonialism - that’s genocidal thinking dressed up in academic language.
The Propaganda Blueprint
I’m absolutely justified in comparing this book to Mein Kampf. As that is how I felt as I was swimming through the twisted historical truth. This book uses the same fundamental techniques as Hitler did, I urge anyone to dispute this otherwise:
• Systematic historical distortion to demonise Jews
• Cherry-picked quotes taken out of context to build a false narrative
• Appropriation of legitimate grievances (Irish anti-colonialism) to launder antisemitism
• Open admission of predetermined bias while presenting it as scholarly analysis
• Dehumanising language that portrays Jews as inherently aggressive colonisers
• The “big lie” technique - repeating demonstrably false claims like Palestinians coining “Nakba”
Moral Laundering and Hypocrisy
The fact that Drury dedicates it to his mother’s Catholic concern for European Jews, then proceeds to demonise the Jewish state, makes it even more insidious, moral laundering at its worst. This is Irish Nazi propaganda: weaponising Irish identity and anti-colonial sentiment to justify Islamist terrorism and calls for Jewish extermination - a betrayal of everything genuine Irish resistance stood for.
Drury has spoken elsewhere about visiting Darfur in 1985, yet he misses the bigger lesson: Sudan had imposed Sharia law just two years earlier, and Darfur is now in an even worse humanitarian crisis, 40 odd years on.
This kind of material, regardless of the author’s nationality or claimed motivation, follows exactly the same playbook of systematic dehumanisation and historical distortion that we’ve seen in history’s darkest chapters.
The most hypocritical part? The author was chairman of Paddy Power Betfair for six years - profiting off gambling addiction and human weakness. Where was his moral compass then? Now he’s trying to rehabilitate himself by siding with Islamic extremists who openly call for Jewish genocide. This isn’t moral awakening - it’s moral cowardice. Drury should understand better than anyone what the original Nakba actually was: a catastrophic bet by the Arab Nations in 1948 that they lost. His attempt to rewrite this as a justification for October 7th is shocking.
Pre-emptive Excuses
At the banking inquiry in 2015, Drury complained that people came with predetermined conclusions about Anglo Irish Bank regardless of evidence. He experienced prejudgment firsthand and hated it. Yet this entire book is built on his admitted ‘suspicion of Israel’ - he’s doing to the Jews exactly what he criticised others for doing to him. The ‘Note to Readers’ functions like a ‘I’m not racist, but…’ disclaimer, attempting to morally pre-empt criticism while presenting the same biased, inflammatory ideas that follow in the text.
Another unusual aspect of Drury’s book is its structure. Immediately after the inside title page, before the ISBN, contents, quotes, or dedication, there is a section titled “Praise for Catastrophe” followed by a “Note to Readers” before the prologue. This is highly atypical for serious history or political analysis. Normally, praise appears on the back cover or in a brief “Praise for…” section, and any note to readers or preface comes after the contents, providing context or methodology rather than editorialising. Front-loading self-praise and a defensive note gives the impression that the author is attempting to shape the reader’s mindset before presenting any evidence, which immediately raises questions about objectivity and scholarly integrity.
In fact, Drury's “Note to Readers” is a weak excuse for a preemptive shield: he tries to absolve himself of responsibility for factual rigour, methodological consistency, and ethical accuracy. By claiming the book isn’t “serious history or political analysis,” he’s essentially telling readers: “Don’t hold me to standards of evidence, verification, or balanced assessment; I’m writing ‘in the moment’ and from a pro-Palestine perspective.”
The problem is that this doesn’t excuse blatant falsehoods- his note attempts to inoculate him against critique for distorting reality, omitting verified crimes, and misdirecting blame onto Israel, but those are precisely the points that demand scrutiny. In short: his disclaimer is not a shield against bias or error, it’s a cover for them.
What Real Scholarship Shows
To understand the actual historical context, it helps to consult established scholarship. I would like to refer a book by Beverly Milton-Edwards who is a Professor of Politics at Queen's University, Belfast and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. Her research focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East, Political Islam, and Security. She is also a Senior Policy Advisor and Mediator with more than 20 years of experience advising the European Union and different governments, including Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In her book "Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (4th ed.)" page 125, Professor Beverly Milton-Edwards explains how the 1948 war - what came to be known as the Nakba - has been subjected to constant controversy, reinterpretation, revisionism, and accusations of fabrication. She notes that crude reductions into either pro-Arab or pro-Israel camps obscure the real complexity of the conflict and the multitude of factors involved:
"....Although the conflict originally centred on the establishment of a Jewish state....over the decades the dynamics of the conflict resulted in a character often far removed from the original Palestinian issue......Particular events, such as the war of 1948 (the Nakba)....are subjected to controversy, interpretation, reinterpretation, revisionism and accusations of fabrication...Some have crudely limited the explanation of these interpretations as either Pro-Arab of Pro-Israel with no other residual category....there is always pressure to be on "on side or the other". Such reductionism, however, does not help to explain the dynamics of the conflict and the multitude of factors involved..."
Then on page 126 she states:
"The Palestinian issue has done more to both unite and divide the Arabs, Israelis, Iranians and Turks than any other issue. The conflict of pitting the Arab and Muslim states against Israel has been dominated by war rather than reconciliation. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948, there have been six major wars (this book was published in 2018), and every state from Morocco to Iran has been engaged at some point....designed to deny its existence in the region...."
On page 127, she cuts through the distortions to explain the Nakba in its true historical context:
"The first war between Israel and the Arabs broke out on 15 May 1948, the day after Israel announced its independence. The armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, backed by those of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, attempted to regain Palestine for the Arabs by force. In theory, the combined military might of the Arab armies should have made short work of the poorly equipped Israeli Defence Force...the Arab armies lacked a united command or unity of war aims, and proved weak in combat."
On page 129, Milton-Edwards highlights a crucial point often overlooked in polemical works like Drury’s: Palestinians are uniquely maintained as permanent refugees through UNRWA’s system, where status is inherited indefinitely. Unlike other displaced populations, whose descendants integrate over time, many Arab states have chosen to keep Palestinians in this status for generations, politicising their identity. Otherwise, we would see millions of Irish or Jewish ‘refugees’ worldwide. This framework has long served wider regional aims, including opposition to Israel’s existence.
She also notes the wider framework: in 1948, Arab armies sought to wipe out the nascent Jewish state - what some even viewed as 'finishing what Hitler could not.' Meanwhile, UNRWA has absorbed billions in international funding, with its definition of “refugee” so elastic that even wealthy U.S.-based figures like the Hadid family are still registered under its rolls, despite long being far removed from genuine displacement.
As Milton-Edwards concludes: "In sum, the Arab-Israeli conflict has created pockets of profit for the Arab elite, built on the maintenance of authoritarian power, the wealth derived from arms and the military industry and associated economies, as well as the political prestige associated with any form of victory (real of otherwise) over Israel. In return, Israel in its defence of itself, has established a state concerned with its security..."
It’s telling that while Palestinians are presented as victims, some connected to leadership live far removed from that hardship. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat’s widow and daughter, has lived in Malta since 2007 with significant wealth, despite disputes over millions diverted during Arafat’s leadership. Likewise, reports indicate Yahya Sinwar’s widow was smuggled out of Gaza with children and a large sum of cash via a tunnel, later remarrying in Turkey. These examples highlight the contrast between public narratives of perpetual refugeehood and the private fortunes of some leaders’ families.
Sanitising Terror
Drury’s Chapter 6 emphasises UNRWA as a lifeline for Palestinian refugees and frames Jordan mainly as a mediator between Israel and Palestine. By contrast, Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian commentator and Jordanian opposition figure, offers a different lens, exposing the ways Jordan exerts control over Palestinians within its borders - an aspect often overlooked. While Drury portrays Palestinians as dependent on UNRWA and caught between Israel and Jordan, Zahran stresses the limitations imposed by Jordanian policies, showing that Palestinian hardship is shaped not only by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also by regional powers claiming to protect them. These perspectives together reveal a more complex reality: Palestinians are neither entirely passive victims nor fully free actors, but are constrained by multiple layers of authority, as Milton-Edwards also observes.
What is utterly shameful is Drury’s claim on page 114, which is not merely misleading - it is an outright lie. He writes: “UNRWA has had to deal with many difficulties… but nothing it has faced was as existential as that which followed the accusations that a dozen of its staff had been involved in the Hamas attack of 7 October. Once the allegations were made… in a short dossier produced by the Israeli government… funding was withdrawn…”
This is categorically false. The involvement of UNRWA staff was not based on an “Israeli dossier” or unproven accusations; it was captured on camera by the attackers themselves, with UNRWA employees clearly participating in the attacks. The identities of 12 UNRWA staff members “actively participated” in the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.
Other exposed, compromised and documented UNRWA individuals include Ahed Al-Muqaid (UNRWA Head of Operations in Jabalia), Ibrahim Merie (UNRWA Beirut School Principal), Jamal Merhi (UNRWA Tyre Employee, Hamas Member), Anas El Bakari (UNRWA Sidon Teacher, Organises Pro-Hamas Rallies), Abdul Rahman Khalil (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Linked to PFLP), Raef Ahmad (UNRWA Tyre Camp Director, Linked to DFLP), Ibrahim Awad (UNRWA Sidon Math Teacher, Celebrated October 7), Issa Mustafa Al-Hanafi (UNRWA Deputy Principal High School in Tyre, Linked to Hamas), Mousa Al-Haj (UNRWA Tyre Teacher, Hamas Member), Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa (UNRWA Tyre Teacher, Incites Hamas Terrorism), Maher Saeed Twieh (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Praises Hamas and Head of UNRWA), Osama Al-Ali (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Advocates “Armed Resistance” and Runs After-School Student Club Supporting Hamas), Hassan Al-Sayed (UNRWA Sidon School Principal, Attends Hamas Rallies), and Fathi Sharif (Head of UNRWA Teachers’ Union & Hamas Terror Chief in Lebanon).
The horror of October 7 is further confirmed by the Dinah Report, which documents sexual assaults, mutilations, and desecration of corpses - atrocities inflicted on both men and women. By shifting blame onto Israel and framing these verified acts of complicity as a mere controversy, Drury sanitises the truth and turns real atrocities into a political narrative. This is not just distortion- it is a grotesque minimisation of evil. By downplaying these facts, Drury obscures the reality and reframes the direct participation of UNRWA staff in a terrorist attack as a diplomatic dispute. His narrative is a gross misrepresentation and dangerously sanitises the role of UNRWA in one of the deadliest attacks in recent Palestinian-Israeli history.
The Wider Machinery
Hamas and other Jihadi groups acting genocidally on Oct 7 2023, were armed and financed by Iran’s IRGC, which in 2017 hosted an international conference in Tehran with delegates from some 80 nations, openly plotting Israel’s destruction within 5 years. The transcript is available online if you want to read it. Search for "The 6th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada". In the run-up to October 7, it was young female IDF conscripts who raised alarms after spotting Hamas’ unusual training activity near the border, but they weren’t listened to. That massacre wasn’t “out of the blue.” It was state-sponsored terror years in the making.
Hijacking Ireland
Furthermore, Drury's Irish comparison is particularly insulting to me as an Irish woman. As a relative of James Gralton, I find Drury’s twisting of Irish history particularly offensive. Gralton stood against the manipulation of truth and the exploitation of ordinary people - the very opposite of what Drury promotes by cynically appropriating Ireland’s struggle to launder Islamist terrorism.
Islam is political, and the pan-Arab flag reflects that regional ambition, much like the Union Jack appears on the flags of Australia and other Commonwealth countries. To equate Palestinian rejectionism with Ireland’s struggle under British rule is grotesque. Jews in 1948 weren’t an empire; they were a stateless, battered people, betrayed by Britain, fighting for survival against impossible odds. Drury weaponises Irish anti-colonial sentiment to justify Islamist propaganda: a betrayal of Irish history, not an act of solidarity.
As someone who trades on his Catholic heritage under Protestant rule, Drury should be the first to recognise that religious ideology can function as an engine of oppression. Yet instead of examining Islamism - today’s equivalent, a system that demands submission and punishes dissent - he lazily slurs critics as ‘racist.’ Quick reminder: religion is not a race. If he can indulge suspicion of Israel (let’s be honest, of Jews), he should also have the courage to scrutinise an ideology that is both fast-growing and rooted in scriptures of violence and domination. He cannot have it both ways: either apply his own history with honesty, or stop using it as a convenient moral crutch.
People forget there was no country called Palestine before 1948; it was a region, like Connacht or Ulster. Imagine a Protestant force seizing Knock, expelling Catholics, and then an Irish author siding with the occupiers, rewriting history to glorify the aggressors - a “Catastrophe of the Crown.” That is essentially what Drury does: he casts Jews defending Jerusalem and Israel as illegitimate occupiers, framing them as colonisers rather than survivors defending their homes.
Any publisher that green-lit this title knew exactly what they were promoting. It's designed to normalise and celebrate the murder of Jews by appropriating the language of victimhood. The fact that it comes from an Irish author makes it even more shameful: using Irish identity as cover for this kind of antisemitic propaganda.
When Lies Become Weapons
I examined Drury’s book across multiple chapters and themes, finding consistent falsehoods that distort history, such as misrepresenting the Nakba as solely Palestinian suffering while ignoring the 1948 Arab defeat (Milton-Edwards, p. 127). Every section I analysed contained errors, omissions, or propaganda, like the false UNRWA claim on p. 114 (electronic version and page 135 of the paperback). Given these patterns, the book’s foundational dishonesty is clear without needing to read it cover to cover.
Ultimately, if you did buy this book, return it or get rid of it. Do not pass it on -especially not to young people or those trying to educate themselves - because it spreads brainwashing, not truth. This man will not get a penny of my money in exchange for such appalling racism: yes, Mr Drury, the real meaning of racism - and nor should he get yours.
I trust that readers who value historical accuracy and human decency will see through this manipulation. Books like this don’t just misinform; they erode the possibility of honest dialogue and reconciliation. Readers deserve history and truth, not propaganda.
The title alone should have been enough for any decent person to reject this book entirely.
The title alone appropriates and inverts historical terminology to glorify terrorism. I was asked to read this book, and I reserved my judgment, because unlike a lot of people, I do not live in my own echo chamber - I like to think critically and humanely. But "Catastrophe: Nakba II" is appalling on multiple levels.
This is a long review - and it has to be. I can only imagine how much longer it would be if I went through every page of this work of propaganda, exposing its distortions and lies.
The Misuse of History
Calling October 7th - a day when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,000 innocent civilians, burned families alive, and committed mass rape - “Nakba II” is obscene. It takes a term that originally described Arab military defeat and twists it to frame the butchering of Jewish families as some kind of liberation.
It’s also historically illiterate. The origins of the term "Nakba" wasn’t about Palestinian suffering - it was coined by a Syrian, Constantin Zureiq’s to describe the humiliation of Arab armies losing to c.600,000 Jews. Drury either doesn’t know this basic fact or deliberately ignores it to construct his propaganda narrative. ‘Nakba’ meant a humiliating catastrophe: five Arab nations, a catchment of 40 million people, tried to destroy c.600,000 Jews (including Holocaust survivors) - and failed. Hitler even met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin in 1941 to plan spreading the Holocaust to the Middle East; the transcripts are public.
The title reveals the author’s true agenda: to reframe the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as a justified “catastrophe” for their oppressors. That’s not anti-colonialism - that’s genocidal thinking dressed up in academic language.
The Propaganda Blueprint
I’m absolutely justified in comparing this book to Mein Kampf. As that is how I felt as I was swimming through the twisted historical truth. This book uses the same fundamental techniques as Hitler did, I urge anyone to dispute this otherwise:
• Systematic historical distortion to demonise Jews
• Cherry-picked quotes taken out of context to build a false narrative
• Appropriation of legitimate grievances (Irish anti-colonialism) to launder antisemitism
• Open admission of predetermined bias while presenting it as scholarly analysis
• Dehumanising language that portrays Jews as inherently aggressive colonisers
• The “big lie” technique - repeating demonstrably false claims like Palestinians coining “Nakba”
Moral Laundering and Hypocrisy
The fact that Drury dedicates it to his mother’s Catholic concern for European Jews, then proceeds to demonise the Jewish state, makes it even more insidious, moral laundering at its worst. This is Irish Nazi propaganda: weaponising Irish identity and anti-colonial sentiment to justify Islamist terrorism and calls for Jewish extermination - a betrayal of everything genuine Irish resistance stood for.
Drury has spoken elsewhere about visiting Darfur in 1985, yet he misses the bigger lesson: Sudan had imposed Sharia law just two years earlier, and Darfur is now in an even worse humanitarian crisis, 40 odd years on.
This kind of material, regardless of the author’s nationality or claimed motivation, follows exactly the same playbook of systematic dehumanisation and historical distortion that we’ve seen in history’s darkest chapters.
The most hypocritical part? The author was chairman of Paddy Power Betfair for six years - profiting off gambling addiction and human weakness. Where was his moral compass then? Now he’s trying to rehabilitate himself by siding with Islamic extremists who openly call for Jewish genocide. This isn’t moral awakening - it’s moral cowardice. Drury should understand better than anyone what the original Nakba actually was: a catastrophic bet by the Arab Nations in 1948 that they lost. His attempt to rewrite this as a justification for October 7th is shocking.
Pre-emptive Excuses
At the banking inquiry in 2015, Drury complained that people came with predetermined conclusions about Anglo Irish Bank regardless of evidence. He experienced prejudgment firsthand and hated it. Yet this entire book is built on his admitted ‘suspicion of Israel’ - he’s doing to the Jews exactly what he criticised others for doing to him. The ‘Note to Readers’ functions like a ‘I’m not racist, but…’ disclaimer, attempting to morally pre-empt criticism while presenting the same biased, inflammatory ideas that follow in the text.
Another unusual aspect of Drury’s book is its structure. Immediately after the inside title page, before the ISBN, contents, quotes, or dedication, there is a section titled “Praise for Catastrophe” followed by a “Note to Readers” before the prologue. This is highly atypical for serious history or political analysis. Normally, praise appears on the back cover or in a brief “Praise for…” section, and any note to readers or preface comes after the contents, providing context or methodology rather than editorialising. Front-loading self-praise and a defensive note gives the impression that the author is attempting to shape the reader’s mindset before presenting any evidence, which immediately raises questions about objectivity and scholarly integrity.
In fact, Drury's “Note to Readers” is a weak excuse for a preemptive shield: he tries to absolve himself of responsibility for factual rigour, methodological consistency, and ethical accuracy. By claiming the book isn’t “serious history or political analysis,” he’s essentially telling readers: “Don’t hold me to standards of evidence, verification, or balanced assessment; I’m writing ‘in the moment’ and from a pro-Palestine perspective.”
The problem is that this doesn’t excuse blatant falsehoods- his note attempts to inoculate him against critique for distorting reality, omitting verified crimes, and misdirecting blame onto Israel, but those are precisely the points that demand scrutiny. In short: his disclaimer is not a shield against bias or error, it’s a cover for them.
What Real Scholarship Shows
To understand the actual historical context, it helps to consult established scholarship. I would like to refer a book by Beverly Milton-Edwards who is a Professor of Politics at Queen's University, Belfast and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. Her research focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East, Political Islam, and Security. She is also a Senior Policy Advisor and Mediator with more than 20 years of experience advising the European Union and different governments, including Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In her book "Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (4th ed.)" page 125, Professor Beverly Milton-Edwards explains how the 1948 war - what came to be known as the Nakba - has been subjected to constant controversy, reinterpretation, revisionism, and accusations of fabrication. She notes that crude reductions into either pro-Arab or pro-Israel camps obscure the real complexity of the conflict and the multitude of factors involved:
"....Although the conflict originally centred on the establishment of a Jewish state....over the decades the dynamics of the conflict resulted in a character often far removed from the original Palestinian issue......Particular events, such as the war of 1948 (the Nakba)....are subjected to controversy, interpretation, reinterpretation, revisionism and accusations of fabrication...Some have crudely limited the explanation of these interpretations as either Pro-Arab of Pro-Israel with no other residual category....there is always pressure to be on "on side or the other". Such reductionism, however, does not help to explain the dynamics of the conflict and the multitude of factors involved..."
Then on page 126 she states:
"The Palestinian issue has done more to both unite and divide the Arabs, Israelis, Iranians and Turks than any other issue. The conflict of pitting the Arab and Muslim states against Israel has been dominated by war rather than reconciliation. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948, there have been six major wars (this book was published in 2018), and every state from Morocco to Iran has been engaged at some point....designed to deny its existence in the region...."
On page 127, she cuts through the distortions to explain the Nakba in its true historical context:
"The first war between Israel and the Arabs broke out on 15 May 1948, the day after Israel announced its independence. The armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, backed by those of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, attempted to regain Palestine for the Arabs by force. In theory, the combined military might of the Arab armies should have made short work of the poorly equipped Israeli Defence Force...the Arab armies lacked a united command or unity of war aims, and proved weak in combat."
On page 129, Milton-Edwards highlights a crucial point often overlooked in polemical works like Drury’s: Palestinians are uniquely maintained as permanent refugees through UNRWA’s system, where status is inherited indefinitely. Unlike other displaced populations, whose descendants integrate over time, many Arab states have chosen to keep Palestinians in this status for generations, politicising their identity. Otherwise, we would see millions of Irish or Jewish ‘refugees’ worldwide. This framework has long served wider regional aims, including opposition to Israel’s existence.
She also notes the wider framework: in 1948, Arab armies sought to wipe out the nascent Jewish state - what some even viewed as 'finishing what Hitler could not.' Meanwhile, UNRWA has absorbed billions in international funding, with its definition of “refugee” so elastic that even wealthy U.S.-based figures like the Hadid family are still registered under its rolls, despite long being far removed from genuine displacement.
As Milton-Edwards concludes: "In sum, the Arab-Israeli conflict has created pockets of profit for the Arab elite, built on the maintenance of authoritarian power, the wealth derived from arms and the military industry and associated economies, as well as the political prestige associated with any form of victory (real of otherwise) over Israel. In return, Israel in its defence of itself, has established a state concerned with its security..."
It’s telling that while Palestinians are presented as victims, some connected to leadership live far removed from that hardship. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat’s widow and daughter, has lived in Malta since 2007 with significant wealth, despite disputes over millions diverted during Arafat’s leadership. Likewise, reports indicate Yahya Sinwar’s widow was smuggled out of Gaza with children and a large sum of cash via a tunnel, later remarrying in Turkey. These examples highlight the contrast between public narratives of perpetual refugeehood and the private fortunes of some leaders’ families.
Sanitising Terror
Drury’s Chapter 6 emphasises UNRWA as a lifeline for Palestinian refugees and frames Jordan mainly as a mediator between Israel and Palestine. By contrast, Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian commentator and Jordanian opposition figure, offers a different lens, exposing the ways Jordan exerts control over Palestinians within its borders - an aspect often overlooked. While Drury portrays Palestinians as dependent on UNRWA and caught between Israel and Jordan, Zahran stresses the limitations imposed by Jordanian policies, showing that Palestinian hardship is shaped not only by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also by regional powers claiming to protect them. These perspectives together reveal a more complex reality: Palestinians are neither entirely passive victims nor fully free actors, but are constrained by multiple layers of authority, as Milton-Edwards also observes.
What is utterly shameful is Drury’s claim on page 114, which is not merely misleading - it is an outright lie. He writes: “UNRWA has had to deal with many difficulties… but nothing it has faced was as existential as that which followed the accusations that a dozen of its staff had been involved in the Hamas attack of 7 October. Once the allegations were made… in a short dossier produced by the Israeli government… funding was withdrawn…”
This is categorically false. The involvement of UNRWA staff was not based on an “Israeli dossier” or unproven accusations; it was captured on camera by the attackers themselves, with UNRWA employees clearly participating in the attacks. The identities of 12 UNRWA staff members “actively participated” in the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.
Other exposed, compromised and documented UNRWA individuals include Ahed Al-Muqaid (UNRWA Head of Operations in Jabalia), Ibrahim Merie (UNRWA Beirut School Principal), Jamal Merhi (UNRWA Tyre Employee, Hamas Member), Anas El Bakari (UNRWA Sidon Teacher, Organises Pro-Hamas Rallies), Abdul Rahman Khalil (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Linked to PFLP), Raef Ahmad (UNRWA Tyre Camp Director, Linked to DFLP), Ibrahim Awad (UNRWA Sidon Math Teacher, Celebrated October 7), Issa Mustafa Al-Hanafi (UNRWA Deputy Principal High School in Tyre, Linked to Hamas), Mousa Al-Haj (UNRWA Tyre Teacher, Hamas Member), Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa (UNRWA Tyre Teacher, Incites Hamas Terrorism), Maher Saeed Twieh (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Praises Hamas and Head of UNRWA), Osama Al-Ali (UNRWA Tripoli Teacher, Advocates “Armed Resistance” and Runs After-School Student Club Supporting Hamas), Hassan Al-Sayed (UNRWA Sidon School Principal, Attends Hamas Rallies), and Fathi Sharif (Head of UNRWA Teachers’ Union & Hamas Terror Chief in Lebanon).
The horror of October 7 is further confirmed by the Dinah Report, which documents sexual assaults, mutilations, and desecration of corpses - atrocities inflicted on both men and women. By shifting blame onto Israel and framing these verified acts of complicity as a mere controversy, Drury sanitises the truth and turns real atrocities into a political narrative. This is not just distortion- it is a grotesque minimisation of evil. By downplaying these facts, Drury obscures the reality and reframes the direct participation of UNRWA staff in a terrorist attack as a diplomatic dispute. His narrative is a gross misrepresentation and dangerously sanitises the role of UNRWA in one of the deadliest attacks in recent Palestinian-Israeli history.
The Wider Machinery
Hamas and other Jihadi groups acting genocidally on Oct 7 2023, were armed and financed by Iran’s IRGC, which in 2017 hosted an international conference in Tehran with delegates from some 80 nations, openly plotting Israel’s destruction within 5 years. The transcript is available online if you want to read it. Search for "The 6th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada". In the run-up to October 7, it was young female IDF conscripts who raised alarms after spotting Hamas’ unusual training activity near the border, but they weren’t listened to. That massacre wasn’t “out of the blue.” It was state-sponsored terror years in the making.
Hijacking Ireland
Furthermore, Drury's Irish comparison is particularly insulting to me as an Irish woman. As a relative of James Gralton, I find Drury’s twisting of Irish history particularly offensive. Gralton stood against the manipulation of truth and the exploitation of ordinary people - the very opposite of what Drury promotes by cynically appropriating Ireland’s struggle to launder Islamist terrorism.
Islam is political, and the pan-Arab flag reflects that regional ambition, much like the Union Jack appears on the flags of Australia and other Commonwealth countries. To equate Palestinian rejectionism with Ireland’s struggle under British rule is grotesque. Jews in 1948 weren’t an empire; they were a stateless, battered people, betrayed by Britain, fighting for survival against impossible odds. Drury weaponises Irish anti-colonial sentiment to justify Islamist propaganda: a betrayal of Irish history, not an act of solidarity.
As someone who trades on his Catholic heritage under Protestant rule, Drury should be the first to recognise that religious ideology can function as an engine of oppression. Yet instead of examining Islamism - today’s equivalent, a system that demands submission and punishes dissent - he lazily slurs critics as ‘racist.’ Quick reminder: religion is not a race. If he can indulge suspicion of Israel (let’s be honest, of Jews), he should also have the courage to scrutinise an ideology that is both fast-growing and rooted in scriptures of violence and domination. He cannot have it both ways: either apply his own history with honesty, or stop using it as a convenient moral crutch.
People forget there was no country called Palestine before 1948; it was a region, like Connacht or Ulster. Imagine a Protestant force seizing Knock, expelling Catholics, and then an Irish author siding with the occupiers, rewriting history to glorify the aggressors - a “Catastrophe of the Crown.” That is essentially what Drury does: he casts Jews defending Jerusalem and Israel as illegitimate occupiers, framing them as colonisers rather than survivors defending their homes.
Any publisher that green-lit this title knew exactly what they were promoting. It's designed to normalise and celebrate the murder of Jews by appropriating the language of victimhood. The fact that it comes from an Irish author makes it even more shameful: using Irish identity as cover for this kind of antisemitic propaganda.
When Lies Become Weapons
I examined Drury’s book across multiple chapters and themes, finding consistent falsehoods that distort history, such as misrepresenting the Nakba as solely Palestinian suffering while ignoring the 1948 Arab defeat (Milton-Edwards, p. 127). Every section I analysed contained errors, omissions, or propaganda, like the false UNRWA claim on p. 114 (electronic version and page 135 of the paperback). Given these patterns, the book’s foundational dishonesty is clear without needing to read it cover to cover.
Ultimately, if you did buy this book, return it or get rid of it. Do not pass it on -especially not to young people or those trying to educate themselves - because it spreads brainwashing, not truth. This man will not get a penny of my money in exchange for such appalling racism: yes, Mr Drury, the real meaning of racism - and nor should he get yours.
I trust that readers who value historical accuracy and human decency will see through this manipulation. Books like this don’t just misinform; they erode the possibility of honest dialogue and reconciliation. Readers deserve history and truth, not propaganda.
The title alone should have been enough for any decent person to reject this book entirely.
July 28, 2025
I agree with 95% of the views of the author. However, in my view, he fails in a few areas:
- Hamas has a military and a political wing, just like the IRA had (or still has) in Ireland. In the end the IRA and the British government decided that neither could defeat the other and the political wing entered the Good Friday Agreement. It hasn't been perfect by any means but IRA weapons were decommissioned.
- The IRA has never accepted the partition of Ireland into a 26 county Republic and 6 county Northern Ireland. Hamas has gone further by denying totally the state of Israel. They are only interested in a 10 year ceasefire that could be extended.
- While the genocide being carried out by Israel is far worse than the revenge that the British took during the troubles, 400 years ago, Oliver Cromwell and his army committed genocide in many parts of Ireland and brought in Settlers to take over Catholic Lands.
Fintan Drury blames the west for this genocide. But where are the Muslim countries. Surely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the members of OPEC have the financial and material (oil) clout to being the West to it's knees unless it stops the Israeli genocide. But they are terrified of Hamas and other Muslim groups like Al-Queda, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood and more. Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon will not take anymore refugees because of the risk of de-stabilisation in their own countries.
An Irish journalist last weekend described the situation in Gaza as "Democratically Approved Genocide". And it's true. West, East, North and South, 1st world, 2nd world and 3rd world have all abandoned the Palestinians to their fate. Religions too. All humans should be ashamed of themselves. But what can we do? We expect our elected representatives to look after our women and children.
But well done Fintan Drury.
- Hamas has a military and a political wing, just like the IRA had (or still has) in Ireland. In the end the IRA and the British government decided that neither could defeat the other and the political wing entered the Good Friday Agreement. It hasn't been perfect by any means but IRA weapons were decommissioned.
- The IRA has never accepted the partition of Ireland into a 26 county Republic and 6 county Northern Ireland. Hamas has gone further by denying totally the state of Israel. They are only interested in a 10 year ceasefire that could be extended.
- While the genocide being carried out by Israel is far worse than the revenge that the British took during the troubles, 400 years ago, Oliver Cromwell and his army committed genocide in many parts of Ireland and brought in Settlers to take over Catholic Lands.
Fintan Drury blames the west for this genocide. But where are the Muslim countries. Surely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the members of OPEC have the financial and material (oil) clout to being the West to it's knees unless it stops the Israeli genocide. But they are terrified of Hamas and other Muslim groups like Al-Queda, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood and more. Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon will not take anymore refugees because of the risk of de-stabilisation in their own countries.
An Irish journalist last weekend described the situation in Gaza as "Democratically Approved Genocide". And it's true. West, East, North and South, 1st world, 2nd world and 3rd world have all abandoned the Palestinians to their fate. Religions too. All humans should be ashamed of themselves. But what can we do? We expect our elected representatives to look after our women and children.
But well done Fintan Drury.
June 30, 2025
got this book in ireland— the author was a correspondent during the troubles so i was really interested to hear his take. he sometimes made connections between the two issues which gave the book a kind of depth and sense of historical complexity but he also provides an incredibly comprehensive summation of the events leading up to and after october 7 2023. everyone needs to read this; “it’s too complicated” or “i don’t know where to start educating myself” is no excuse
July 20, 2025
So interesting that one is capable of literally telling the whole story of the so-called "Nakba" without once mentioning Arab threats of murdering all the Jews or the forced displacement of 850,000 Jews.
June 10, 2025
such an important and timely text. I hope it is read and understood, to help cease such unnecessary suffering
July 2, 2025
An ABSOLUTE must-read.
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