Sorting by

×
ePALESTINE NOTES
ePalestine.ps - Sam Bahour

SUBSCRIBE | DONATE | CONTACT

News & opinions from a Palestinian-American
living & working in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, Palestine

Books

Overview | Recently Added | Full List


Israel’s linguistic acrobatics [Book Review]

Israel’s linguistic acrobatics [Book Review]

by | June 28, 2022 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | September 27, 2021 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | January 2, 2021 | Books, Writings

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]

Understanding American Jewish Philanthropy [Book Review]

by | October 20, 2020 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | September 23, 2020 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | August 9, 2020 | Books, Recommended!

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]

Man-made Israel [Book Review]

by | July 31, 2020 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | May 3, 2020 | Books, Writings

#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]

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

by | May 1, 2020 | Books, Writings

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]

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

by | April 17, 2020 | Books

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.