Israel Society and Culture Complete Report by
Need to know it all? Our all-inclusive culture report for Israel will get up to speed on all aspects of culture in Israel, including lifecycle, religion, women, superstitions & folklore, sports, holidays & festivals, and etiquette.
Anonymous Soldiers: the struggle for Israel, 1918-1947 by 
The Arab-Israeli Conflict by
Regional issues and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The unrest in the Middle East may isolate Israel / Unrest in Syria has divided opinion in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights / Iran, not Israel, is the real danger in the Middle East / Iran is not a real danger / Israel's attack on a Syrian nuclear power plant has had mixed results / Water scarcity could be used to build cooperation between Arab States and Israel / Arabs have been weakened by their lack of knowledge of Israel / Israel and the Gaza Strip. Hamas is a dangerous terrorist organization that must be isolated / Israel should negotiate with Hamas / Israel's actions in the Gaza war were justifiable / Israel's actions in the Gaza war were indefensible / Daud Abdullah -- The blockade of Gaza is inhumane and must cease / The blockade of Gaza is justified / Israel and the West Bank. Israeli settlements in the West Bank should cease / Israeli settlements are legitimate and must be defended / Israel's restrictions on movement in the West Bank are inhumane / Restrictions on movement in the West Bank are based on legitimate Israeli security needs / The Fayyad government fails to meet expectations / The Fayyad government has a serious plan for peace / International involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The European Union should delink the peace process from other regional challenges / France and the United States have moved closer on the Arab-Israeli conflict / Turkey has moved away from Israel and toward Syria / In South Africa, Desmond Tutu's criticism of Israel has sparked controversy / Oil embargoes probably cannot be used to influence US policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict
The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000 by
Israeli history textbooks in the past contained many biases, distortions, and omissions concerning the depiction of Arabs and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Today these misrepresentations are gradually being corrected. This study encourages the depiction of a balanced portrait in all textbooks.
By reviewing curricula and textbooks used in the Israeli educational system since the establishment of Israel, the author assesses the impact of Zionist historiography and the Zeitgeist on the portrayal of Arabs in textbooks. The study unravels the biases, distortions, omissions, and stereotypes through the analysis of several major historical events such as the 1948 war, the refugee question, the 1967 war, and the peace process.
The A to Z of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by
For over a century, the conflict between the Arabs and Jews has remained the most intractable problem confronting the world. Hardly a day passes that the Arab-Israeli Conflict is not headlined in the media. It has turned the Arabs and Israelis against one another and embittered relations within the two communities, while drawing the rest of the world into the circle of disruption. The A to Z of the Arab-Israeli Conflict provides factual background through an introductory essay, a chronology, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the more significant persons, places and events, including the various wars and negotiations. The history, religion, culture, and archeology that this rivalry has sparked between the Arabs and Israelis over the same piece of territory is traced in this book, which offers the essential details using neutral terms and thereby allowing readers to draw conclusions for themselves.
Brief History of Israel by
Israel is a modern country with a short history set into the lengthy story of Jewish history. A Brief History of Israel, Third Edition explores that history with an emphasis on the period since Israel's independence in 1948. It is a complex story of a people and their modern state, established thousands of years after the destruction of the old one. The story of the independent state of Israel is narrated against the backdrop of exile, anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Holocaust—all of which have helped shape the nature of the current state.
Israel by
This comprehensive book provides a well-rounded introduction to Israel—a definitive account of the nation's past, its often controversial present, and much more. Written by a leading historian of the Middle East, Israel is organized around six major themes: land and people, history, society, politics, economics, and culture. The only available volume to offer such a complete account, this book is written for general readers and students who may have little background knowledge of this nation or its rich culture. Based on research by scholars with extensive firsthand knowledge of Israel, this book offers accessible, clearly explained material, enhanced with a generous selection of images, maps, charts, tables, graphs, and sidebars. This book provides readers with a solid foundation of knowledge about Israel and provides useful reference lists by topic for those inspired to read further.
Israel by
Ch. 1. Should Israel exist? -- Israel has a right to exist / Yehuda Avner -- Israel has no right to exist / David Wearing -- Israel needs to remain a Jewish State / Avi Sagi and Yedidia Stern -- Israel must not remain a Jewish State / Oren Ben-Dor -- Ch. 2. What are key issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? -- Israel rightfully belongs to the Jews / Jonathan Sacks -- Palestine is the native land of the Palestinians / Susan Abulhawa -- Israel is an apartheid state / Nimer Sultany -- Israel is not an apartheid state / Robbie Sabel -- There is no right of return / Richard L. Cravatts -- Israel must implement the right of return / Salman Abu-Sitta -- Ch. 3. Is peace possible between Israel and the Palestinians? -- Peace is possible between Israel and the Palestinians / Hubertus Hoffmann -- Hamas does not want peace with Israel / Charles Krauthammer -- Israel is not ready for peace / Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad -- Peace is likely with a two-state solution / Tzipi Livni -- Peace is unlikely with a two-state solution / Barnard Chazelle -- Jerusalem must remain united under Israeli Sovereignty / Benjamin Netanyahu -- Control over Jerusalem must be shared / Gershon Baskin -- Ch. 4. What should U.S. policy be toward Israel? -- The United States should give aid to Israel / Middle East Quarterly -- The United States should end aid to Israel / Stephanie Westbrook -- The United States must help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict / King Abdullah II of Jordan -- The United States should not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict / Ivan Eland.
Return to Zion by
The history of modern Israel is a story of ambition, violence, and survival. Return to Zion traces how a scattered and stateless people reconstituted themselves in their traditional homeland, only to face threats by those who, during the many years of the dispersion, had come to regard the land as their home. This is a story of the “ingathering of the exiles” from Europe to an outpost on the fringes of the Ottoman Empire, of courage and perseverance, and of reinvention and tragedy. Eric Gartman focuses on two main themes of modern Israel: reconstitution and survival. Even as new settlers built their state they faced constant challenges from hostile neighbors and divided support from foreign governments, as well as being attacked by larger armies no fewer than three times during the first twenty-five years of Israel’s history. Focusing on a land torn by turmoil, Return to Zion is the story of Israel—the fight for independence through the Israeli Independence War in 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the near-collapse of the Israeli Army during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Gartman examines the roles of the leading figures of modern Israel—Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzchak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon—alongside popular perceptions of events as they unfolded in the post–World War II decades. He presents declassified CIA, White House, and U.S. State Department documents that detail America’s involvement in the 1967 and 1973 wars, as well as proof that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity. Return to Zion pulls together the myriad threads of this history from inside and out to create a seamless look into modern Israel’s truest self.
Jewish Slavery in Antiquity by
This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Jewish attitudes towards slavery in Hellenistic and Roman times. Against the traditional opinion that after the Babylonian Exile Jews refrained from employing slaves, Catherine Hezser shows that slavery remained a significant phenomenon of ancient Jewish everyday life and generated a discourse which resembled Graeco-Roman and early Christian views while at the same time preserving specifically Jewish nuances. Hezser examines the impact of domestic slavery on the ancient Jewish household and on family relationships. She discusses the perceived advantages of slaves over other types of labor and evaluates their role within the ancient Jewish economy. The ancient Jewish experience of slavery seems to have been so pervasive that slave images also entered theological discourse. Like their Graeco-Roman and Christian counterparts, ancient Jewish intellectuals did not advocate the abolition of slavery, but they used the biblical tradition and their own judgements to ameliorate the status quo.
Israel and the United States by
This unique volume intensively studies the nature and extent of USIsraeli relations, from 1948 through the Bush and Obama administrations. Leading experts in the field—including Israeli and North American scholars from a variety of political perspectives—contribute original essays on the principal political, religious, ethnic, military, economic, and juridical connections between the United States and Israel. Specific topics covered in this new book include: the pro-Israel lobby in the United States; the US Jewish community and its relations to Israel; evangelical Christians and Israel; military and economic ties between the United States and Israel; the threat of a nuclear Iran for both countries; and the impact of American jurisprudence on Israel. Section introductions from the editor effectively contextualize the issues and provide students with an in-depth understanding of the past, present, and future of the USIsrael relationship.
The Fervent Embrace by
When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the U.S. and Israel continue on as partners in an at times controversial alliance—an alliance, many argue, that is powerfully influenced by the Christian Right. In The Fervent Embrace, Caitlin Carenen chronicles the American Christian relationship with Israel, tracing first mainline Protestant and then evangelical support for Zionism. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, American liberal Protestants argued that America had a moral humanitarian duty to support Israel. Christian anti-Semitism had helped bring about the Holocaust, they declared, and so Christians must help make amends. Moreover, a stable and democratic Israel would no doubt make the Middle East a safer place for future American interests. Carenen argues that it was this mainline Protestant position that laid the foundation for the current evangelical Protestant support for Israel, which is based primarily on theological grounds. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material from the Central Zionist Archives in Israel, this volume tells the full story of the American Christian-Israel relationship, bringing the various “players”—American liberal Protestants, American Evangelicals, American Jews, and Israelis—together into one historical narrative.
Politics and Government in Israel by
This even-handed and thorough text explores Israeli government and politics from both institutional and behavioral perspectives. First tracing the history and development of the state, Gregory S. Mahler then examines the social, religious, economic, and cultural contexts within which Israeli politics takes place. The book explains the operation of political institutions and behavior in Israeli domestic politics, including constitutions and ideology, parliamentary government, the prime minister and the Knesset, political parties and interest groups, the electoral process and voting behavior, and the machinery of government. Mahler considers Israel's foreign policy setting and apparatus, the Palestinian conflict and the question of Jerusalem, and the Middle East peace process overall. This clear and concise text provides an invaluable starting point for all readers needing a cogent introduction to Israel today.
Israel and Iran by
Israel and Iran have come to view each other as direct regional rivals. The two countries are not natural rivals; they have shared geopolitical interests, which led to years of cooperation both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution. But their rivalry has intensified recently, particularly with the rise of fundamentalist leaders in Iran and the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran posing grave strategic and ideological challenges to Israel.
Menachem Begin by
This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Menachem Begin? Based on wide-ranging research among archival documents and on testimonials and interviews with Begin's closest advisers, the book presents a detailed new portrait ofIsrael's founding leader. Among the many topics Avi Shilon holds up to new light are Begin's antagonistic relationship with David Ben-Gurion, his controversial role in the 1982 Lebanon War, his unique leadership style, the changes in his ideology over the years, and the mystery behind the total silence he maintained at the end of his career. Through Begin's remarkable life, the book also recounts the history of the right-wing segment of Israeli society, a story essential to understanding the Israel of today.
Moshe Dayan by
Instantly recognizable with his iconic eye patch, Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) was one of Israel's most charismatic—and controversial—personalities. As a youth he earned the reputation of a fearless warrior, and in later years as a leading military tactician, admired by peers and enemies alike. As chief of staff during the 1956 Sinai Campaign and as minister of defense during the 1967 Six Day War, Dayan led the Israel Defense Forces to stunning military victories. But in the aftermath of the bungled 1973 Yom Kippur War, he shared the blame for operational mistakes and retired from the government. He later proved himself a principled and talented diplomat, playing an integral role in peace negotiations with Egypt. In this memorable biography, Mordechai Bar-On, Dayan's IDF bureau chief, offers an intimate view of Dayan's private life, public career, and political controversies, set against an original analysis of Israel's political environment from pre-Mandate Palestine through the early 1980s. Drawing on a wealth of Israeli archives, accounts by Dayan and members of his circle, and firsthand experiences, Bar-On reveals Dayan as a man unwavering in his devotion to Zionism and the Land of Israel. Moshe Dayan makes a unique contribution to the history of Israel and the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Digital Militarism by
Israel's occupation has been transformed in the social media age. Over the last decade, military rule in the Palestinian territories grew more bloody and entrenched. In the same period, Israelis became some of the world's most active social media users. In Israel today, violent politics are interwoven with global networking practices, protocols, and aesthetics. Israeli soldiers carry smartphones into the field of military operations, sharing mobile uploads in real-time. Official Israeli military spokesmen announce wars on Twitter. And civilians encounter state violence first on their newsfeeds and mobile screens.Across the globe, the ordinary tools of social networking have become indispensable instruments of warfare and violent conflict. This book traces the rise of Israeli digital militarism in this global context--both the reach of social media into Israeli military theaters and the occupation's impact on everyday Israeli social media culture. Today, social media functions as a crucial theater in which the Israeli military occupation is supported and sustained.
The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism by
While Mossad is known as one of the world's most successful terrorist-fighting organizations, the state of Israel has, more than once and on many levels, risked the lives of its agents and soldiers through unwise intelligence-based intervention. The elimination of Palestinian leaders and militants has not decreased the incidence of Palestinian terrorism, for example. In fact, these incidents have become more lethal than ever, and ample evidence suggests that the actions of Israeli intelligence have fueled terrorist activities across the globe. An expert on terror and political extremism, Ami Pedahzur argues that Israel's strict reliance on the elite units of the intelligence community is fundamentally flawed. A unique synthesis of memoir, academic research, and information gathered from print and online sources, Pedahzur's complex study explores this issue through Israel's past encounters with terrorists, specifically hostage rescue missions, the first and second wars in Lebanon, the challenges of the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian terrorist groups, and Hezbollah. He brings a rare transparency to Israel's counterterrorist activities, highlighting their successes and failures and the factors that have contributed to these results. From the foundations of this analysis, Pedahzur ultimately builds a strategy for future confrontation that will be relevant not only to Israel but also to other countries that have adopted Israel's intelligence-based model.
Israel and the European Union by
Israel's relations with the European Union stretch back to the early days of the European Community and the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. From that point onward, Israel and Europe have developed an increasingly strong network of political, economic, scientific, and cultural ties. These relations have, however, consisted of a number of conflicting trends. Indeed, even while the EU has become Israel's most important trading partner, the political relationship has been marked by disappointment, frustration, and, at times, even anger. Israel and the European Union: A Documentary History, by Sharon Pardo and Joel Peters, traces the history of these complex relations by bringing together over two hundred documents in one volume. The documents contained in this book are divided into five time periods: i) 1957–1966, Israel Looks to Europe; ii) 1967–1979, Between War and Peace; iii) 1980–1991, From Venice to Madrid; iv) 1992–2003, From Oslo to Barcelona; and v) 2004–2011, A Renaissance Cut Short?. Each section is preceded by a short essay outlining the major themes of Israeli-European Relations during those years. The authors have not added any commentary to the documents themselves and instead have allowed the documents to speak for themselves. The aim of this book is to offer a public record for future researchers and students of the dynamics of European-Israeli relations—as well as of Europe's relationship with the Middle East—over the past fifty years. Israel and the European Union: A Documentary History is designed to serve as a companion volume to Pardo and Peters' Uneasy Neighbors: Israel and the European Union (Lexington Books, 2010).
Camp David by
In September 1978, William Quandt, a member of the White House National Security Council staff, spent thirteen momentous days at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, where three world leaders were holding secret negotiations. When U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin emerged on September 17, they announced a monumental accomplishment: the first peace agreement between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors. Praised by some for laying the foundations for peace between Egypt and Israel, the accords have also been criticized for failing to achieve a comprehensive settlement, including a resolution of the Palestinian question. But supporters and critics alike recognize the importance of what happened at Camp David, and both groups acknowledge the vital role played by the United States in reaching an agreement. There are few eyewitness accounts of the Camp David negotiations. Of the three leaders present, only Jimmy Carter wrote specifically of the talks in Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982). Neither Sadat nor Begin ever wrote about Camp David. Quandt's book is not only an eyewitness account but a scholar's reconstruction of the event, with insights into the people, politics, and policies. His Camp David has provided a comprehensive and lasting guide to the difficult negotiations surrounding the talks, including the fraught scenario leading up to the meetings at the presidential retreat and the accord that would lead to Sadat and Begin jointly receiving the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Praise for Camp David: Peacemaking and Politics "The most authoritative account of a major historic event, written with scrupulous scholarship by a key behind-the-scenes participant." Zbigniew Brzezinski, Adviser to the President for National Security Affairs, 197781 "An excellent piece of work... will represent a major contribution to the academic literature on American Middle East policy during the Carter administration. No one but Bill Quandt could, in my view, write so knowledgeable, yet so judiciously balanced, an account." Hermann Frederick Eilts, Director, Boston University Center for International Relations, and ambassador to Egypt, 197379 "Quandt writes as a participant in the process and as a thoughtful, proven scholar, an expert on international diplomacy and on the Middle East." Foreign Affairs
Bomb It 2 by
Going where no graffiti doc has gone before. In this follow up to his explosive street art documentary Bomb It, Jon Reiss travels to Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and beyond, exploring local graffiti scenes and speaking to local artists
The Flat by
"Filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger travels to Tel Aviv to clean out the apartment of his recently-deceased German-born Jewish grandmother. ... Goldfinger begins an unsettling journey into his family's history ... and discovers that knowing the truth can be a terrible burden. ... The Flat is a real-life suspense story about how the past can return to haunt the present."
Miral by
After she rescues dozens of children who survived a massacre in Jerusalem in 1948, Palestinian Hind Husseini establishes an orphanage that helps thousands of other children left homeless by violence. But the success of her peace-through-education institution is tested when pupil Miral gets a taste of radical politics in the region's refugee camps.
A Woman Called Golda by
Golda Meir grew up on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She harbored an incredible dream: she wanted to help the Jewish people build a new home. Her arduous journey led to a dusty kibbutz in Palestine and the struggle to establish the nation of Israel. Through hardship, war, and countless sacrifices, Golda survived it all and became Israel's first female prime minister. A stunning reminder that one life can truly make a difference.
Hebrew Classics by
In this book, Dvir Abramovich brings together a batch of timeless classical Hebrew novels, short stories, and poems, and furnishes readers with commentaries and critical readings of each landmark work. The selection of seminal texts include masterpieces from Yehuda Amichai, Haim Gouri, Amos Oz, Dvorah Baron, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Hanoch Bartov, Shulamit Hareven, and Aharon Megged. Each interpretative essay includes a bio-graphical overview of the author whose opus is explored. This collection will prove exceptionally useful for teachers who wish to introduce their students to the treasures of contemporary Israeli fiction and are searching for reflective analyses and searching insights. Guaranteed to ignite discussion and debate, this informative and entertaining volume, written in an accessible and lively style, will appeal to a general and academic audience and will tempt readers to read or re-read these great works.
Israeli Cinema by
A groundbreaking book, Israeli Cinema has shaped new paradigms for critical discussion of ‘national cinema’ and the Zionist masternarrative. Published first in English in 1989, the book provoked a stormy public debate upon its translation into Hebrew. This classic workis here republished with an extensive postscript chapter that reflects on the book’s initial reception, while also pointing to some exciting new trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine, all addressed in relation to shifting intellectual currents, such as diasporic and postcolonial theory. Israeli Cinema explores the cinema as a productive site of national culture, dating back to the early Zionist films about turn-of-the-century Palestine. The text offers a decon-structionist reading of Zionism - a movement emerging simultaneously with the inventionof cinema - viewing the cinema as itself participating in the ‘invention’ of the nation. Unthinking the Eurocentric imaginary of ‘East versus West’, Ella Shohat highlights the paradoxes of an anomalous national/colonial project through a number of salient issues: the ambivalence toward the geographies of both ‘East’ and ‘West’; the Sabra figure as a negation of the ‘Diaspora Jew’; the iconography of the land of Israel as a denial of Palestine; the narrative role of ‘the good Arab’ and the limits of ‘positive image’ analysis; and the oxymoronic place allotted to Arab-Jews/Mizrahim within an orientalist historical and social discourse. The new postscript examines the emergence of richly multiperspectivalcultural practices that transcend earlier dichotomies through a palimpsestic and cross-border approach to Israel/Palestine. It looks at the inscription of the Arab-Jewish memory of Muslim spaces, while also reflecting on the Palestinian narration of the Nakba within a revisionist cinema that actively constructs an audio-visual archive. Shohat transnationalizes the discussion of 'national culture' not only by including Palestinian films produced within Israel but also by addressing diasporic films that treat the contested geography of Israel/Palestine.
The 51 Day War by
On July 8, 2014, Israel launched air strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza, followed by a ground invasion. The ensuing conflict led to 51 days of war that left over 2,000 people dead, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian civilians. During the assault, at least 10,000 homes were destroyed and, according to the United Nations, nearly 300,000 Palestinians were displaced. Max Blumenthal was on the ground during what he argues was an entirely avoidable catastrophe. In this explosive work of reportage, Blumenthal reveals the harrowing conditions and cynical deceptions that led to the ruinous war details that slipped through the cracks of the mainstream media. Here, for the first time, Blumenthal unearths and presents shocking evidence of atrocities he gathered in the rubble of Gaza after much of the Western media had packed up. He radically shifts the discussion around a number of controversial issues, like the use of civilians as human shields by Israeli forces; the arbitrary targeting of Palestinian civilians; and widespread incitement to genocide by Israeli military personnel, political leaders, and state-sponsored clerics. Blumenthal recorded testimonies from scores of Gazan residents, documenting potential war crimes committed by the Israeli armed forces. He also documented details of the battles that took place between Israeli forces and the armed guerrilla factions of the Gaza Strip, explaining their military and political significance with intimate proximity to the subject. And he explains the outcome of the ceasefire agreement that arrived after 51 days of fighting, showing how US and Egyptian-led diplomacy makes another, even more horrifying war almost inevitable. The horrors the world witnessed in Gaza, Blumenthal argues, did not occur in a vacuum. They are reflections of the political trajectory of the state of Israeli society today. Here, Blumenthal demonstrates that while residents of Gaza are indeed victims who suffer immensely, they also engaged in dramatic acts of resistance. The 51 Day War exemplifies the fearless reporting and unflinching style that Blumenthal has become known for.
Anonymous Soldiers by
Draws on newly available documents from the National Archives in Britain to chronicle the historical events and key campaigns that led to the creation of Israel.
Beyond Oslo, the Struggle for Palestine by
With new talks in the Middle East Peace Process about to begin, the shadows of previous negotiations fall heavily across all involved. In this powerful and absorbing testimony, one of leading figures of the Oslo talks, former Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie (‘Abu Ala’) takes us behind closed doors and inside the negotiating rooms of Wye River, Stockholm and Camp David, where the terms of peace and a Palestinian state were sketched out, argued over, and eventually lost. From his poignant handshake with Leah Rabin at the murdered Premier’s funeral to his electrically-charged secret meeting with Ariel Sharon in the King David Hotel to the Machiavellian plotting inside Camp David, Qurie takes us on a gripping tour of the post-Oslo Peace Process as seen from the inside. In the minutes of these dramatic meetings - released here for the first time - larger than life characters emerge: Bill Clinton, Martin Indyk, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. Qurie recounts with candour and insight the rivalries and doubts within the Palestinian side which meant it failed to avert the double catastrophe of Camp David’s failure and President Clinton blaming them for it. This indispensable first-hand account provides a completely new perspective on the history, issues and personalities that will determine the future of the Middle East.
The Green Line by
The territorial partition between the Jewish state of Israel and its Arab neighbors came to be known as the Green Line. In turn, these Green Line boundaries, or armistice lines, came to be viewed by the world community and the combatants themselves as the border.
Israeli Apartheid by
Indispensable for the Palestinian solidarity movement, Israeli Apartheid distills the work of academics and experts into a highly readable introduction. This is the book to read if you want to understand the root of the conflict and how apartheid applies to the situation in Palestine. Ben White begins by succinctly explaining the origins of Zionist theory and colonisation and details the treatment of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948 then proceeds to examine current examples of Israeli apartheid. Packed with absorbing content, the book is rooted in the author's extensive on-the-ground experience in the region. It also includes short testimonies by Palestinians who describe how Israeli apartheid affects their daily lives.
Kingdom of Olives and Ash by
A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of fifty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today's most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence -- an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there -- and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories. Kingdom of Olives and Ash includes contributions from several of today's most esteemed storytellers including: Colum McCann, Jacqueline Woodson, Colm Toibin, Geraldine Brooks, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru, Raja Shehadeh, Mario Vargas Llosa and Assaf Gavron, as well as from editors Chabon and Waldman. Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news, as well as deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.
The Only Language They Understand by
In a myth-busting analysis of the world's most intractable conflict, a star of Middle East reporting argues that only one weapon has yielded progress: confrontation. Scattered over the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea lie the remnants of failed peace proposals, international summits, secret negotiations, UN resolutions and state-building efforts. The conventional story is that these well-meaning attempts at peacemaking were repeatedly thwarted by the use of violence. Through a rich interweaving of reportage, historical narrative and forceful analysis, Nathan Thrall presents a startling counter-history. He shows that Israelis and Palestinians have persistently been marching toward partition, but not through the high politics of diplomacy or the incremental building of a Palestinian state. In fact, negotiation, collaboration and state-building--the prescription of successive American administrations--have paradoxically entrenched the conflict in multiple ways. They have created the illusion that a solution is at hand, lessened Israel's incentives to end its control over the West Bank and Gaza and undermined Palestinian unity. Ultimately, it is those who have embraced confrontation through boycotts, lawsuits, resolutions imposed by outside powers, protests, civil disobedience, and even violence who have brought about the most significant change. Published as Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza reaches its fiftieth year, which is also the centenary of the Balfour Declaration that first promised a Jewish national home in Palestine, The Only Language They Understand advances a bold thesis that shatters ingrained positions of both left and right and provides a new and eye-opening understanding of this most vexed of lands.
Overthrowing Geography by
This landmark book offers a truly integrated perspective for understanding the formation of Jewish and Palestinian Arab identities and relations in Palestine before 1948. Beginning with the late Ottoman period Mark LeVine explores the evolving history and geography of two cities: Jaffa, one of the oldest ports in the world, and Tel Aviv, which was born alongside Jaffa and by 1948 had annexed it as well as its surrounding Arab villages. Drawing from a wealth of untapped primary sources, including Ottoman records, Jaffa Shari'a court documents, town planning records, oral histories, and numerous Zionist and European archival sources, LeVine challenges nationalist historiographies of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, revealing the manifold interactions of the Jewish and Palestinian Arab communities that lived there. At the center of the book is a discussion of how Tel Aviv's self-definition as the epitome of modernity affected its and Jaffa's development and Jaffa's own modern pretenses as well. As he unravels this dynamic, LeVine provides new insights into how popular cultures and public spheres evolved in this intersection of colonial, modern, and urban space. He concludes with a provocative discussion of how these discourses affected the development of today's unified city of Tel Aviv-Yafo and, through it, Israeli and Palestinian identities within in and outside historical Palestine.
Pangs of the Messiah by
Sicker provides a synthesis from a wide range of sources that have not previously been integrated to present an unromanticized recapitulation of the events and personalities that led to the troubled birth of modern Israel. Much historical writing on modern Israel, Sicker asserts, is apologetic and editorially filtered in conformity with a traditional Zionist historiography that tends to obscure as much as it reveals. As a result, the emergence of modern Israel is shrouded in a mythology that has little or no place for inconvenient facts or dissonant voices. Sicker examines the nature of the struggles within the Zionist community over the national idea and its implications, and the evolving interactions of that community with the external political environment. This leads him to assign a far more significant role to the so- called right-wing movements than is usually allotted to them in the traditional left-oriented historiography and a more critical assessment of the Zionist leadership.
He shows that virtually every major problem faced by contemporary Israel, a half-century after it came into existence, was foreshadowed by the events and circumstances that precipitated and conditioned its emergence. Sicker examines the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the left and right extremes of the political spectrum; between the religious community and the secular; and between the Zionists and the anti-Zionists. Today, a half-century later, these same issues are causing an increasing polarization of Israeli society, with uncertain ramifications for the future.
Popular Protest in Palestine by
Popular Protest in Palestine provides an overview and analysis of the role and significance of unarmed civil resistance in the Palestinian national movement. Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby focus on the contemporary popular resistance movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, prefaced by a historical review of the thread of unarmed civil resistance that has run throughout the history of the Palestinian liberation struggle. The authors explore this underemphasized dimension of the Palestinian struggle, arguing that at the present juncture the popular resistance movement, especially in the West Bank, is the most significant form of struggle against the ongoing occupation.
Victory for Us Is to See You Suffer by
Foreign correspondent Philip C. Winslow captures the human aspects of the [Palestinian] conflict--the daily struggles, desperation, and anger of Palestinian farmers and teachers, the hostility of extremist settlers, the complex range of responses from Israeli soldiers, officials, and peace activists, and even the breathtaking beauty of nature in this embattled place. From these unique multiple perspectives Winslow offers an uncensored view of the realities on the ground that have made a just political solution and enduring peace so difficult.
A Wall in Palestine by
The West Bank Barrier is expected to be completed in 2010. Declared illegal by the United Nations International Court of Justice, this network of concrete walls, trenches, and barbed-wire fences could permanently redraw one of the most disputed property lines in the Middle East--the Green Line that separates Israel and the West Bank. To Israel the "security fence" is intended to keep Palestinian terrorists from entering its territory. But to Palestinians the "apartheid wall" that sliced through orchards and houses, and cuts off family members from one another, is a land grab.
In this comprehensive book, Backmann not only addresses the barrier's impact on ordinary citizens, but how it will shape the future of the Middle East. Though it promises security to an Israeli population weary of terrorism, it also is responsible for the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes and farmland; with its Byzantine checkpoint regulations, it has also severely crippled the Palestinian economy; and, most urgent, the barrier often deviates from the Green Line, appropriating thousands of acres of land, effectively redrawing the boundary between the West Bank and Israel.
Backmann interviews Israeli policy makers, politicians, and military personnel, as well as Palestinians living throughout the West Bank, telling the stories not only of the barrier's architects, but also of those who must reckon with it on a day-to-day basis on the ground.
With bold, brilliant, and often impassioned reportage, A Wall in Palestine renders the West Bank Barrier--its purpose, its efficacy, its consequences--as no book before.
Jerusalem Unbound by
Jerusalem's formal political borders reveal neither the dynamics of power in the city nor the underlying factors that make an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians so difficult. The lines delineating Israeli authority are frequently different from those delineating segregated housing or areas of uneven service provision or parallel national electoral districts of competing educational jurisdictions. In particular, the city's large number of holy sites and restricted religious compounds create enclaves that continually threaten to undermine the Israeli state's authority and control over the city. This lack of congruity between political control and the actual spatial organization and everyday use of the city leaves many areas of occupied East Jerusalem in a kind of twilight zone where citizenship, property rights, and the enforcement of the rule of law are ambiguously applied. Michael Dumper plots a history of Jerusalem that examines this intersecting and multileveled matrix and in so doing is able to portray the constraints on Israeli control over the city and the resilience of Palestinian enclaves after forty-five years of Israeli occupation. Adding to this complex mix is the role of numerous external influences -- religious, political, financial, and cultural -- so that the city is also a crucible for broader contestation. While the Palestinians may not return to their previous preeminence in the city, neither will Israel be able to assert a total and irreversible dominance. His conclusion is that the city will not only have to be shared, but that the sharing will be based upon these many borders and the interplay between history, geography, and religion.
