end of the story as it has been told to this point, with a discussion and analysis of Whitelam’s arguments.5 Whitelam’s central contention is that the ancient Israel constructed by biblical scholarship on the basis primarily of the biblical texts is nothing more or less than an invention that has contributed to the silencing of real Palestinian history. All texts from the past, he argues, are “partial,” both in the sense that they do not represent the whole story and that