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ePALESTINE NOTES
ePalestine.ps - Sam Bahour

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

Books

Overview | Recently Added | Full List


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

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

by | October 1, 2013 | Books

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]

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

by | August 7, 2012 | Books

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]

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

by | April 20, 2011 | Books, Sam's Writings

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]

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

by | April 1, 2011 | Books

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]

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

by | November 1, 2010 | Books

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]

Zionism’s Invented State [Book Review]

by | March 18, 2010 | Books, Sam's Writings

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. 


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

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

by | July 15, 2009 | Books

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]

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

by | June 20, 2009 | Books

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]

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

by | March 31, 2009 | Books

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)