Books on Palestine/Israel

[Anonymous]

Can you suggest any? Would prefer nonfiction or memoirs. And understand it will be hard to get one book to share both perspectives but would like to better understand the region and the conflict.

[Anonymous]

A long time ago, I liked from Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman. I generally don't disagree with what he's been writing in the NYT this week.

I know it's fiction but I want to start watching Fauda - friends have recommended it to me.

[Anonymous]

This is a very niche book, but Who by Fire chronicles Leonard Cohen's visit to the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Not the best book for someone trying to get a broad overview, but I would recommend it just as a fascinating book.

[Anonymous]

I have a great movie: Omar

it's very good.

[Anonymous]

Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, visited Palestine in the 1850s and wrote about his experience. (Most of the book is about the other countries he went to)

Less than ten dollars on Amazon for hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Innocents-Abroad-Mark-Twain/dp/B000NUGJRA

[Anonymous]

Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh - when I was a young journalist I was asked to write a review of this book and I met the author. I also met the Israeli embassy and asked about the assertions in the book. Their response was "yes, so what?"

[Anonymous]

Norman Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, visited Palestine in the 1850s and wrote about his experience. (Most of the book is about the other countries he went to)

Less than ten dollars on Amazon for hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Innocents-Abroad-Mark-Twain/dp/B000NUGJRA

But she said she wanted to understand the conflicts. Israel wasn't founded until 1948 long after Twain was there, just sayin . . . (but, yeah, a good read)

[Anonymous]

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi

[Anonymous]

I read this in college. A couple decades ago. https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Landscape-Honorable-Mention-Hourani/dp/0520234227

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, visited Palestine in the 1850s and wrote about his experience. (Most of the book is about the other countries he went to)

Less than ten dollars on Amazon for hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Innocents-Abroad-Mark-Twain/dp/B000NUGJRA

True, it's not a good "only" option, but it's really good as historical supplemental reading. The part about Palestine is a few chapters.


But she said she wanted to understand the conflicts. Israel wasn't founded until 1948 long after Twain was there, just sayin . . . (but, yeah, a good read)

[Anonymous]

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz.

[Anonymous]

The podcast Conflicted has a two-part episode on the Yom Kippur war and one episode on the 1968 war. The historical perspective gave me a lot to think about.

[Anonymous]

On Palestine by Noam Chomsky

I Was Born Here, I Was Born There by Mourid Bhargouti

The Holocaust Industry by Norm Finkelstein

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh - when I was a young journalist I was asked to write a review of this book and I met the author. I also met the Israeli embassy and asked about the assertions in the book. Their response was "yes, so what?"

Yeah that’s the thing. Israel knows exactly what it’s done to Palestinians. They do not care. They watch the suffering of Palestinians and absolutely are unmoved and unbothered- they don’t deny the Nakba, the ongoing occupation, none of it- they just refuse to be made to feel anything about it.