Shay Hazkani

Shay Hazkani is a historian of the modern Middle East, with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of Palestine/Israel and Middle Eastern Jews. His research and teaching explore the interactions between elites and non-elites, examining how ideas produced by state institutions and political leaders are reshaped, contested, and reinterpreted in the lives of ordinary people. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he has held visiting appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, and George Washington University.

His first book, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford University Press, 2021), reinterprets the Nakba through the experiences of its ordinary participants and its transnational reverberations. Drawing on previously unused personal letters in Arabic and Hebrew, the book challenges dominant narratives shaped by politicians and military leaders. It demonstrates that the stories ordinary people told about the war were far more varied and complex than the nationalist fervor often attributed to them. Published as well in Hebrew in Israel and Arabic in Egypt, the book received both the Korenblat Prize and the Azrieli-Concordia Award, was longlisted for the Cundill History Prize, and was reviewed in dozens of academic and popular journals and outlets worldwide.

Hazkani is also the co-creator of The Soldier’s Opinion, a documentary based on his research that won the 2023 American Historical Association John E. O’Connor Film Award. Drawing on a secret archive of soldiers’ letters collected by Israeli military censors from 1948 to 1998, the film reveals how a hidden apparatus analyzed the private thoughts of ordinary soldiers and presented them to senior officials. It offers a rare window into soldiers’ views on war, morality, and social tensions, while uncovering how these insights shaped decision-making at the highest levels.

His forthcoming book with Harvard University Press, How to Hide a Catastrophe, examines disinformation campaign by David Ben-Gurion to recast 1948 displacement of Palestinians as voluntary departure. It traces a pseudo-academic study commissioned to claim Palestinians left at their leaders’ urging, and analyzes how the narrative shaped U.S. opinion and influenced policymakers in the 1960s

Dr. Hazkani has also been involved in efforts to challenge archival secrecy in Israel. In 2019, he petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court, together with the Association for Civil Rights, to compel the Shin Bet to open its archives to the public. 

Before entering academia, he worked as a journalist in Israel, covering the occupied Palestinian territories and national security.