Kingdom of olives and ash: Writers confront the occupation

Author: Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman

Language: English

Summary: 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. – Source: Amazon.com

Continue reading “Kingdom of olives and ash: Writers confront the occupation”

claudialandini17 July 201719 June 2017Leave a comment

Asia, English, Middle East, Stories and Experiences

Peaceful resistance: building a Palestinian university under occupation

Author: Gabriel Baramki Language: English Summary: This book tells the remarkable story of Birzeit University, Palestine’s oldest university in the Occupied Territories. Founded against the backdrop of occupation, it is open to all students, irrespective of income. Putting the study of democracy and tolerance at the heart of its curriculum, Birzeit continues to produce idealistic young people who can work to bring about a peaceful future. Gabi … Continue reading Peaceful resistance: building a Palestinian university under occupation

aleexpat20 March 201517 January 2015Leave a comment

Asia, English, Middle East, Stories and Experiences

What It means to be Palestinian: stories of Palestinian peoplehood

Author: Dina Matar

Language: English

Summary: What It Means to be Palestinian is a narrative of narratives, a collection of personal stories, remembered feelings and reconstructed experiences by different Palestinians whose lives were changed and shaped by history. Their stories are told chronologically through particular phases of the Palestinian national struggle, providing a composite autobiography of Palestine as a landscape and as a people. The book begins with the 1936 revolt against British rule in Palestine and ends in 1993, with the Oslo peace agreement that changed the nature and form of the national struggle. It is based on in-depth interviews and conversations with Palestinians, male and female, old and young, rich and poor, religious and secular, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Occupied Territories. Presented as remembered personal narratives and as “social” histories, these conversations provide a deep and intimate account of what it means to be Palestinian in the 21st century.

Continue reading “What It means to be Palestinian: stories of Palestinian peoplehood”

aleexpat13 November 2014Leave a comment

Asia, English, Middle East, Stories and Experiences

Sharon and my mother-in-law: Ramallah diaries

Author: Suad Amiry

Language: English

Summary: Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that architect Suad Amiry kept from 1981 to 2004, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law evokes the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Amiry writes elegance and humor about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone from another town, the absurdity of her dog receiving a Jerusalem identity card when thousands of Palestinians could not, and the trials of having her ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law living in her house during a forty-two-day curfew. With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue and a keen eye for detail, Amiry gives us an original, ironic, and firsthand glimpse into the absurdity — and agony — of life in the Occupied Territories — Source: amazon.com

Continue reading “Sharon and my mother-in-law: Ramallah diaries”