Pappé was born in Haifa, Israel. Prior to coming to the UK, he was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa (1984–2007) and chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000–2008). He is the author of "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" (2006), "The Modern Middle East" (2005), "A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples" (2003), and "Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict" (1988). He was also a leading member of Hadash, and was a candidate on the party list in the 1996 and 1999 Knesset elections.