This page contains details of books previously listed on the Most Recently Published Books page. Books are listed in alphabetical order of the author. All the books were published in 2011 or later.

MEMOIRS/BIOGRAPHY/ORAL TESTIMONIES

Avigail Abarbanel: Beyond tribal loyalties: Personal stories of Jewish peace activists (2012)
Izzeldin Abuelaish: I shall not hate: A Gaza doctor’s journey on the road to peace and human and dignity (2011)
Hillel Bardin: A Zionist among Palestinians (2012)
Mourid Barghouti: I was born there, I was born here (2011)
Jeremy Ben-Ami: A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for survival of the Jewish nation (2011)
Bidisha: Beyond the Wall: Writng a path through Palestine (2012)
Hanna Braun: Weeds don’t perish here: memoirs of a defiant old woman (2011)
Neil Hertz: Pastoral in Palestine (2013)
Sarah Irving: Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian liberation (2012)
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta: Refusing to be enemies: Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation (2011)
Antony Lerman: The making and unmaking of a Zionist (2012)
Mark Levine & Gershon Shafi (Eds.): Struggle and survival in Palestine/Israel (2012)
John McCarthy: You can’t hide the sun: A journey through Israel and Palestine (2012)
Guy Mannes-Abbott: In Ramallah, Running (2012)
Jacob Nammar: Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian (2012)
Arthur Neslen: In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian (2011)
Ilan Pappe: Out of the frame (2010)
Miko Peled: The General’s son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (2012)
Birzeit People’s Museum: People’s Museum: Birzeit (2012)
Donna Perry: The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Movement: Combatants for Peace (2011)
Edward Platt:The city of Abraham: History, myth and memory: A journey through Hebron (2012)
Brant Rosen: Wrestling in the daylight: A Rabbi’s path to Palestinian solidarity (2012)
Raja Shehadeh: Occupation Diaries (2012)
Neville Teller: One Year in the History of Israel and Palestine (2011)
Mark Thomas: Extreme Rambling (2011)

Avigail Abarbanel: Beyond tribal loyalties: Personal stories of Jewish peace activists (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, £44.99)

Publisher’s description: There is an expectation in Jewish communities around the world that all Jews embrace Zionism and offer unquestioning support for Israel, ‘right or wrong’. Jewish identity and Zionism are commonly and deliberately blurred. Jews who criticise Israel or question Zionism are often excluded, vilified and threatened. If they express sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people, they risk being branded as traitors and accused of ‘supporting the enemies of Israel’. Beyond Tribal Loyalties is a unique collection of twenty-five personal stories of Jewish peace activists from Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States. (…) The stories focus on the complex and intensely personal journey that Jewish activists go through to free themselves from the hold of Zionist ideology and its requirement to support all Israeli policies. (…) In many cases this journey involved a reassessment of personal values, belief systems and identity. Beyond Tribal Loyalties seeks to discover what makes it possible for Jewish peace activists to follow through with this transformative journey and their activist work, despite fanatical and sometimes violent opposition.

Reviews: Countercurrents
Cyrano’s Journal Today

Izzeldin Abuelaish: I shall not hate: A Gaza doctor’s journey on the road to peace and human and dignity (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011, £16.99)

Publisher’s description: Heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is a Palestinian doctor’s inspiring account of his extraordinary life, growing up in poverty but determined to treat his patients in Gaza and Israel regardless of their ethnic origin. (…) Abuelaish is an infertility specialist who lives in Gaza but works in Israel. On the strip of land he calls home (…) the Gaza doctor has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life – as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line, as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. And, most recently, as the father whose three daughters were killed by Israeli shells on 16 January 2009, during Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip. It was his response to this tragedy that made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Izzeldin Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start talking to each other.

Reviews: Guardian
The Globe & Mail

Hillel Bardin: A Zionist among Palestinians (Indiana University Press, 2012, £18.99)

Publisher’s description: A Zionist among Palestinians offers the perspective of an ordinary Israeli citizen who became concerned about the Israeli military’s treatment of Palestinians and was moved to work for peace. Hillel Bardin, a confirmed Zionist, was a reservist in the Israeli army during the first intifada when he met Palestinians arrested by his unit. He learned that they supported peace with Israel and the then-taboo proposal for a two-state solution, and that they understood the intifada as a struggle to achieve these goals. Bardin began to organize dialogues between Arabs and Israelis in West Bank villages, towns, and refugee camps. In 1988, he was jailed for meeting with Palestinians while on active duty in Ramallah. Over the next two decades, he participated in a variety of peace organizations and actions, from arranging for Israelis to visit Palestinian communities and homes, to the joint jogging group “Runners for Peace,” to marches, political organizing, and demonstrations supporting peace, security, and freedom. In this very personal account, Bardin tries to come to grips with the conflict in a way that takes account of both Israeli-Zionist and Palestinian aims.

Reviews: ForeWord Reviews
Publishers Weekly

Mourid Barghouti: I was born there, I was born here (Bloomsbury, 2011, £14.99)

Publisher’s description: In 2000 Mourid Barghouti published I Saw Ramallah, the acclaimed memoir that told of returning in 1996 to his Palestinian home for the first time since exile following the Six-Day War in 1967. I Was Born There, I Was Born Here takes up the story in 1998 when Barghouti returned to the Occupied Territories to introduce his Cairo-born son, Tamim, to his Palestinian family. (…)
Ranging freely back and forth in time between the 1990s and the present day, Barghouti weaves into his account of exile poignant evocations of Palestinian history and daily life – the pleasure of coffee arriving at just the right moment, the challenge of a car journey through the Occupied Territories, the meaning of home and the importance of being able to say, standing in a small village in Palestine, ‘I was born here’, rather than saying from exile, ‘I was born there’.

Reviews: Independent
Economist

Jeremy Ben-Ami: A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for survival of the Jewish nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, £16.99)

Publisher’s description: Many Americans who care about Israel’s future are questioning whether the hard-line, uncritical stances adopted by many traditional pro-Israel advocates really serve the country’s best interests over the long-term. Moderate Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of J Street, the new pro-Israel, pro-peace political movement, punctures many of the myths that have long guided our understanding of the politics of the American Jewish community and have been fundamental to how pro-Israel advocates have pursued their work including: that leaders of established Jewish organizations speak for all Jewish Americans when it comes to Israel; that being pro-Israel means you cannot support creation of a Palestinian state; that American Jews vote for candidates based largely on their support of Israel; that talking peace with your enemies demonstrates weakness; that allying with neoconservatives and evangelical Christians is good for Israel and good for the Jewish community. Ben-Ami, whose grandparents were first-generation Zionists and founders of Tel Aviv, tells the story of his own evolution toward a more moderate viewpoint. He sketches a new direction for both American policy and the conduct of the debate over Israel in the American Jewish community.

Reviews: Washington Post
Jewish Quarterly

Bidisha: Beyond the Wall: Writng a path through Palestine (University of Chicago Press, 2012, paperback, £6.00)

Publisher’s description: Their voices come from Bethlehem and Hebron. You can hear them from Jerusalem to Nazareth, and witness their protests in Gaza and Ramallah. From the refugee camps in the West Bank, you can hear the voices of the Palestinian people call out to demand self-determination and a better quality of life. But outside of Israel and the occupied territories, these individual voices are rarely heard—until now. In Beyond the Wall: Writing a Path through Palestine, internationally renowned feminist critic and writer Bidisha collects the testimonies of an occupied people—ordinary citizens, activists, children—alongside those of international aid workers and foreign visitors for a revelatory look at a population on the margins.

Reviews: none yet available

Hanna Braun: Weeds don’t perish here: memoirs of a defiant old woman (Garnet, 2011, £19.95)

 Publisher’s description: Weeds don’t Perish is the story of Hanna Braun; a passionate, wry, rebellious woman with a zest for life. Her story begins in 1937 when her Jewish family are forced to flee Berlin to escape persecution. Hanna finds herself living in Palestine aged ten, and is swept away by Zionist ideology, joining the Haganah at the behest of her uncle. The childlike innocence with which she enthusiastically adopts this new belief system is replaced by the slow realisation that racist views and political segregation dominate her new homeland. As she witnesses first-hand the Arab revolt against the British mandate, the growth of Jewish settlements encroaching on Palestinian land, and the atrocities of Deir Yassin, Hanna begins to question her allegiances, and ultimately betrays them. Her later years are filled with love and laughter, as Hanna moves to England, becomes a wife and mother, and finds her true calling teaching English and Dance to students in Zimbabwe. But they are also marked by painful experiences, as she encounters more ethnic and racial intolerance wherever she goes, and comes face-to-face with her past, confronting the reality of being a child of war whilst visiting holocaust memorial sites around Europe.

Reviews:  none yet available

Neil Hertz: Pastoral in Palestine (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2013, paperback, £8)

Publisher’s description: For decades, Israel and Palestine have been locked in ongoing conflict over land that each claims as its own. The conflict is often considered a calculated land-grab, but this characterization does little to take into account the myriad motivations that have shaped it in ways that make it seem intractable, from powerful nationalist and theological ideologies to the more practical concerns of the people who live there and just want to carry out their lives without the constant threat of war. In 2011, Neil Hertz lived in Ramallah in Palestine’s occupied West Bank and taught in nearby Jerusalem. With Pastoral in Palestine, he offers an engaging personal take on the conflict. Though the situation has resulted in the erosion of both societies, Hertz could find no one in either Israel or Palestine who expressed much hope for a solution. Instead, they are resigned to find ways to live with the situation. Illustrated throughout with full-color photographs captured by Hertz, Pastoral in Palestine puts a human face to politics in the Middle East.

Reviews: None yet available
 

Sarah Irving: Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian liberation (Pluto Press, 2012, paperback, £12.99)

Publisher’s description: Dubbed ‘the poster girl of Palestinian militancy’, Leila Khaled‘s image flashed across the world after she hijacked a passenger jet in 1969. The picture of a young, determined looking woman with a checkered scarf, clutching an AK-47, was as era-defining as that of Che Guevara. In this intimate profile, based on interviews with Khaled and those who know her, Sarah Irving gives us the life-story behind the image. Key moments of Khaled’s turbulent life are explored, including the dramatic events of the hijackings, her involvement in the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a radical element within the PLO), her opposition to the Oslo peace process and her activism today. Leila Khaled‘s example gives unique insights into the Palestinian struggle through one remarkable life – from the tension between armed and political struggle, to the decline of the secular left and the rise of Hamas, and the role of women in a largely male movement.

Reviews: Middle East Monitor
Sugar Street Review

Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta: Refusing to be enemies: Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation (Ithaca Press, paperback 2011, £19.95)

Publisher’s description: Presents the voices of over 100 practitioners and theorists of nonviolence, the vast majority either Palestinian or Israeli, as they reflect on their own involvement in nonviolent resistance and speak about the nonviolent strategies and tactics employed by Palestinian and Israeli organizations, both separately and in joint initiatives.  From examples of effective nonviolent campaigns to consideration of obstacles encountered by nonviolent organizations and the special challenges of joint struggle, the book explores ways in which a more effective nonviolent movement may be built. In their own words, activists share their hopes and visions for the future and discuss the internal and external changes needed for their organizations, and the nonviolent movement as a whole, to successfully pursue their goal of a just peace in the region.

Reviews: Middle East Policy Council
Friends Journal

Antony Lerman: The making and unmaking of a Zionist (Pluto Press, 2012, £20)
Publisher’s description: Antony Lerman traces his five-decade personal and political journey from idealistic socialist Zionist to controversial critic of Zionism and Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. As head of an influential UK Jewish think tank, he operated at the highest levels of international Jewish political and intellectual life. He recalls his 1960s Zionist activism, two years spent on kibbutz and service in the IDF, followed by the gradual onset of doubts about Israel on returning to England. Assailed for his growing public criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism, he details his ostracism by the Jewish establishment. Through his insider’s critique of Zionism, critical assessment of Jewish politics and analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict Lerman presents a powerful, human rights-based argument about how a just peace can be achieved.

Reviews: Middle East Monitor
Jewish Quarterly

Mark Levine & Gershon Shafir (Eds.): Struggle and survival in Palestine/Israel (University of California Press, 2012, paperback, £24.95)

Publisher’s description: Too often, the study of Israel/Palestine has focused on elite actors and major events. Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel takes advantage of new sources about everyday life and the texture of changes on the ground to put more than two dozen human faces on the past and present of the region. With contributions from a leading cast of scholars across disciplines, the stories here are drawn from a variety of sources, from stories passed down through generations to family archives, interviews, and published memoirs. As these personal narratives are transformed into social biographies, they explore how the protagonists were embedded in but also empowered by their social and historical contexts. This wide-ranging and accessible volume brings a human dimension to a conflict-ridden history, emphasizing human agency, introducing marginal voices alongside more well-known ones, defying “typical” definitions of Israelis and Palestinians, and, ultimately, redefining how we understand both “struggle” and “survival” in a troubled region.

Reviews: none yet available

John McCarthy: You can’t hide the sun: A journey through Israel and Palestine (Bantam Press, 2012, £20)

Publisher’s description: Transported as a young boy by his father’s tales of Palestine, John McCarthy has always been drawn to the mystique of the Middle East. Remarkably, his first-hand experience of its brutal conflicts – he was kidnapped and held hostage in the Lebanon for five years – only strengthened his determination to return and explore its myriad complexities. In the years since his ordeal, McCarthy travelled through Israel and East Jerusalem, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Bedouin encampments of the Negev desert. His intensely moving encounters with the inhabitants of this beautiful but tormented region reveal the continuing tragedy of the Palestinians who remained in Israel after its formation in 1948 – and who still dare to think of it as home. You Can’t Hide the Sun weaves their vivid testimonies with McCarthy’s own experience of living under constant threat. And in doing so it asks: how can humanity endure in the face of unimaginable oppression, and how can any of us thrive without a place of safety?

Reviews: The Telegraph
The Independent

Guy Mannes-Abbott: In Ramallah, Running (Black dog Publishing, 2012, paperback, £19.95)

Publisher’s description: In Ramallah, Running represents Guy Mannes-Abbott’s uniquely personal encounter with Palestine, interweaving short, poetic texts with exploratory essays. International artists and prominent writers have been invited to respond both directly and indirectly to the texts with newly commissioned works. The text consists of 14 parts, which alternate running within the limits of the city and walking out from it to, along, beyond and off limits, discovering how insidiously mobile those limits are under Occupation. With singular style and compelling force, Mannes-Abbott’s texts generate a very special intimacy with a rarely seen or experienced Palestine. Jean Fisher contributes a substantial introductory essay, while the poet and critic Najwan Darwish and novelist Adania Shibli have written further captivating responses. Visual contributions include a project linked to a pair of paintings by Francis Alys, drawings of stoney aridity with ambiguous structures by Paul Noble, and a searingly intimate journal-based piece by Emily Jacir. Jananne al-Ani, Khalil Rabah and Mark Titchner contribute varying photography-based projects focused on the place and its relationship to the body and word. Olaf Nicolai contributes an angular text-based project and Sharif Waked highlights the abysmal ambiguities of the political context.

Reviews: The Electronic Intifada
The National
 

Jacob Nammar: Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian (Olive Branch Press, 2012, paperback, £9.37)

Publisher’s description: When Jacob Nammar was a young boy growing up in Harret al-Nammareh, his family, his friends, and the streets of his West Jerusalem neighborhood were the center of his life. It wasn t long, however,
before his existence was turned upside down when his family was forced out of their home during al-nakba, the catastrophe that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of nearly 750,000 natives and the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and towns. In this heartwarming memoir, Jacob paints a vivid portrait of Palestinian life from his childhood days in pre-1948 Jerusalem, the struggles of the Palestinian community under Israeli rule, to his ultimate decision to leave for America at age 23. Readers will laugh, cry, and be inspired by this charming coming of age story set amid the backdrop of one of the most tragic historical events that engulfed the region.

Reviews: Electronic Intifada
Middle East Online

Arthur Neslen: In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian (University of California Press, 2011, £24.95)

Publisher’s description: Who are the Palestinians? In this compelling book of interviews, Arthur Neslen reaches beyond journalistic clichés to let a wide variety of Palestinians answer the question for themselves. Beginning in the present with Bisan and Abud, two traumatized children from Jenin’s refugee camp, the book’s narrative arcs backwards through the generations to come full circle with two elderly refugees from villages that the children were named after. Along the way, Neslen recounts a history of land, resistance, exile, and trauma that begins to explain Abud’s wish to become a martyr and Bisan’s dream of a Palestine empty of Jews. Senior Fatah and Hamas figures relate key events of the Palestinian experience (…) in their own words. The extraordinary voices of women, children, farmers, fighters, drug dealers, policeman, doctors, and others, spanning the political divide from Salafi Jihadists to Israeli soldiers, bring the Palestinian story to life even as their words sow seeds of hope in the scorched Palestinian earth.

Reviews: Internet Review of Books
ForeWord Reviews

Ilan Pappe: Out of the frame (Pluto Press, 2010, £14.99, paperback)

Publisher’s description: Even before he wrote his bestselling book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, historian Ilan Pappe was a controversial figure in Israel. In Out of the Frame, he gives a full account of his break with mainstream Israeli scholarship and its consequences. Growing up in a conventional Israeli community influenced by the utopian visions of Theodor Herzl, Pappe was barely aware of the Nakbah in his high school years. Here he traces his journey of discovery from the whispers of Palestinian classmates to his realisation that the ‘enemy’s’ narrative of the events of 1948 was correct. After completing his thesis at Oxford University based on recently declassified documents in the early 1980s, he returned to Palestine determined to protect the memory of the Nakbah and struggle for the rectification of its evils. For the first time he gives the details of the formidable opposition he faced in Israel, including death threats fed by the media, denunciations by the Knesset and calls for him to be sacked from his post at Haifa University.

Reviews: The Electronic Intifada
Counterfire

Miko Peled: The General’s son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (Just World Books, 2012, paperback, £13)

Publisher’s description: In 1997, a tragedy struck the family of Israeli-American Miko Peled: His beloved niece Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. That tragedy propelled Peled onto a journey of discovery. It pushed him to re-examine many of the beliefs he had grown up with, as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel’s political-military elite, and transformed him into a courageous and visionary activist in the struggle for human rights and a hopeful, lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Reviews: Middle East Online
Electronic Intifada

Birzeit People’s Museum: People’s Museum: Birzeit (Rimal Publications, 2012, paperback, £16)

Publisher’s description: People’s Museum is a special museum, created by a group of Danish artists together with their Palestinian colleagues, with and for the people in one village, Birzeit, without any specific selection principles, without any other aim than listening to some individuals and their stories, and together with the people in the village remember the history for this specific place. There are three chapters: The Process, The Archive and The Stories. Each chapter contains a rich section of colour photographs, maps and illustrations. Every item in the Peoples Museum collection, given to the museum by the citizens of Birzeit, is pictured. And all the different stories are transcribed into English and Arabic. The idea and realization of People’s Museum could be situated anywhere in the world, but its location in occupied Palestine gives it a special significance. In a country where people cannot travel freely – but where their tales and objects can – the intention is to spread the idea so that knowledge and culture can be shared. Palestinian culture is usually neglected and suppressed by occupation forces with the intention of denying its very existence: since there is no Palestine, there can be no Palestinian culture. In this context, a museum exhibition showcasing historic and everyday Palestinian culture also becomes an act of resistance.

Reviews: The Jordan Times

Donna Perry: The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Movement: Combatants for Peace (Macmillan/Palgrave, 2011, £58)

 Publisher’s description: This book provides the results of a qualitative research study conducted with members of the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement, Combatants for Peace (CFP). CFP is a grass roots organization that was formed in 2005 by Palestinians who were involved in violence on behalf of Palestinian freedom but have now renounced violent means and Israelis who served as combat soldiers in the IDF but now refuse to serve in the occupied territories. In-depth interviews with members of CFP suggest that the decisions to commit to nonviolent action and to join CFP involved a mutually transformative process that influenced understanding and development of both self and Other.

Reviews: none yet available

Edward Platt: The city of Abraham: History, myth and memory: A journey through Hebron (Picador, 2012, £18.99)

Publisher’s description: The City of Abraham is a journey through one of the world’s most divided cities – Hebron, the only place in the West Bank where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side. It begins with a hill called Tel Rumeida, the site of ancient Hebron, where the patriarch Abraham – father of the Jews and the Arabs – was supposed to have lived when he arrived in the Promised Land. Through a mixture of travel writing, reportage and interviews, Platt tells the history of the hill and the city in which it stands, and explores the mythic roots of the struggle to control the land. He meets the Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida, and the messianic settlers who have made their homes in a block of flats that stands on stilts on an excavated corner of the site. He meets the archaeologists who have attempted to reconstruct the history of the hill. He meets the soldiers who serve in Hebron, and the intermediaries who try to keep the peace in the divided city. The City of Abraham explores the ways in which Hebron’s past continues to inform its tumultuous present, and illuminates the lives of the people at the heart of the most intractable conflict in the world.

Reviews: Daily Mail
New Statesman

Brant Rosen: Wrestling in the daylight: A Rabbi’s path to Palestinian solidarity (Just World Book, 2012, paperback, £15)

Publisher’s description: Rabbi Rosen who serves a Jewish Reconstructionist congregation in Evanston, Illinois, launched a blog called Shalom Rav, in which he explored a broad range of social-justice issues. The focus of his writing—and his activism—changed dramatically in December 2008, when Israel launched a wide, 23-day military attack against Gaza, causing him to deeply question his lifelong liberal Zionism. Unlike the biblical Jacob, who wrestled in the dark of night at a crucial turning point in his life, Rabbi Rosen chose to make his struggle public: to wrestle in the daylight. Over the two years that followed, Shalom Rav became a public and always highly readable record of his journey from liberal Zionist to active and visionary Palestinian solidarity activist. Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity is Rosen’s self-curated compilation of these blog posts.

Reviews: Red Pepper
Friends of Sabeel UK

Raja Shehadeh: Occupation Diaries (Profile Books, 2012, paperback, £12.99)

Publisher’s description: It is often the smallest details of daily life that tell us the most. And so it is under occupation in Palestine. What most of us take for granted has to be carefully thought about and planned for: When will the post be allowed to get through? Will there be enough water for the bath tonight? How shall I get rid of the rubbish collecting outside? How much time should I allow for the journey to visit my cousin, going through checkpoints? And big questions too: Is working with left-wing Israelis collaborating or not? What affect will the Arab Spring have on the future of Palestine? What can anyone do to bring about change? Are any of life’s pleasures untouched by politics?

Reviews: The Observer
Middle East Monitor

Neville Teller: One Year in the History of Israel and Palestine (Matador [self published], 2011, £12,99, paperback)

Publisher’s description: One Year in the History of Israel and Palestine is a blow-by-blow account of the events of 2010 as they impacted on the determined effort, led by President Barack Obama, to resolve the Israel-Palestine situation and the wider Middle East conflict. One Year in the History of Israel and Palestine, which starts on 1 January and ends on 31 December 2010, traces the progress of efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, recording the hopes and the setbacks as they occurred. It traces both the depressing cynicism of many about the prospects of success, and the uplifting determination of a few to maintain the process, whatever the setbacks. The story includes events in the region that impacted on the peace process along the way – the Gaza flotilla episode, the ‘Mossad assassination’ in Dubai and its aftermath, the Lebanon border incident, the rocket attacks, the end of the building freeze on the West Bank. The book began life as ‘A Mid-East Journal’, a blog by the author on the seminal events in the Middle East peace process.

Reviews: none yet available

Mark Thomas: Extreme Rambling (Ebury Press, 2011)

Publisher’s description: Good fences make good neighbours, but what about bad ones?’The Israeli barrier is probably the most iconic divider of land since the Berlin Wall. It has been declared illegal under international law and its impact on life in the West Bank has been enormous.Mark Thomas – as only he could – decided the only way to really get to grips with this huge divide was to use the barrier as a route map, to ‘walk the wall’, covering the entire distance with little more in his armoury than Kendal Mint Cake and a box of blister plasters.
In the course of his ramble he was tear-gassed, stoned, sunburned, rained on and hailed on and even lost the wall a couple of times. But thankfully he was also welcomed and looked after by Israelis and Palestinians – from farmers and soldiers to smugglers and zookeepers – and finally earned a unique
insight of the real Middle East in all its entrenched and yet life-affirming glory. And all without hardly ever getting arrested!

Reviews: Electronic Intifada
Jerusalem Quarterly

Be Sociable, Share!

•