News & opinions from a Palestinian-American
living & working in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, Palestine
3 post/s found with this tag.
![Non-violently resisting Israeli military occupation, with a scalpel [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/non-violently-resisting-israeli-military-occupation-with-a-scalpel-472741138.jpeg)
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.
“The tallest man in Ramallah offered to give us a tour of his cage. We would not even have to leave our table at Rukab’s Ice Cream, on Rukab Street; all he needed to do was reach into his pocket…” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon roams the West Bank with Sam Bahour. This essay was first published on Literary Hub before appearing in the writers’ compendium, “Kingdom of Olives and Ash” (2017).
![The Wages Of Force: Expansion, Not Peace [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/defending-the-holy-land-zeev-maoz.png)
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.
!["The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine" by Ben Ehrenreich [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-Way-to-the-Spring-Life-and-Death-in-Palestine-by-Ben-Ehrenreich.jpg)