{"id":3468,"date":"2020-09-23T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-02-23T20:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T18:46:45","slug":"wake-up-and-reclaim-your-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2020\/09\/wake-up-and-reclaim-your-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"From AIPAC\u2019s La-la Land to the Bitter Reality in the Holy Land [Book Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review of Richard Forer's Wake Up and Reclaim Your Humanity: Essays on the Tragedy of Israel-Palestine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Richard reached out to ask if I would be willing to read his manuscript and consider writing an endorsement for his new book, I did not hesitate. Since being in touch online with Richard since 2013, I was aware of his profile and his previous book,\u00a0Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion \u2014 A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict.<\/em>\u00a0I viewed him as someone thoughtful. Equally exciting to me was my constant desire to understand the journey that members of the Jewish community take to adjust the colossal disservice their community and educational institutions instill in them, the systematic dehumanization of Palestinians.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

English:<\/strong> Medium<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medium shortlink:<\/strong> http:\/\/bit.ly\/Wake-Up-and-Reclaim-Your-Humanity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[948,942],"tags":[992,925,1234,200,201,1233],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-3468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-sams-writings","tag-the-american-israel-public-affairs-committee-aipac","tag-american-jews","tag-breakthrough-transforming-fear-into-compassion-a-new-perspective-on-the-israel-palestine-conflict-book","tag-richard-forer","tag-wake-up-and-reclaim-your-humanity","tag-wake-up-and-reclaim-your-humanity-essays-on-the-tragedy-of-israel-palestine-book"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"

Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n

A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n

He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3468"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6884,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions\/6884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3468"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}