Book Reviews - Palestine

Book Reviews:  Palestine

Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents
By Charles D. Smith

Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict provides a comprehensive, balanced, and accessible introduction to the multi-faceted history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Smith’s widely respected analysis examines how underlying issues, group motives, religious and cross-cultural clashes, diplomacy and imperialism, and encroaching modernity shaped this volatile region. The book’s narrative and supporting documents, maps, photographs, and chronologies consider high and low politics with perspectives from all sides of the struggle, while the final chapters include the latest developments.

$47.00 new 37.88 used 

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
By Ilan Pappe

In this controversial new book, a prominent Israeli historian at Haifa University revisits the formative period of the State of Israel. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord during the War of Independence, he offers archival evidence to demonstrate that a central plank in Israel's founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. This book is a passionate plea to acknowledge the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 as the root cause of the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.

$10.17 new 9.75 used 

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
By Jimmy Carter

PRESIDENT CARTER'S COURAGEOUS ASSESSMENT OF WHAT MUST BE DONE TO BRING PERMANENT PEACE TO ISRAEL WITH DIGNITY AND JUSTICE TO PALESTINE

$11.79 new from $1.40 used 

Palestine
By Joe Sacco, Edward Said

Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, a single-volume collection of this 288-page landmark of journalism and the artform of comics. Interest in Sacoo has never been higher than with the release of his critically acclaimed book, Safe Area Gorazde.
Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, who has often been called the first comic book journalist.
Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.
$16.47 new $9.49 used

Israel and Palestine: Reflections, Revisions, Refutations
By Avi Shlaim

Reflections on the causes and consequences of the Israel-Palestine conflict, by the author of The Iron Wall. “The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.”
—Avi Shlaim, from Israel and Palestine

With characteristic rigor and readability, Avi Shlaim reflects on a range of key issues, transformations and personalities in the Israel-Palestine conflict. From the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the failure of the Oslo peace process, from the 1948 War to the 2008 invasion of Gaza, Israel and PalestineIsrael and Palestine is an essential tool for understanding the fractured history and future prospects of Israel-Palestine. . places current events in their proper historical perspective. It assesses the impact of key political and intellectual figures, including Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon, Edward Said and Benny Morris; it also re-examines the United States’ influential role in the conflict, and explores the many missed opportunities for peace and progress in the region. Clear-eyed and meticulous, Israel and Palestine is an essential tool for understanding the fractured history and future prospects of Israel-Palestine. 

$22.78 new from 20.87 used  

One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate
By Tom Segev

One Palestine, Complete explores the tumultuous period before the creation of the state of Israel. This was the time of the British Mandate, when Britain's promise to both Jews and Arabs that they would inherit the land, set in motion the conflict that haunts the region to this day.

Drawing on untapped archival materials, Tom Segev reconstructs an era (1917 to 1948) of limitless possibilities and tragic missteps. He introduces an array unforgettable characters, tracks the steady advance of Jews and Arabs toward confrontation, and puts forth a radical new argument: that the British, far from being pro-Arab, consistently favored the Zionist position, out of the mistaken--and anti-Semitic--belief that Jews turned the wheels of history. Rich in historical detail, sensitive to all perspectives, One Palestine, Complete brilliantly depicts the decline of an empire, the birth of one nation, and the tragedy of another.

$13.60 new from $2.96 used 

Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
By Saree Makdisi

How the "peace process" has made life impossible for ordinary Palestinians. This book is not about suicide bombers. Tending one's fields, visiting a relative, going to the hospital: for ordinary Palestinians, such everyday activities require negotiating permits and passes, curfews and closures, "sterile roads" and "seam zones"—bureaucratic hurdles ultimately as deadly as outright military incursion.

Not since the late Edward Said has there been such an articulate Arab voice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In devastating detail, Saree Makdisi reveals how the "peace process" institutionalized Palestinians' loss of control over their inner and outer lives. He shows how Israel's massive concrete walls going up around Gaza and the West Bank isolate communities from their lands, their livelihoods, and each other. Through eye-opening statistics and day-by-day reports, we learn how Palestinians have seen their hopes for freedom and statehood culminate in the creation of abject "territories" comparable to open-air prisons.

Anyone surprised at Arab anger or the election of Hamas must read this book.
$17.12 new from $9.99 used

Palestine: The Special Edition

By Joe Sacco

The landmark of comics journalism in an expanded and re-designed edition that includes a host of unseen supplemental material, including background notes, sketches, reference photos, a new interview with Sacco, and much more. Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, the definitive, expanded, hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comics journalism. Palestine: The Special Edition is more than a new edition: consider it the "Criterion" Palestine. In addition to the original, 288-page graphic novel and introduction by the late Edward Said, The Special Edition includes a host of unique material never before published, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and much more. The book also includes a new, introductory interview with Sacco about the making of the book as well as a new cover and design. Palestine: The Special Edition will be a cornerstone of any serious comic collection. With the Middle East's role in contemporary world politics, Sacco's Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict. 

19.77 new from 10,95 used

The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction, Second Edition
By Gregory Harms, Todd M. Ferry

The Palestine-Israel conflict is the most notorious and ingrained conflict of the twentieth, and now twenty-first, century. Yet the way it is reported in the media is often confusing, leading many to assume the hostilities stretch back to an ancient period. This is the first book to provide a clear, accessible, and annotated introduction that covers the full history of the region, from Biblical times until today. Perfect for the general reader, as well as students, it offers a comprehensive yet lucid rendering of the conflict, setting it in its proper historical context. Harms and Ferry show how today's violence is very much a product of recent history, with its roots in the twentieth century. This balanced account is now fully up to date and makes a valuable resource for anyone who wants a clear guide to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories, and its place in the history of Middle Eastern affairs.

$14.95 new from 7.95 used 

The Question of Palestine
By Edward W. Said

Still a basic and indespensible account of the Palestinian question, updated to include the most recent developments in the Middle East- from the intifada to the Gulf war to the historic peace conference in Madrid.

10.85 new from 4.82 used 

Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation
By Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison

This book 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: Israeli settlements, the Separation Wall, roads restricted to cars with Israeli license plates, home demolitions on a massive scale, imprisonment, mass assassinations and wanton sniper and artillery fire. 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.

14.36 new and used  

Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition
By Norman G. Finkelstein, Norman Finkelstein

This polemical study systematically undermines the popular and scholarly representations of the Israel- Palestine conflict. Opening with a theoretical discussion of Zionism and its roots, Norman Finkelstein goes on to look at the demographic origins of the Palestinians, referencing the work of Joan Peters and critiquing the influential studies of both Benny Morris and Anita Shapira, and closes by demonstrating that the casting of Israel as the innocent victim of Arab aggression in the June 1967 and October 1973 wars is not supported by the documentary record.
In the material added for this new edition, including a new introduction, Finkelstein focuses his attention on the renewed efforts of scholars to justify the brutal actions of Israel in light of the ongoing failure of the peace process.
$16.29 new from 9.99 used

Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories
By Anna Baltzer

Anna Baltzer, a young Jewish American, went to the West Bank to discover the realities of daily life for Palestinians under the occupation. What she found would change her outlook on the conflict forever. She wrote this book to give voice to the stories of the people who welcomed her with open arms as their lives crumbled around them. For eight months, Baltzer lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists, and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across endless checkpoints and roadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves. Baltzer witnessed firsthand the environmental devastation brought on by expanding settlements and outposts and the destruction wrought by Israel s separation barrier, which separates many families from each other, their communities, their land, and basic human services. What emerges from Baltzer's account is not a sensationalist tale of suicide bombers and conspiracies, but a compelling and inspiring description of the trials of daily life under the occupation.

19.11 new from 6.69 used

 

 

 

Book Reviews - The Wall

I am going to attempt to list recommended books on issues relevant to this project by categories. Because I am not blog savy, I will list books for the categories withing the same posting and add to them as I find books.  Hopefully, you will be able to "search" on book reviews and only need to click on the posting and scroll down to find the book...  This section will be on the Israeli Security Wall.

The Other Walls: The Arab-Israeli Peace Process in a Global Perspective. By Harold H. Saunders

Drawing on intensive firsthand experience gained during the most successful years of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, Harold Saunders explains the complexities of the peace process: it was not just a series of negotiated agreements but negotiation embedded in a larger political process. In the first edition of The Other Walls, Saunders argued persuasively that until leaders change the political environment by lowering the human and political barriers to peace, negotiators stand little chance. 

$20.95 new from $2.69 used 

The West Bank Wall: Unmaking Palestine
By Ray Dolphin

What is the purpose of the West Bank Wall? Since Israel began its construction in 2002, it has sparked intense debate, being condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice. Israel claims it is a security measure to protect Israeli citizens from terrorist attacks. Opponents point to the serious impact on the rights of Palestinians, depriving them of their land, mobility and access to health and educational services. In The West Bank Wall, Dolphin explores the Palestinian experience of the Wall and places the debate in its international context. Dolphin's writing is informed by his work for the UN, where for three years he monitored and compiled reports on the Wall's impact on the humanitarian conditions in refugee camps, towns and villages. With an introduction by Graham Usher, who has worked as Palestine correspondent for major international publications including the Economist, Middle East International, al Ahram English Weekly, the Guardian and Le Monde Diplomatique, this book puts the purpose of the Wall to the test. What are the real intentions behind the Israeli security argument? Is it a means of securing territory permanently through an illegal annexation of East Jerusalem? Ray Dolphin provides some answers, offering a unique critical account of the impact of the wall and how it affects plans for a Palestinian state and for future peace in the Middle East.

$23.95 new from $16.60 used 

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
By Avi Shlaim

As it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, the State of Israel could count many important successes, but its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world at large casts a long shadow over its history. What was promulgated as an "iron-wall" strategy--dealing with the Arabs from a position of unassailable strength--was meant to yield to a further stage where Israel would be strong enough to negotiate a satisfactory peace with its neighbors. The goal remains elusive. In this penetrating study, Avi Shlaim examines how variations of the iron-wall philosophy have guided Israel's leaders; he finds that, while the strategy has been successful, opportunities have been lost to progress from military security to broader peace. The Iron Wall brilliantly illuminates past progress and future prospects for peace in the Middle East.Maps, 18 pages of photographs.

$14,93 new 9,92 used 

Windows in the Wall
By Rebecca Heyl

The 100 photographs of this photo diary document Rebecca Heyl’s frequent travels between the West Bank and Israel. Her images are acutely human and perceptive, providing a sense of the texture of daily life in these two territories. They also show her respect for her subjects’ dignity in the face of often unbearable circumstances. Heyl’s thought-provoking introduction and running commentary also help illuminate each image. Windows: Channels for Communications is a joint organization established in 1991. Its members—Jews and Palestinians from both sides of the Green Line—work together to promote acquaintance, understanding, and reconciliation between both peoples, through educational and cultural programs, media, and art. They work toward reaching a just and lasting peace, as well as means by which Palestinians and Jews can learn to cope together with the history and present reality they share. It is a non-profit organization not affiliated with any political body and is based on volunteer work and funded by donations.

$19,00 new from $5,00 used 

Against the Wall: Israel's Barrier to Peace
From New Press, The

Voices from Israel and the Occupied Territories, as well as around the world, 3xplore the intersection of architecture and politics
Called a "security fence" by the Israeli government and the "apartheid wall" by Palestinians, the barrier currently under construction in the West Bank has been the subject of intense controversy since the first olive tree was uprooted in its path. In violation of a ruling by the International Court of Justice and a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, the structure juts deep inside Palestinian territory, altering not only the geographical landscape, but the political one as well.
This groundbreaking book includes a collection of outstanding original pieces, along with photographs and maps, that offer a frank critique of the wall from a range of perspectives—legal, historical, architectural, and philosophical. Renowned writer and architect Michael Sorkin has assembled commentary from various international experts, including both Israeli and Palestinian voices. Together they reinforce a view widely held around the world (though not by the government of the United States): Israel's wall can act only as a barrier to future peace.
Contributors include: Suad Amiry, Ariella Azoulay, Terry Boullata, Mike Davis, Sari Hanafi, Stephanie Koury, Dean MacCannell, Ruchama Marton, Adi Ophir, Rebecca Solnit, Anita Vitullo, and Eyal Weizmann.
$19.95 new 0.99 Used

Three Cities Against the Wall
By Seth Tobocman, Terry Berkowitz

An historic collaboration among 40 artists of Palestine, America and Israel who all call attention to the human rights implications of Israel's Separation Barrier in the Gaza Strip. The artists make a powerful statement that this barrier is a barrier to peace and separates us all from justice and equality. Artists include Art Spiegelman, Tayseer Barakat, Leon Golub, Nancy Spero, Joe Sacco, Sulaiman Mansour, Seth Tobocman, Eric Drooker, Terry Berkowitz and many others.

$8.70 new or used 

The Crossing Borders Project

by, Susan Brannon 

Through documentary photography and the participation in photography workshops, The Crossing Borders Project encourages citizens to generate their own voice rather than others doing it for them. Disposable cameras were distributed to three different groups in the West Bank of Israel who are closed within a wall and who cannot cross the borders to share their story with the rest of the world. The three representative groups are: The Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah, Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, and the Palestinian Working Women Society for Development in Ramallah. This book is the voice of the people, from the people and by the people. A collaborative effort to tell the story. The Crossing Borders Book is a collection of stories and images that were chosen by the participants to be shared with others. Part of the collection of images in the book, reflect behind the scene realities of the conflict through the lens. The book is dedicated to all those who hope and work for peace.

Amazon: 55.00 new Website: 20.00 plus shipping

 

 

Not sure where to start

Now that the images are lying quietly in the cantina, and I am attempting to survive through my cell phone business, I do not feel as though I am finished with the concept of crossing borders.  In my "spare" time, I will attempt to write recommended book reviews with links to where you can purchase them (on my online book store of course!) and research starting up an NGO.  This way, I will feel that the project is not dead in the water and my passion will have a chance of surviving!  If any one out there who reads this blog, has suggestions on how to go about listing links and reviews on a pre-formatted blog such as this (I am not computer savy) please provide me with your input!  If anyone out there has suggestions on how to start up an NGO, or know of a pro-bono lawyer, who has a soft heart of humanitarian passionate people...please direct him to me.

Crossing Borders Book

You can order my book now!  Titled "The Crossing Borders Project"  If you order from Amazon, the price will be double than if you order from my website, because they take out a ton of commission to list the book on their site.  On the Amazon link, you can scan the book to get a peek at what is inside.
Sales from the book, help to pay for the project and hopefully, the ability to exhibit in Palestine, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, which is what the project is all about...crossing borders.

I know that the project has been finished for a while, but I work hard at trying to keep it alive!  Power to Crossing Borders and providing tools for local citizens be their own voices regarding issues of concern.

The Exhibit is over....

The exhibit is over, hundreds of Italians viewed the images that the participants made and read their stories. Many eyes were opened about the life and struggles that the Palestinians have living on the other side of the Israeli Wall. In light of the Gaza situation, many people wanted to know more about the conflict, the wall and checkpoints.

Now I am crossing my fingers to move the exhibit to Siena and then Rome!

Press Release Italian and English

“Crossing Borders” è una mostra fotografica itinerante che cerca di mettere in evidenza l'esistenza quotidiana del Popolo Palestinese costretto a convivere all'interno del' ”Israeli Separation Barrier”, il “Muro” che divide i Territori Palestinesi della West Bank da Israele dal resto del mondo.
Susan Brannon fotogiornalista americana, ha organizzato e condotto un workshop fotografico con tre gruppi di palestinesi della West Bank: con un gruppo di donne del “Aida Refugee Camp”,del Campo Profughi di Aida, vicino a Bethlehem, con delle donne del” The Turner Institute for Education Youth Group “ di Ramallah ed con altro gruppo di donne del “ Society for Women “ sempre a Ramallah.
Il progetto si proponeva di offrire ai palestinesi una via diretta per esprimere con voce propria ciò che riguarda la loro vita quotidiana, piuttosto che altri lo facciano a posto loro.
“Gli ho messo a disposizione delle macchine fotografiche affinché riprendessero la loro esistenza per conto proprio e gli ho chiesto di registrare e raccontare la loro vita quotidiana attraverso l'obbiettivo fotografico e con annotazioni scritte.”
Susan Brannon si è occupata per sette anni. come fotogiornalista di conflitti del Medio Oriente
Il suo lavoro è stato pubblicato su giornali e riviste e attraverso le agenzie di aiuto umanitario in tutto il mondo. Essa mostra la vita reale, gli effetti e i retroscena dei teatri di guerra dai punti di vista di coloro che sono stati marginalizzati dai conflitti.E' membro del National Press Photography Association, e di Reporters Without Borders.

Crossing Borders is a traveling photography exhibit that gives light into the lives of the Palestinian People who live inside of the Israeli security barrier that divides the West Bank from Israel and the rest of the world.
Photojournalist Susan Brannon conducted a photography workshop with three groups in the West Bank, “The Crossing Borders project was to create an avenue for the Palestinians to create their own voice concerning their lives, rather than other people doing it for them. I gave them disposable cameras to photograph their own existence and asked them to record their lives through the lens and through text.”
Susan Brannon has been a photojournalist in the Middle East covering the conflicts for over 7 years. Her work has been published in newspapers, magazines and humanitarian aid agencies throughout the world. She exposes the real life effects and behind the scenes of war through the lens on those who have been marginalized from the conflicts. She is a member of the National Press Photography Association, Reporters Without Borders, and American Photojournalists.

A'mir Refugee Camp, Ramallah

Photograph by Lina with the Tamer Institute in Ramallah. We took a workshop field trip to A'mir Refugee Camp in Ramallah.
Book Links:  Ramallah- "Sharon and My Mother-In-Law: Ramallah Diaries", by Suad Amiry