Ian Black

Veteran Guardian journalist Ian Black talks about of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age a century after Britain’s Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine.

He looks at the long struggle between Arabs and Jews over the Holy Land, explains why hopes for a two-state solution have all but disappeared and asks what the future might hold.

Black takes the story back to the end of Ottoman rule and the period of the British Mandate. He looks at key events including the Arab rebellion of the 1930s, Israel’s independence and the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, the 1967 war, the intifadas, the Oslo Accords and Israel’s shift to the right.

Black was Middle East editor of the Guardian until 2016 and held a variety of roles at the newspaper in a 35-year career. He is also author of Zionism and the Arabs, 1936-1939 and Israel’s Secret Wars.

History