David Hirst, who has died aged 89 of cancer, was the Guardian’s authoritative correspondent through four decades of dramatic change across the Middle East. From the Arab-Israeli six-day war of 1967 to the doomed return of the Palestinian leadership to Gaza in 1994, Hirst’s profound and fearless articles were the trusted key to understanding the region’s turmoil.
His history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East, caused a storm when it was published in 1977 (updates followed in 1984 and 2003). The US journal the New Republic called it “the most malignantly anti-Israeli book ever to be published in English by someone who claims to be a serious commentator”. This would have come as no surprise to senior Guardian editors, who were routinely admonished by Israeli embassy officials for what they considered Hirst’s biased coverage.
