Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian, political scientist, and prominent critic of Zionism, best known for his role among Israel's New Historians and his thesis that the 1948 Arab-Israeli War involved the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Born on November 7, 1954, in Haifa, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jews who had fled Nazi Germany, Pappé grew up in a conventional Zionist household on Mount Carmel. His worldview was profoundly shaped by his mandatory military service during the Yom Kippur War and subsequent exposure to diverse social groups, leading him to question official Israeli narratives. He earned a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, focusing on history and political science. Pappé began his academic career at the University of Haifa's Political Science Department, where his research—including the seminal book 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine' (2006)—challenged Zionist historiography by drawing on declassified Israeli archives to argue that the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians was premeditated. This work sparked intense controversy, including a 2007 campaign by colleagues to dismiss him for alleged academic misconduct, though he was exonerated. Facing ongoing professional pressures in Israel, Pappé relocated to the United Kingdom in 2008, where he is a professor at the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, directing the European Centre for Palestine Studies and co-directing the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. He continues to author influential books like 'The Idea of Israel' (2014) and 'Ten Myths About Israel' (2017) that critique colonialism and Israeli policies. Pappé's advocacy for Palestinian rights and a one-state solution has positioned him as a leading voice in pro-Palestinian activism, earning him both international acclaim and accusations of bias from Israeli establishment figures.