Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the Six-Day War of 1967 when her family’s land was seized. She is the author of the acclaimed novel Mornings in Jenin, the profits of which partly go to the children’s charity she founded, Playgrounds for Palestine. She chooses five books about Palestine by Palestinian writers. She says what she sees among the young people in Palestine is humbling. ‘Students from Gaza University are telling us about how they’re missing basic necessities but mostly they’re starving intellectually – desperate for books and knowledge. What they’re living under is so inhuman but they have such remarkable spirit.’
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The awardwinning Israeli novelist and playwright positions himself among the Israeli new historians, critical of the way Israeli history has been told. ‘Usually with Israel we tell ourselves that in the 48 War the Palestinians ran away and didn’t want to come back. In some cases the situation was quite different.’ He chooses books on Israel/Palestine.
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The influential blogger and co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy says that today the US backs Israel no matter what it does, even when it is acting in ways that are contrary to US interests and values. The key to understanding this ‘special relationship’ is the operation of various groups in the Israel lobby. It is not good for the US or Israel.
Continue reading…Author and political blogger Robin Yassin-Kassab compares the Palestinians to the Jews in diaspora – as the land disappears under their feet, their identity as a nation paradoxically grows stronger. He chooses five books on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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The deputy-editor of Economist.com says the first intifada in 1987 took the Israelis completely by surprise, because the Israelis had permitted themselves this myth that the Palestinians were actually much better off under Israeli occupation than they had been under Egyptian or Jordanian occupation. Which wasn’t entirely a myth…
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