Books on Palestine

Salam to everyone.

Anyone among us collecting books about Palestine and related issues? Care to share about those books that you have?

As for me, I have several books, among them written by Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi & Edward Said. Yet to finish them, but wish to collect more books on Palestine. Any suggestion?

I do not know if it`s your sort of thing, but I`m very attached to my copy of Rasta Time In Palestine by Benjamin Zephaniah.

It`s a pamphlet detailing a visit made by British-born Rastafarian poet Zephaniah to Palestine. I would think you could pick up a cheap copy fairly readily on the net - maybe try Abe books or E-Bay.

My copy came from a shop in Leicester, UK, Raddle Books - I don`t know if they`re still there.

Other than that, I would have suggested Said but see you`ve already discovered him.

If I can think of any others, I`ll let you know.

I've been intending to read Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other by Zen Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. To quote from the book jacket,

Peace Begins Here is rich with stories from individual Israelis and Palestinians, as well as examples from Thich Nhat Hanh's life, including his experience with non-violent action during the war in Vietnam and its aftermath. Highlights include personal stories from participants in the peace retreats and Thich Nhat Hanh's collected practices for peace, including deep listening, deep relaxation, mindful walking, mindful eating, and loving speech.

On the more academic side, I recently saw this title at work: Colonial Land Policies in Palestine 1917-1936, by Martin Bunton. (Sorry, but LibraryThing completely messes up the Touchstones by turning the book into a different book and the author into a different person.)

I have not read the book, but it may be of interest if you are delving into the historical or colonial aspect of Palestine. I believe the book will be released in May.

> 4

Touchstones won't work on that title/author because no one has that book (or any other by that author) catalogued on LibraryThing.

Aha! I wondered where L.T. got its Touchstone info from---now I know. Merci beaucoup!! :-)

A longish list in no particular order,

The iron cage : the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood by Rashid Khalidi
Dishonest broker : the U.S. role in Israel and Palestine by Naseer Hasan Aruri
Palestine/Israel : Peace or Apartheid by Marwan Bisharah
Israel/Palestine : how to end the War of 1948 by Tanya Reinhart
The truth about Camp David : the untold story about the collapse of the Middle East peace process by Clayton E. Swisher
The new Intifada : resisting Israel's apartheid by Roane Carey
A history of modern Palestine : one land, two peoples by Ilan Pappé
One Palestine, complete : Jews and Arabs under the Mandate by Tom Segev
Memories of revolt : the 1936-1939 rebellion and the Palestinian national past by Ted Swedenburg
The war for Palestine : rewriting the history of 1948 by Eugene L. Rogan
Rediscovering Palestine : merchants and peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 by Beshara Doumani
Comrades and enemies : Arab and Jewish workers in Palestine, 1906-1948 by Zachary Lockman

Has anyone come accross I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti, translated by Ahdaf Soueif, with a foreword by Edward Said ?

Is it worth reading ? I`d be interested to know. We had a copy in our shop, but it sold so quickly I never got a chance to look at it ! Such is life.

Said is excellent. Also check Chomsky, Finkelstein, Ghada Karmi. A good book is The New Intifada, Resisting Israel's Apartheid edited by Roane Carey. Also check http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml which has a lot of material.

I highly recommend "The Lemon Tree" by Sandy Tolan. It really tries to tell both sides of the story through the experiences of a Palestinian family and a Jewish family that both lived in the same house at different times between the 1940s and present. The author does a great job of detailing the political events that transpired to get where we are today, even though at times the events seem slightly oversimplified.

Note: Not using touchstones on this one because it will link to the wrong book.

Lemon Tree - there you go :)

>fleela - thanks! I couldn't get it to work!

On Palestinians in Israel (i.e. those having an Israeli Passport) I have the following 3 (written by an author, a journalist and a teacher, respectively):

In the Land of Israel, by Amos Oz
Sleeping on a Wire, by David Grossman
The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide by Susan Nathan

The first two are reports from all over Israel, based on interviews, the third one describes the life in the arab town of Tamra near Akko (and elsewhere in Israel) through the eyes of a jewish teacher that moved there.This article in The Guardian led to her sitting down and writing the book, according to the preface. It describes the difficulties Arab Israelis face in everyday life just because they are Arabs (housing, education, jobs, land ownership, etc.)

I also have the novel Die Sonnenblume (Abbad al-shams) by Sahar Khalifa, set in the palestinian community of Jerusalem and describing the life of the women. None of her books have been translated into English it seems, Khalifa only gets mentioned in anthologies I found while searching amazon.com.

I would just like to say that I really hope the "Islam" group doesn't turn into the "Palestinian-Israel Issue" group. This will only invite flame wars and things of that nature, in my opinion. It would be more helpful if another group could be started for those interested in this issue.

This is not meant to be a slam to the original poster :)...just voicing my opinion :)

Yes that is true I can go on by, however I personally don't want to belong to a group that is dominated by that topic. I also get tired of the Israeli/Palestine issue being equated with 'Islam'. So will see how it goes but I think there are other groups that this issue would be more appropriate in.

I think that sometimes a group that seems off topic at first can be the better choice to get the results you want. For example, if Ummu had placed her question in a Christian- or Jewish-themed group or any of the political groups, she'd probably had got different results from here (just a guess). For a Muslim take on the issue at hand, this group was a good choice. Although Edward Said is Christian, I believe :-).

I don't really think there is anything wrong with having one thread in the "ISLAM" group that deals in book recs on Palestine...

You might also try the Middle East group.

http://www.librarything.com/groups/themiddleeast

Edited to Add:

I would recommend Palestine by Joe Sacco, which is a graphic novel treatment of a journalist's trip to the Palestinian Territories. He is pretty upfront about his biases and pretty honest about what he experiences/feels there, both pro-Palestine and anti.

I would also recommend The Yellow Wind by David Grossman, which is a journalistic account of some time Grossman, an Israeli writer, spent in the West Bank. He too is upfront and honest about his biases, which (for me at least) only makes his insights more compelling.

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury was lauded by Edward Said and won the Prize of Palestine in 2000. It's a novel set in a makeshift hospital in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut.

Joe Sacco's Palestine is a work of graphic non-fiction which mostly describes life for ordinary Palestinians during first intifada.

I have read about half of Drinking the Sea at Gaza. It was a hard read for me, because the tactics used by both sides are so depressing. I think it did a good job of documenting the conflict there in a relatively unbiased way.

@13

Actually, I think at least one novel by Sahar Khalifeh *has* been translated into English as Wild Thorns... the different transliteration(s) of her name may have been the issue.

Wild Thorns was a fairly dark read, but well worth it in my opinion.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. It has been really helpful to me.

I don't even realise that by putting Palestine book thread in Islam group, it would lead to burning flame on Israel/Palestine issue associated with Islam. I believe we are all mature individuals who can discuss and have discourse with respect towards each other, plus we are outside of war zone.

I put it here only by intuition, and partly because I feel Palestine is near, dear and important issue in Muslim life, especially because one of Muslim's holy place is situated there, the same claim made by Christians and Jewish about several places there.

My aim also is to get to know books on Palestine written from Islamic point of view, but of course other books by Christian or Jewish authors would be most welcomed.

Thanks everybody :)

"My aim also is to get to know books on Palestine written from Islamic point of view"

There are a number of biographies I remember having read, but none of them would fit the description "islamic point of view". It's also been some time that I read most of them, and IMO there has been a swing within the last 20-30 years, from a secular motivated resistance (PLO/Fatah/PFLP), towards the various islamic movements we see making the headlines today. The PLO was not particularly religiously motivated back then, as the organisations that formed it were from different backgrounds (muslim, christian, etc.).
I remember reading books/bios back in the early 80's that had a sound grounding in a socialist world view.

Reading those might also prove interesting historically, but don't ask me for authors and titles now (it was all stuff from the local library, translated into German). I'll try to rummage up some titles from the depths of my mind and Google, though.

Books by Hanan Ashrawi might be worth a look. Ms. Ashrawi is a well known (Christian) Palestinian academic and activist. While not coming at things from an Islamic perspective, of course, her works on Palestinian culture (esp. literature) and politics would probably be of interest.

25 -- good thinking.

I remember reading her book The Other Side of Peace several years ago. As someone who knew very little about the intifada then, I found the book highly readable. You do not have to be an expert on current events and politics to follow along, because her generous use of personal anecdotes and dramatic twists made it easy to keep turning the pages. (This is probably also why her work is pretty widely available in the US.)

23, re "I believe we are all mature individuals who can discuss and have discourse with respect towards each other" -- yes, I hope so. I don't see anything wrong with raising the topic here, and am glad to have seen the many recommendations people made.

On that note -- Barbara W. Tuchman's Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour is near the top of my TBR pile.