Books

The Bible Is Not a Baton [Book Review]

Sep 15, 2023

The opening line of Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People, the Bible says it all: “For Palestinians, including the Palestinian Christian community, Palestine is a real land with real people.” It seems self-evident, but in a time when more people are in love with some majestic idea of Israel/Palestine rather than the real Israel/Palestine, it needs to be reiterated. This short read debunks many falsehoods that have taken root in parts of the Christian community over time and have been kept alive by constant watering by the State of Israel and the Zionist movement.

“They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom” [Recommended]

Sep 5, 2023

A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.

“A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” [Recommended]

Aug 13, 2023

Nathan Thrall received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama. Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge. (Publisher’s description)

From Wisconsin to Gaza to Jenin: An American Writer’s Lived Experience in Palestine [Book Review]

Jun 24, 2023

The memoir of an American daughter of a German immigrant raised under Nazi Germany, and the mother of three Palestinian Americans, who meets Palestine from the ground level. An eloquent read with nuanced explanations of a multitude of key points about the conflict, explained in depth in extensive endnotes.

“Peacemakers in Israel-Palestine: Dialogues for a Just Peace” [Recommended]

May 27, 2023

Featuring a chapter by Sam, “Peacemakers in Israel-Palestine aims to analyze the crucial roles and capacities of mid-level, nongovernmental peacemakers as they provide unique approaches to transforming the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It also aims to analyze and experience dialogue as the primary mode of peacemaking communication.

Non-violently resisting Israeli military occupation, with a scalpel [Book Review]

Dec 3, 2022

Through recounting his own spectacular life, Dr. Shawki Harb’s memoir, “A Surgeon Under Israeli Occupation,” depicts Palestinian reality from the British Mandate to today. Born a Christian and breastfed by a Muslim, Dr. Harb embodies the best of both traditions. If you are from my generation or older in Palestine, you know and respect the person even if you have never crossed paths with him.

“Rooted in Palestine: Palestinian Christians and the Struggle for National Liberation 1917-2004” [Recommended]

Oct 15, 2022

Palestinian Christians are not only an integral part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence, but they have also been pillars of Palestinian politics, resistance, business, culture, art, and so much more. Rooted in Palestine is a commendable synopsis of the Palestinian Christian community, interwoven with the history of the Church in Palestine and the inner dynamics of Palestine’s liberation movement. I congratulate my friend Xavier Abu Eid for this invaluable contribution to the documentation of Palestine and Palestinians.

“Stranger in My Own Land: Palestine, Israel and One Family’s Story of Home” by Fida Jiryis [Book Review]

Sep 8, 2022

I am ecstatic to be able to share with you the first review of the forthcoming book, Stranger in My Own Land: Palestine, Israel and One Family’s Story of Home, by Fida Jiryis. It was published in Le Monde diplomatique (English edition), September 2022 Issue, as part of their Palestine special report. For over a decade, I witnessed the making of this landmark memoir from concept to publishing. All I can say is R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the author and publisher. Order your copy today; this is not one to be missed!

An American Evangelical Christian Man’s Awakening to Palestine [Book Review]

Jul 6, 2022

The author of this memoir, Glory to God in the Lowest: Journey to an Unholy Land, Rev. Don Wagner, is a longtime friend. Back in the day, Rev. Wagner was based in Chicago, Illinois and I was in Youngstown, Ohio. We both were engaged in the same struggle for Palestine. Subsequently, when I relocated to Palestine, I would speak to the various eyewitness delegations he led to the Holy Land, or what he prefers to call the “unholy land” — which, he writes, “serves as a place of injustice that awaits the arc of the moral universe bending to usher in justice, peace, and reconciliation.”

Palestinians never stop conceding, for nothing in return [Book Review]

Jun 30, 2022

Jerome M. Segal’s book has one main goal, which is to highlight the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence as a lost inflection point: a rare, pivotal moment that the US, Israel, and even the Palestinian leadership who issued it, could have seized (but did not) to advance Palestinian statehood and peace between Palestinians and Israelis. “If it seems odd that a Jew should offer his thoughts on how Palestinians can be successful in their struggle, let me only add that the struggle for an independent Palestinian state is also the struggle for a humane and safe Israel, and that there can be no Judaism without a commitment to Justice.”

Israel’s linguistic acrobatics [Book Review]

Jun 28, 2022

I am careful about recommending books. Everyone’s time is precious. My commending Alex McDonald’s How I Learned to Speak Israel: An American’s Guide to a Foreign Policy Language, and its sequel, When They Speak Israel: A Guide to Clarity In Conversations About Israel to your attention in a single review, then, means I found them to be beyond impressive. McDonald writes, “Language has consequences.” Then, as Mr. McDonald skillfully dissects the discourse on Israel and Palestine, that statement begins to seem wildly understated. McDonald’s analysis explains in detail how Israel and the West have used language, discourse, and narrative framing to camouflage a never-ending stream of the dispossession of Palestinians, including institutionalized discrimination, human rights abuses, military occupation, and so much more.

Foreign Perceptions of the United States under Donald Trump [Recommended]

Sep 27, 2021

Featuring a chapter by Sam. “President Donald Trump’s term in office significantly affected the way the United States is seen by other nations in the international setting. This book presents 18 case studies of the effect of Trump policies and behavior on the U.S. standing abroad, and examines the long-term consequences of these effects.” A big hats off to Professor Gregory Mahler, Research Professor of Politics and Academic Dean Emeritus at Earlham College, as well as to all the distinguished fellow contributors from around the world.

An Israeli Settler I Want to Live Beside [Book Review]

Jan 2, 2021

The author, Jeff Halper, is a long-time friend, a thought partner, a fellow activist, and someone for who I have the utmost respect. The first two-thirds of this book (how Historic Palestine has been colonized) makes it to my top recommended readings on Palestine/Israel. The last third (how Palestine and Israel can be liberated from the horrendous outcome of this colonization process) gets filed into my growing filing cabinet of grand ideas to get all stakeholders past their pasts and engaged in building a joint future worth living between the River and the Sea.

Understanding American Jewish Philanthropy [Book Review]

Oct 20, 2020

Fundraise long enough and you start to learn that it is an industry, like most other domains, but very few people have the wherewithal and persistence to dig deep into the black box of how the mechanics of fundraising developed and exists in today’s world. Professor and Author Lila Corwin Berman clearly does not fit that description and her book is a fascinating read.

From AIPAC’s La-la Land to the Bitter Reality in the Holy Land [Book Review]

Sep 23, 2020

During the past few years, author Richard Forer is the second person who has come my way who is Jewish American, a former member or employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and educated themselves on the Palestine and Israel that their upbringing consciously hid from them. Both also happen to write and are in a hurry to share with the world their learning journey, not to mention to speak out in the boldest way possible to make the case that they, as Jews, will not allow continuing Israeli war crimes to be done in their names.

“Palestinian Refugees in International Law” (second edition) [Recommended]

Aug 9, 2020

The 1998 first edition looks at the Palestinian refugee question, resulting from the events surrounding the birth of the state of Israel seventy years ago, remains one of the largest and most protracted refugee crises of the post-WWII era. Based on a survey of more than 50 countries conducted with support from UNHCR and UNRWA, the second edition provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the status and treatment of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world and beyond.

Man-made Israel [Book Review]

Jul 31, 2020

What do you get when you mix ten decades of biblical studies, an Old Testament, the ideology of Zionism, and a tablespoon of politically motivated archaeology, all mixed in a bowl of historical evidence? Author Keith W. Whitelam undertook this recipe and reports on the results in The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History”. The short answer to the question is that one is left with a toxic modern state, hell-bent on crafting an umbilical cord between itself and a mythical 2000-year old past. In other words, the State of Israel.

From Mormon Idaho, Through Youngstown, to Everyone in Palestine and Israel [Book Review]

May 3, 2020

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. (Publisher’s Description)

Palestinian refugees are Israel’s Achilles heel [Book Review]

May 1, 2020

The book is a long-winded frontal attack on Palestinian refugees and reads more as a commissioned assignment from the Hasbara-hub called the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs than a truly deep analysis of the issue of Palestinian refugees. What is missing from the book is as important as what is in it—all the other references that Palestinians’ Right of Return is based on, above and beyond the single one, UN General Assembly 194, that the authors pin their entire argument around.

Perpetual Turmoil: A man-made holy pandemic that never ends [Book Review]

Apr 17, 2020

Before Israel prohibited me from having free access to Jerusalem, I would meet up for lunch in East Jerusalem with Avner, a Jewish Israeli friend of mine, at the Ambassador Hotel, owned by a mutual friend of ours. Our political arguments always ended on the same note. I would claim that Israel has, and always had, a master plan and acts with full intention. Avner would counter that claim saying I’m giving the Israeli side too much credit and that much of what we are facing are a hodgepodge of haphazard missteps that have created an unfortunate reality on the ground. Enter Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron by Menachem Klein, another Jewish Israeli friend of mine. The book unintentionally offers Avner and myself an answer to our ongoing debate. It turns out we are both correct. How so? Read on.

“God does not exist, and he promised us this land” [Book Review]

Apr 8, 2020

Few countries provoke as much passion and controversy as Israel. What is Modern Israel? convincingly demonstrates that its founding ideology – Zionism – is anything but a simple reaction to antisemitism. Dispelling the notion that every Jew is a Zionist and therefore a natural advocate for the state of Israel, Yakov Rabkin points to the Protestant roots of Zionism, in order to explain the particular support Israel musters in the United States. (Publisher’s Review)

“The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017” [Recommended]

Jan 28, 2020

In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.

“Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians” by Atalia Omer [Recommended]

Jul 4, 2019

For many Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century, Zionism was an unquestionable tenet of what it meant to be Jewish. Seventy years later, a growing number of American Jews are instead expressing solidarity with Palestinians, questioning old allegiances to Israel. How did that transformation come about? What does it mean for the future of Judaism? In Days of Awe, Atalia Omer examines this shift through interviews with a new generation of Jewish activists, rigorous data analysis, and fieldwork within a progressive synagogue community.

“Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation, and Human Rights in the Conflict” by Eve Spangler [Recommended]

May 29, 2019

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the longest on-going hot-and-cold war in the 20th and 21st century. In this book the author argues that human rights standards are the key to a just and sustainable solution and that, tragically, no one has ever made serious use of them in trying to end the conflict. The reader will have a comprehensive view of the conflict, its relationship to surrounding world events, and its similarities to and differences from other conflicts, especially those embedded in American race relations.

“Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance” [Recommended]

Sep 17, 2018

An essential account of America’s most controversial alliance that reveals how the United States came to see Israel as an extension of itself, and how that strong and divisive partnership plays out in our own time. Our American Israel tells the story of how a Jewish state in the Middle East came to resonate profoundly with a broad range of Americans in the twentieth century. Beginning with debates about Zionism after World War II, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptional nature. Now, in the twenty-first century, Amy Kaplan challenges the associations underlying this special alliance.

“Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture” by Smadar Lavie [Recommended]

Jul 1, 2018

In Wrapped in the Flag of Israel, Smadar Lavie analyzes the racial and gender justice protest movements in the State of Israel from the 2003 Single Mothers’ March to the 2014 New Black Panthers and explores the relationships between these movements, violence in Gaza, and the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran… Weaving together memoir, auto-ethnography, political analysis, and cultural critique, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel presents a model of bureaucracy as divine cosmology that is both lyrical and provocative. Lavie’s focus on the often-minimized Mizraḥi population juxtaposed with the state’s monolithic culture suggests that Israeli bureaucracy is based on a theological notion that inserts the categories of religion, gender, and race into the foundation of citizenship.

“Moment of Truth: Tackling Israel-Palestine’s Toughest Questions” edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner, featuring a chapter by Sam [Recommended]

Feb 21, 2018

Moment of Truth: Tackling Israel-Palestine’s Toughest Questions seeks to clarify what it would take to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, to assess the prospects of doing so, and to illuminate what is possible in Palestine. It assembles an unprecedented wealth of expertise-encompassing political leaders, preeminent scholars, and dedicated activists from Israel, Palestine, and abroad-in direct critical exchange on the issues at the heart of the world’s most intractable conflict.

“The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine” by Ben Ehrenreich [Recommended]

Aug 1, 2017

Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages… Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints, and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, this is a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine. In a great act of bravery, empathy and understanding, Ben Ehrenreich, by placing us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians and telling their story with surpassing literary power and grace, makes it impossible for us to turn away.

Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation [Recommended]

Jun 2, 2017

Proud to have contributed in several ways to this book project. Actually, it’s much more than a book project as you will see by who the authors are and what their riveting stories reveal.

“On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice” by Jewish Voice for Peace [Recommended]

Mar 31, 2017

Foreword by Judith Butler. When the State of Israel claims to represent all Jewish people, defenders of Israeli policy redefine antisemitism to include criticism of Israel. Antisemitism is harmful and real in our society. What must also be addressed is how the deployment of false charges of antisemitism or redefining antisemitism can suppress the global progressive fight for justice. There is no one definitive voice on antisemitism and its impact. Jewish Voice for Peace has curated a collection of essays that provides a diversity of perspectives and standpoints. Each contribution explores critical questions concerning uses and abuses of antisemitism in the twenty-first-century, focusing on the intersection between antisemitism, accusations of antisemitism, and Palestinian human rights activism. (Publisher’s description)

‘The Two-State Delusion,’ a well-researched but mistitled saga of a failed peace process [Book Review]

Dec 3, 2016

University of Massachusetts Boston professor Padraig O’Malley’s The Two-State Delusion’s title suggests that there is something paradoxical in persevering with a proposed solution of two states, Israel and Palestine, as a way forward; the thrust of the historical accounts and the arguments made, however, are actually geared more toward convincing the reader that what failed is the process rather than the two-state paradigm itself, which has never yet been tested. A more accurate title would have been “Eulogy for a U.S.-Monopolized Peace Process.”

The frozen Chosen: Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” [Book Review]

Nov 1, 2016

Reading fiction does not come easy for me. I guess, while living under a military occupation, there is too much non-fiction pounding at our lives to allow us to get happily lost in fiction. Reading The Yiddish Policemen’s Union may have changed that. No wonder this novel received a ton of awards; it takes fiction to new levels. Not only does Michael have a truly amazing command of the English language (proof being that my dictionary accompanied me in turning each of the 414 pages), but it turns out his Yiddish is not so bad too. Add to that a true historic premise to base his plot on, and linking the story to a few themes that are alive and well, albeit repulsive (think murder, racism, substance abuse, and more) in today’s real world, and what comes to life is something that you’ll be reflecting on long after the book takes its well-earned place on your bookshelf.

“The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza” by Max Blumenthal [Recommended]

Jun 28, 2016

On July 8, 2014, Israel launched air strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza, followed by a ground invasion. The ensuing fifty-one days of war left more than 2,200 people dead, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian civilians, including over 500 children. During the assault, at least 10,000 homes were destroyed and, according to the United Nations, nearly 300,000 Palestinians were displaced. Max Blumenthal was in Gaza and throughout Israel-Palestine during what he argues was an entirely avoidable catastrophe. In this explosive work of intimate reportage, Blumenthal reveals the harrowing conditions and cynical deceptions that led to the ruinous war — and tells the human stories. (Publisher’s description)

“The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge” by Ilan Pappe [Book Review]

Jul 20, 2015

Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, takes the reader through the maze of knowledge creation in Israel and how that journey has interacted with power. The invaluable intellectual contribution and framing that Professor Pappe provides cannot be overstated. He documents for all serious researchers who follow how the dust (or more like blood) of Israel’s foundational moment has yet to settle. The events in and around 1948 that led to the creation of Israel and the colossal loss of Palestine were such a historic tragedy that even the well-oiled Israeli and Zionist public relations machines have been unable get traction to settle the historic account.

“The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood” by Rashid Khalidi [Recommended]

May 7, 2015

At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots of their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected historians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in on Palestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth of experience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context for the realities on the ground today, a context that has been, until now, notably lacking in our discourse. (Publisher’s description)

Support Palestinian women writers! “Al-Khawaja”—a new book release in Arabic from Fida Jiryis [Recommended]

Feb 21, 2014

Those of you who know me personally know how much I respect the written word. It is in this spirit that I write you as part of my ongoing efforts to support Palestinian culture and arts, especially writing, and more specifically women writers. One of the up and coming woman writers whom I’m supporting is Fida Jiryis. Fida is from the Palestinian village of Fassouta, near the border with Lebanon. She is a dear friend and dedicated colleague. AL-KHAWAJA is a sequel to Fida’s first book of short stories titled Hayatuna Elsagheera (“Our Small Life”).

“Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” book by Max Blumenthal [Recommended]

Oct 1, 2013

In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens…Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past — the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten; how that history has set the stage for the current crisis of Israeli society; and how the Holocaust has been turned into justification for occupation. A brave and unflinching account of the real facts on the ground, Goliath is an unprecedented and compelling work of journalism. (Publisher’s description)

“Palestinians in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education” [Recommended]

Aug 7, 2012

Each year, Israel’s young men and women are drafted into compulsory military service and are required to engage directly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict is by its nature intensely complex and is played out under the full glare of international security. So, how does Israel’s education system prepare its young people for this? How is Palestine, and the Palestinians against whom these young Israelis will potentially be required to use force, portrayed in the school system? Nurit Peled-Elhanan argues that the textbooks used in the school system are laced with a pro-Israel ideology, and that they play a part in priming Israeli children for military service. She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity. This book provides a fresh scholarly contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and will be relevant to the fields of Middle East Studies and Politics more widely. (Publisher’s description)

“Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land” [Book Review]

Apr 20, 2011

Reviewed for The Jewish Post & News (Winnipeg, Canada). Braverman is unequivocal in his judgment that Israel’s ongoing destruction of Palestine, which he portrays throughout with brutal honesty, is also destroying Israel itself. His urgent call for more effective interfaith and diplomatic intervention from outsiders is clearly aimed at rescuing Israelis as well as Palestinians. Just one example, quoting from something he wrote in 2008: “Israel’s policy, remarkably consistent and relentless…, to obtain complete political and economic control of all of Palestine, is killing Israel—its young people, its economy, its soul, its very future.”

“Towards a Jewish Theology of Liberation” (3rd Expanded Edition) by Marc H. Ellis and Julia Neuberger [Recommended]

Apr 1, 2011

Foreword by Desmond Tutu and Gustavo Gutierrez. Marc Ellis fine book about the future of the Jewish community was first published in 1987. But twenty years on, in the light of recent events in the Middle East and post-September 11, its powerful message of hope, directed towards a people ‘poised between Holocaust and empowerment’, remains as powerful, apposite, and pressingly relevant as it was before. Ellis begins with two poles: the holocaust and the pain and vision that issue from it. This leads him into ethics, and he highlights the contrast between the depth of Jewish ethical commitment and the paucity of renewal movements within Judaism. The author then addresses all suffering peoples, and the Christian liberation movements active among them, so that the holocaust may be set in a wider context. Against this background, Ellis sees it as essential that the journeys and visions of dissenting Jews—such as Etty Hillesum and Martin Buber—should be re-appraised. An alternative perspective of what it means to be Jewish begins to emerge, and in the final chapter a Jewish theology of liberation is essayed, which is a theology prepared ‘to enter the danger zones of contemporary Jewish life’, often at some cost. (Publisher’s description)

Malkit Shoshan’s “Atlas of the Conflict: Israel-Palestine” reference book [Recommended]

Nov 1, 2010

The Atlas of the Conflict maps the processes and mechanisms behind the shaping of Israel-Palestine over the past 100 years. Over 500 maps and diagrams provide a detailed territorial analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, explored through themes such as borders, settlements, land ownership, archaeological and cultural heritage sites, control of natural resources, landscaping, wars and treaties. A lexicon, drawing on many different information sources, provides a commentary on the conflict from various perspectives. As a whole, the book offers insights not only into the specific situation of Israel-Palestine, but also into the phenomenon of spatial planning used as a political instrument. (Publisher’s description)

Zionism’s Invented State [Book Review]

Mar 18, 2010

This was not the first time I have read the word “exceptionalism” in relation to Israel. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen recently wrote that Israel “lives in a perpetual state of exceptionalism.” (New York Times, Oct. 16, 2009). However, Professor Alam explored this Israeli phenomenon on a deeper level of its underlying ideology to shed light on why this abnormal state seems to be unable to come to terms with modern day realities.

“The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict” paper [Recommended]

Dec 31, 2009

Published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East As the periodic bloodshed continues in the Middle East, the search for an equitable solution must come to grips with the root cause of the conflict. The conventional wisdom is that, even if both sides are at fault, the...

“Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide” by Ben White [Recommended]

Jul 15, 2009

Since its release in 2009 the book has become an essential primer for undergraduate students and activists getting to grips with the Palestine/Israel conflict for the first time. Ben White skilfully distills the work of academics and experts into a highly accessible introduction. This new updated and expanded edition includes information on the Israeli blockade and attacks on the Gaza Strip since 2008, new policies targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel and the growth of the global Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign. Packed with vital information, quotations and resources, Israeli Apartheid never loses the human touch. The book is rooted in the author’s extensive personal experience in Palestine and includes testimonies by Palestinians describing how Israeli apartheid affects their daily lives. (Publisher’s description)

“Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation” by Kathleen & Bill Christison [Recommended]

Jun 20, 2009

Palestine in Pieces brings personal and pictorial perspectives to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Former CIA political analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give a comprehensive description of the occupation and the ways in which Israel dominates the Palestinians: Settlements, the Separation Wall, roads restricted to cars with Israeli license plates, home demolitions on a massive scale, imprisonment and mass killings. With more than 50 photographs vividly demonstrating the impact of the occupation on the Palestinian people, the authors argue that Israel’s long-term intention is to so fragment the occupied territories that any sustainable presence in the land by Palestinians as a nation will be negated.

“Judaism Does Not Equal Israel” by Marc H. Ellis [Recommended]

Mar 31, 2009

In this poignant, powerful volume, the influential Jewish thinker and critic Marc H. Ellis takes on the hard moral questions about Jewish support for the state of Israel. Reviewing the historical record of the past sixty years and envisioning the prospects for a just and lasting peace, Ellis makes an unyielding case–based on the most cherished Jewish values–that the present policies of the Israeli state cannot reasonably be defended. The future not only of Judaism but of Israel itself, he argues, hinges on a fundamental shift in Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and on a completely new direction in the peace process. (Publisher’s description)

The Wages Of Force: Expansion, Not Peace [Book Review]

Mar 27, 2009

In 1997 Hamas offered Israel a 30-year truce. Jordan’s King Hussein delivered the offer: Israel’s response was to send Mossad agents to Jordan where they tried to kill Hamas leader Khaled Meshal by dropping poison in his ear. The incident (described by former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy in his book, Man in the Shadows), not only deeply embarrassed the King, it also failed to kill Meshal. (Other peace bids were made; all were rejected, though none, perhaps, as dramatically as this.) The 1997 assassination attempt illustrates what Zeev Maoz, in his landmark work, Defending the Holy Land, calls Israel’s “over my dead body” approach to peace.

“Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Disappearing Landscape” by Raja Shehadeh [Book Review]

Jul 19, 2008

The simple things in life, like one’s relation to a landscape, are what are being effaced by the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Raja Shehadeh is one of Palestine’s leading writers. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. “Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks provides a rare historical insight into the tragic changes taking place in Palestine.” – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

“Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History” by Norman Finkelstein [Recommended]

Jun 2, 2008

“His research is painstaking, his evidence persuasive and his conclusions devastating.”—London Review of Books. In Beyond Chutzpah, Norman Finkelstein moves from an iconoclastic interrogation of the new anti-Semitism to a meticulously researched exposé of the corruption of scholarship on the Israel–Palestine conflict, especially in the work of Alan Dershowitz. Pointing to a consensus among historians and human rights organizations on the factual record, Finkelstein argues that so much controversy continues to swirl around the conflict because apologists for Israel contrive it. (Publisher’s description) “A very solid, important and highly informative book. Norman Finkelstein provides extensive details and analysis, with considerable historical depth and expert research, of a very wide range of issues concerning Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States.”—Noam Chomsky

“The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe [Recommended]

Sep 7, 2007

“Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.”—NEW STATESMAN. Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called ‘ethnic cleansing’. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.

“Arabs and Israel for Beginners” by Ron David and Susan David [Recommended]

Aug 21, 2007

Arabs & Israel For Beginners covers the Middle East from ancient times to the present, tells the truth in plain English, and is one of the few non-scholarly books that is relentlessly fair to both Jews and Arabs. If you want to continue to believe fairy tales about Arabs in Israel, don’t touch this book – it will surely be hazardous to your closed mind. If you want the truth about 12,000 years of Middle Eastern History, then Arabs & Israel For Beginners is the perfect place to start.

“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt [Recommended]

Jul 4, 2007

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Originally published in 2007, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. A work of major importance, it remains as relevant today as it was in the immediate aftermath of the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006.

“Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience” by Alice Rothchild [Recommended]

May 20, 2007

The tragedies of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians are never far from the pages of the mainstream press. Yet it is rare to hear about the reality of life on the ground, and it is rarer still when these voices belong to women. This book records the intimate journey of a Jewish-American physician travelling and working within Israel and the Occupied Territories. Alice Rothchild grew up in a family grounded by the traumas of the Holocaust and passionately devoted to Israel. This book recounts her experiences as she grapples with the reality of life in Israel, the complexity of Jewish Israeli attitudes, and the hardships of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Through her work with a medical and human rights project, Rothchild is able to offer a unique personal insight into the conflict. Based on interviews with a number of different women, she examines their diverse perspectives and the complexities of Jewish Israeli identity. Rothchild’s memorable account brings to life the voices of people mutually entwined in trauma, and explores individual examples of resilience and resistance. Ultimately, the book raises troubling questions regarding U.S. policy and the insistence of the mainstream Jewish community on giving unquestioning support to all Israeli policy.

“Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State” by Jonathan Cook [Recommended]

Apr 20, 2006

This is an account of the Jewish state’s motives behind building the West Bank wall, arguing that at the heart of the issue is demography. Israel fears the moment when the region’s Palestinians become a majority. The book charts Israel’s increasingly desperate responses to its predicament including military repression of Palestinian dissent on both sides of the Green Line; accusations that Israel’s Palestinian citizens and the Palestinian Authority are secretly conspiring to subvert the Jewish state from within; a ban on marriages between Israel’s Palestinian population and Palestinians living under occupation to prevent a right of return ‘through the back door’; the redrawing of the Green Line to create an expanded, fortress state where only Jewish blood and Jewish religion count. (Publisher’s description)

“The Woman I Left Behind”, a novel by Kim Jenson [Book Review]

Apr 2, 2006

The Woman I left Behind is much more than an untraditional love story. A Palestinian refugee and a young American woman become equally entangled in the each other’s past, present and future. Their story is interwoven with class struggle, national aspirations, careers, love, and the good and bad of each other’s culture. Both of them, searching for a meaningful relationship, find that courage is needed when they are confronted with the opportunity to learn about themselves through the other.

“The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish-Arab Divide” [Book Review]

Dec 16, 2005

Although she arrived in Israel in 1999 as an ardent Zionist, over several years she became more and more interested in discovering the true situation of the Arabs inside Israel, who despite their sizable proportion of the population, seemed all but invisible to her. This led to her decision to move to Tamra, a single Jew in a town of over 25,000 Arabs. This was an unprecedented action in Israeli society. The deep friendships she developed reflect her view that despite the unofficial policy of separation that is actively promoted by the Israeli government, there is true hope of reconciliation and cooperation.

“From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map: Essays” by Edward W. Said [Recommended]

Aug 9, 2005

In his final book, completed just before his death, Edward W. Said offers impassioned pleas for the beleaguered Palestinian cause. These essays, which originally appeared in Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly, London’s Al-Hayat, and the London Review of Books, take us from the Oslo Accords through the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, and present information and perspectives too rarely visible in America. Said is unyielding in his call for truth and justice. He insists on truth about Israel’s role as occupier and its treatment of the Palestinians. He pleads for new avenues of communication between progressive elements in Israel and Palestine. And he is equally forceful in his condemnation of Arab failures and the need for real leadership in the Arab world. “These searing essays refract the reality of terrible years through a mind with extraordinary understanding, compassion, insight, and deep knowledge.”—Noam Chomsky. (Publisher’s description)

“The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective” [Recommended]

Feb 28, 2005

John Quigley brings a necessary international law perspective to bear on the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this updated edition of his important book. Since 2000, the cycle of bloodshed and retribution has spiraled increasingly out of control. Quigley attributes the breakdown of negotiations in 2000 to Israel’s unwillingness to negotiate on the basis of principles of justice and law. He argues that throughout the last century, established tenets of international law—and particularly the right of self-determination—have been overlooked or ignored in favor of the Zionists and then the Israelis, to the detriment of the Palestinians.

“A History of Modern Palestine” by Ilan Pappe [Recommended]

Nov 3, 2003

Tracing the history of Palestine from the Ottomans in the nineteenth century, through the British Mandate, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent wars and conflicts which have dominated this troubled region, Ilan Pappe’s widely acclaimed A History of Modern Palestine provides a balanced and forthright overview of Palestine’s complex history. Placing at its centre the voices of the men, women, children, peasants, workers, town-dwellers, Jews and Arabs of Palestine, who lived through these times, this tells a story of co-existence and co-operation, as well as oppression, occupation, and exile, exposing patterns of continuity as well as points of fracture. Now in an updated third edition, Pappe draws links between contemporary events, from war in Lebanon, violence in the Gaza Strip and the Arab Spring, with the long history of Palestine, taking into account the success of Israel without neglecting the on-going catastrophe suffered by Palestinians, leaving hope for a better future for all who live in, or were expelled, from Palestine.

“The Palestinian People: A History” by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal [Recommended]

Mar 27, 2003

“This remarkable book recounts how the Palestinians came to be constituted as a people. The authors offer perceptive observations on the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel, the successes and failures of the Oslo process, and the prospects for both Palestinians and Israelis of achieving a peaceful future together. A dispassionate and balanced analysis that provides essential background for understanding the complexities of the Middle East.”—Rashid Khalidi, University of Chicago

“Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law” by Francis A. Boyle [Recommended]

Mar 1, 2003

A leading US expert applies the norms and standards of international lawto the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, addressing Palestinian statehood, thenegotiation and failure of the Oslo Accords, the status of Jerusalem, theAl Aqsa Intifada, the right of return, human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism (both state and suicide bombings), thecurrent divest-from-Israel campaign and the US war against Iraq. (Publisher’s description)

“Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness” by Rashid Khalidi [Recommended]

Mar 29, 1997

This foundational text now features a new introduction by Rashid Khalidi reflecting on the significance of his work over the past decade and its relationship to the struggle for Palestinian nationhood. Khalidi also casts an eye to the future, noting the strength of Palestinian identity and social solidarity yet wondering whether current trends will lead to Palestinian statehood and independence. (Publisher’s description)

“Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians” [Recommended]

Oct 1, 1994

Edited by Staughton Lynd, Sam Bahour, and Alice Lynd Throughout the world Palestinians have often been viewed through narrow prisms of “terrorists” or “victims.” This comprehensive collection of oral histories brings to life generations of Palestinians, those living in the occupied territories as well as those in the far-flung exile of the Palestinian diaspora. The authors traveled throughout Israel and the occupied territories to find the multi-generational families living in towns, villages and refugee camps whose voices resonate in Homeland. These are the stories of loss, of exile, of remembering.

“The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities” by Simha Flapan [Recommended]

Aug 12, 1987

Drawing on recently declassified material, from Ben-Gurion’s war diaries to the minutes of secret meetings, the author reconstructs the real events surrounding the founding of Israel, exposing many of the historical beliefs as propaganda myths that have misguided Israeli policy to this day. (Publisher’s description)

“Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel” by Elias Chacour [Recommended]

Dec 31, 1984

As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. The townspeople were proud of their ancient Christian heritage and lived at peace with their Jewish neighbors. But early in 1947, their idyllic lifestyle was swept away as tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps. An exile in his native land, Elias began a years-long struggle with his love for the Jewish people and the world’s misunderstanding of his own people, the Palestinians. How was he to respond? He found his answer in the simple, haunting words of the Man of Galilee: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” In Blood Brothers, Chacour blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the birth of modern Israel. He touches on controversial questions such as “What behind-the-scenes politics touched off the turmoil in the Middle East?”, “What does Bible prophecy really have to say?”, and “Can bitter enemies ever be reconciled?” (Publisher’s description)

“The Question of Palestine” by Edward Said [Recommended]

Dec 6, 1979

This original and deeply provocative book was the first to make Palestine the subject of a serious debate–one that remains as critical as ever. With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential Orientalism and an exile’s passion (he is Palestinian by birth), Edward W. Said traces the fatal collision between two peoples in the Middle East and its repercussions in the lives of both the occupier and the occupied–as well as in the conscience of the West. (Publisher’s description)

“The Arabs in Israel” by Sabri Jiryis [Recommended]

Dec 1, 1969

A classic account of the situation of Arabs in Israel in the 18 years following its creation. Sabri Jiryis, born in 1938 in the Christian Arab town of Fassuta, is an Arab Israeli writer and lawyer, a graduate of the Hebrew University law faculty, and prominent Palestinian activist. In 1966 the first edition of his book The Arabs in Israel was published in Hebrew.

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