Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017

The book covers one hundred years of Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine and Israel, from 1917 to 2017.[1] Its subject matter includes the War of Independence, Israel's independence and the Palestinian exodus, the Six-Day War, the settlement project, the Intifadas, the Oslo Accords, and subsequent peace efforts and outbreaks of violence.[1] Black combines political analysis with social and cultural perspectives, seeking to capture how the conflict shaped the lives of ordinary people on both sides rather than simply cataloguing wars and diplomatic milestones.[1]

Black described his ambition in an interview: "I wanted to explore how people's lives are affected by these tragic moments of conflict, and, more importantly, to tell this contentious, divisive, and controversial story from both sides."[3] He has argued that Israeli and Palestinian national narratives are each shaped by bias and can harden into oversimplified caricatures, with little common ground between them.[3]

Ian Black joined The Guardian in 1980 and held a succession of editorial and reporting roles there, including reporter, Middle East correspondent, diplomatic editor, European editor, and leader writer.[2] The book appeared in 2017, the year he retired from the paper—a year that also marked the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, the document whose issuance opens the book's chronological frame.[2]

The volume has xxii preliminary pages, 605 numbered pages, and sixteen unnumbered pages of plates; it also includes bibliographical references and an index.[1] Across cited sources, the title appears with American and British spellings: Enemies and Neighbors in the Internet Archive catalog and Enemies and Neighbours in the UK Lawyers for Israel critique.[4][1]

An 1886 episode at Petah Tikva—in which rioting broke out after a Jewish farmer confiscated Arab-owned donkeys grazing on his land—is cited as an early instance of the modern Arab-Jewish conflict.[4]

One structural observation Black made while researching the book was the recurring appearance of years ending in seven at pivotal moments in the conflict's history.[3] He identified the following sequence: the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897; the Balfour Declaration in 1917; the Peel Commission's partition proposal in 1937; the UN partition vote in 1947; the Six-Day War in 1967; Likud's rise to power in 1977; the First Intifada in 1987; Hamas's takeover of Gaza in 2007; and the United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017.[3]

The book's treatment of the War of Independence and the Palestinian exodus illustrates its broader concern with competing national narratives.[3] It addresses one of the conflict's most contested historiographical questions: the nature and intent of Plan D.[3] Historians are described as disagreeing over whether Plan D was a premeditated blueprint for expulsion or a military operational plan that emerged during wartime and was implemented only in part.[3]

Black considered Palestinian testimony alongside conflicting documentary arguments. He emphasized that Palestinians were driven from their homes and that the consequences of that displacement remain central to the ongoing dispute.[3]

Because the book presents the conflict "from both sides," it engages competing national narratives and disputed interpretations.[3] Its account of Plan D and the Palestinian exodus reflects reported disagreement among historians, and Black's conclusions are presented as analytical judgments rather than settled consensus.[3]

The book appears in an Institute for National Security Studies bibliography on Israel and the Arab world, though the article does not assess its arguments.[5] A UK Lawyers for Israel critique cites Black's account of the 1886 Petah Tikva incident to argue against the claim that the modern Palestine conflict dates back thousands of years.[4]