Book List

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this richly detailed, beautiful and resonant novel examining the Palestinian and Jewish conflicts from the mid-20th century to 2002, (originally published as The Scar of David in 2006, and now republished after a new edit), Abulhawa gives the terrible conflict a human face. The tale opens with Amal staring down the barrel of a soldier's gun—and moves backward to present the history that preceded that moment. In 1941 Palestine, Amal's grandparents are living on an olive farm in the village of Ein Hod. Their oldest son, Hasan, is best friends with a refugee Jewish boy, Ari Perlstein as WWII rages elsewhere. But in May 1948, the Jewish state of Israel is proclaimed, and Ein Hod, founded in 1189 C.E., was cleared of its Palestinian children... and the residents moved to Jenin refugee camp, where Amal is born. Through her eyes we experience the indignities and sufferings of the Palestinian refugees and also friendship and love. Abulhawa makes a great effort to empathize with all sides and tells an affecting and important story that succeeds as both literature and social commentary. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This book is a compilation of most of the papers presented at Sabeel's Eighth International Conference held February 23-28, 2011, in Bethlehem, Palestine. The text contains presenters' thoughts on the most cutting edge issues in today's world, namely, Empire and its impact on religion, economics, and all other aspects of life. Expressions of Empire are locally felt by Palestinians on a daily basis: the belligerent occupation, the settler form of colonization, the excessive use of military force, the oppressive system of control, the manipulation of laws and regulations that humiliate and oppress people, the apartheid wall, the dehumanizing checkpoints, and the subtle (and not so subtle) policies that aim at stripping the Palestinians of their land and pushing them out. The book documents the growing awareness among biblical scholars and theologians of the dimensions and dangers of Empire. The text contains a set of well crafted expressions that both diagnose the problem and suggest remedies for the root causes. Speakers include: Andreas van Agt, Naim Ateek, Sam Bahour, Jonathan Cook, John Dear, Jafar Farah, Munir Fasheh, Christoopher Ferguson, Richard Horsley, Hind Khoury, Thabo Makgoba, Ched Myers, Mazen Qumsiyeh, Mitri Raheb, Michel Sabbah, Afif Safieh.  To order a copy, contact Friends of Sabeel-North America: friends@fosna.org

An analysis of the conflict over land between Palestine and Israel by a Palestinian Christian Arab who is also a citizen of Israel. From the text: "The background is clear. . . . [Jerusalem] has been conquered and re-conquered more than 37 times. The latest conquest in 1967 was by the Israeli army. After the war Israel 'took in' not only the 5 square kilometers of Arab East Jerusalem--but also 65 square kilometers of surrounding open country and villages, most of which never had any municipal link to Jerusalem. Overnight they became part of Israel's 'eternal and indivisible capital.' The history of Jerusalem has been written with blood." The first part of this sequel to Justice and Only Justice focuses on events since the Intifada of 1987, including the violence that has come from Israel's aggression and from the use of suicide bombers by Palestinians. The second part of the book draws on scripture, lifting up biblical figures such as Samson, Jonah, Daniel, and Jesus as it examines issues of ownership of the land. In the final section, Ateek presents a strategy to achieve peace and justice nonviolently that will promote justice for the Palestinians and security for both Israel and Palestine. Also available from Friends of Sabeel.

International boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) efforts helped topple South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime. In this urgent book, Omar Barghouti makes the case for a rights-based BDS campaign to stop Israel’s rapacious occupation, colonization, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. This considered, convincing collection contributes to the growing debate on Israel’s violations of international law and points the way forward to a united global civil society movement for freedom, justice, self-determination, and equality for all. About the Author - OMAR BARGHOUTI is an independent Palestinian commentator and human rights activist. He is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY, and a master's degree in philosophy (ethics) from Tel Aviv University. Nobel Peace Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the book "lucid and morally compelling… perfectly timed to make a major contribution to this urgently needed global campaign for justice, freedom and peace." Former President of the UN General Assembly, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann called it "timely and responsibly written by a man who understands that creative nonviolence is the only way out of the dire situation in Palestine."

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER KAI BIRD'S fascinating memoir of his early years spent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon provides an original and illuminating perspective into the Arab-Israeli conflict. Weeks before the Suez War of 1956, four-year-old Kai Bird, son of a garrulous, charming American Foreign Service officer, moved to Jerusalem with his family. They settled in a small house, where young Kai could hear church bells and the Muslim call to prayer and watch as donkeys and camels competed with cars for space on the narrow streets. Each day on his way to school, Kai was driven through Mandelbaum Gate, where armed soldiers guarded the line separating Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem from Arab-controlled East. He had a front-seat view to both sides of a divided city--and the roots of the widening conflict between Arabs and Israelis. Bird would spend much of his life crossing such lines--as a child in Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and later, as a young man in Lebanon. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate is his compelling personal history of growing up an American in the midst of three major wars and three turbulent decades in the Middle East. The Zelig-like Bird brings readers into such conflicts as the Suez War, the Six Day War of 1967, and the Black September hijackings in 1970 that triggered the Jordanian civil war. Bird vividly portrays such emblematic figures as the erudite George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening; Jordan's King Hussein; the Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled; Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother and a family friend; Saudi King Faisal; President Nasser of Egypt; and Hillel Kook, the forgotten rescuer of more than 100,000 Jews during World War II. Bird, his parents sympathetic to Palestinian self-determination and his wife the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, has written a masterful and highly accessible book--at once a vivid chronicle of a life spent between cultures as well as a consummate history of a region in turmoil. It is an indispensable addition to the literature on the modern Middle East.

The Israeli opinion maker and former Speaker of the Knesset offers a radical exploration of modern day Israel and advances the controversial notion that if it is to live in peace with its neighbors it must overcome the trauma of the Holocaust. From a review by The Independent:  . . . "at once becoming a best-seller and provoking a furious reaction not only from the right but from many of Burg's former colleagues on the political centre-left. In the book – a compelling mix of polemic, personal memoir, homage to his parents and meditation on Judaism – Burg argues that Israel has been too long imprisoned by its obsessive and cheapening use – or abuse – of the Holocaust as "a theological pillar of Jewish identity". He argues that the living role played by the Holocaust – Burg uses the regular Hebrew word Shoah or "catastrophe" for the extermination of six million Jews in the Second World War – in everyday Israeli discourse, has left Israel with a persistent self-image of a "nation of victims", in stark variance with its actual present-day power. Instead, the book argues, Israel needs finally to abandon the "Judaism of the ghetto" for a humanistic, "universal Judaism".

Described by a UN fact-finding mission as "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population," Israel's Operation Cast Lead thrust the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip into the center of the debate about the Israel/Palestine conflict. In Gaza in Crisis, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, two of the issue's most insightful and prominent critical voices, survey the fallout from Israel's conduct in Gaza and place it into the context of Israel's longstanding occupation of Palestine. "Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . he may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet."—The New York Times Book Review

During the Israeli Offensive against the people of Gaza, Dr. Mads Gilbert and Dr. Erik Fosse were the only two foreign doctors allowed into the region, spending days and nights at the busy and over-crowded Al-Shifaa Hospital in a region forbidden to the rest of the world. With a complete blockade on Gaza, including medical aid and media, Dr. Mads Gilbert became a common face, keeping the world informed of the atrocities taking place in the virtual prison known as Gaza. As such, he was seen on Al-Jazeera, BBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and more.

Reviews:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11537.shtml
Excerpt: Eyes in Gaza is a detailed and harrowing account by the Norwegian doctors Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse of their experiences in al-Shifa Hospital during Israel's deadly assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. For a time, they were not just the only western doctors in Gaza, but among the handful of western witnesses to what they repeatedly call Israel's "massacre" of some 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children. Hence the book's title, bearing witness to their status as witnesses.
http://australiansforpalestine.com/17569
Excerpt: “The boy with the destroyed brain did not need anaesthetic; he could no longer feel anything. The other lay in an artificial coma with intravenous anaesthetic agents to soften the pain and allow the ventilator to work without resistance from the boy’s own breathing. A large bandage covered both his eyes. He could not see anyway. He was already blind. Where could I cry out the despair and rage I felt for all this terrible fate we saw at such close quarters? Would the heavens hear? Will the world hear? They know that this is happening, after all. The numbers tick into the West every single afternoon, to the news agencies, to the intelligence services and to the diplomatic missions of the world’s most powerful nations, who do not even make an attempt to pull in the reins and control the wildness of the Israeli war machine.”

An essential and well-written book. An Israeli journalist and historian, Gorenberg recaps Zionist History as the preamble to conditions that set up the Occupation of the Palestinian territories post-1967. He then tells the whole tragic story of fanaticism, political cowardice, and failed opportunities. A unique and courageous window into Israeli society and politics.