Israel/Palestine

[Neville Chamberlain]

I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of what's going on in that part of the world, but still there are some significant gaps in my knowledge regarding the whole malarkey. Does anyone have any recommendations for up-to-date(ish) books that explain, as neutrally as possible (although I expect this is a bit of a tall order!), the history of the ongoing struggles between Israel and Palestine? All the key dates, milestones, backgrounds, personalities, etc.? I guess I'm looking for a definitive explainer - from deep antiquity to the present day.

Thanks, oh Cabbers!

[studpuppet]

This was set text on quite a few politics courses back when I was a bookseller twenty years ago - I imagine it's regularly updated, so maybe a good place to start?

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-palestinian-israeli-conflict-a-very-short-introduction-9780199603930?cc=gb&lang=en&

In searching for that I noticed that OUP also publish this one - more in-depth, but with a price tag to match:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-9780190625320?cc=gb&lang=en&

[Neville Chamberlain]

Thanks, studpuppet - both interesting reads, by the looks of it. I think I might stump for the OUP publication. It seems nice and comprehensive and gets good reviews.

I've read so many compelling personal accounts from Palestinians and Israelis over the years, but they always make me realise just how many gaps and holes there are in my knowledge of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Thanks again!

[El Unicornio, mang]

If you're OK with graphic novels, this is a really good one (from the mid 90s)

[Neville Chamberlain]

I'd never really considered graphic novels, but why not! Thanks, El Unicorno, mang.

[studpuppet]

Yup - both Palestine and Footnotes In Gaza are both worth reading (they aren't exhaustive, covers-all-bases stories, but they are a type of journalism that you don't find with the written word).

[Retinend]

If you're OK with graphic novels, this is a really good one (from the mid 90s)

I've also just order this! Thanks, EUM.

[jobotic]

So have I! (from the library)

[Mister Six]

Yeah, Sacco's the first one that came to my mind. Because I'm an idiot who hasn't read enough prose books.

There's also this graphic novel, which I haven't read but I think is more of a centrist "well it's all very complicated" thing rather than taking specific sides, and is mostly one woman's memories of visiting Israel rather than Sacco's more focused journalism...

[Retinend]

I'd recommend this one, which I read as a 16 year old and still managed to understand pretty well.



He's Scottish and seemed totally neutral to me at the time I read it. I no longer own it.

Available for cheap.

[selectivememory]

seemed totally neutral to me at the time I read it.

Hmm...

"Israel, lest we forget, is the only country in the Middle East that any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live in. Yet there exists quite striking bias against the state of Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent, accessible book is a must-read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice."
Julie Burchill

"The received wisdom is that the terrorism to which Israel is regularly subject is a product of its own behaviour towards the Palestinians. Neill Lochery's superb book is a useful antidote to this grotesque distortion."
Stephen Pollard, Mail on Sunday

"A necessary book. So much discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict fails to rise even to the level of being wrong. This scrupulous, well-written and eminently sane book will go far to set things right."
Bret Stephens, Editor-in-Chief, Jerusalem Post

http://www.neill-lochery.co.uk/publications-why-blame-israel-the-facts-behind-the-headlines-2005-.html

[bakabaka]

This was set text on quite a few politics courses back when I was a bookseller twenty years ago - I imagine it's regularly updated, so maybe a good place to start?

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-palestinian-israeli-conflict-a-very-short-introduction-9780199603930?cc=gb&lang=en&

In searching for that I noticed that OUP also publish this one - more in-depth, but with a price tag to match:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-9780190625320?cc=gb&lang=en&

I can't get that second link to work, but is it this book? https://b-ok.cc/book/3321442/a6b623

There are quite a few on z-library[nb]a free, legally grey area library with everything from this to comics[/nb], but I'm not sure how good any of them are: https://b-ok.cc/s/israeli%20palestinian%20conflict

[Retinend]

Hmm...

http://www.neill-lochery.co.uk/publications-why-blame-israel-the-facts-behind-the-headlines-2005-.html

Huh I never could tell. I was young at the time. I felt it was balanced but perhaps it does have a bias.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The Mark Thomas book is good



In the sense of it being an entertaining story and some good personal accounts from both Palestinians and Israeli's, it's not a good low-level analysis of the politics in the region or anything, like.

[studpuppet]

I can't get that second link to work, but is it this book? https://b-ok.cc/book/3321442/a6b623

There are quite a few on z-library[nb]a free, legally grey area library with everything from this to comics[/nb], but I'm not sure how good any of them are: https://b-ok.cc/s/israeli%20palestinian%20conflict

That's the first book. The second book is this one: https://b-ok.cc/book/5373064/7ac2c3[nb]I work in publishing by the way - just steal the food from my children's mouths why don't you?![/nb]

[Old Nehamkin]

I would generally be wary of any book that professes a "neutral" or "balanced" perspective while adopting the manufactured media framing of an "Israel/Palestine Conflict" as conceived as some intractable tit-for-tat exchange between two equally matched parties rather than the calculated, long-term campaign of imperialist settler-colonialism that Israel and its backers are engaged in. I would personally recommend The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. It's far from "neutral", but then I don't see how any worthwhile writing on the subject of genocide really can be.

[Schmo Diddley]

I would generally be wary of any book that professes a "neutral" or "balanced" perspective while adopting the manufactured media framing of an "Israel/Palestine Conflict" as conceived as some intractable tit-for-tat exchange between two equally matched parties rather than the calculated, long-term campaign of imperialist settler-colonialism that Israel and its backers are engaged in. I would personally recommend The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. It's far from "neutral", but then I don't see how any worthwhile writing on the subject of genocide really can be.

Just bought it, twenty pages in and really enjoying it.

[Retinend]

I would generally be wary of any book that professes a "neutral" or "balanced" perspective while adopting the manufactured media framing of an "Israel/Palestine Conflict" as conceived as some intractable tit-for-tat exchange between two equally matched parties rather than the calculated, long-term campaign of imperialist settler-colonialism that Israel and its backers are engaged in. I would personally recommend The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. It's far from "neutral", but then I don't see how any worthwhile writing on the subject of genocide really can be.

Maybe my book suggestion wasn't a good one, but I wouldn't throw the baby (of neutrality) out with the bathwater like that. Neutrality on this issue is really important because no murder of innocent people is acceptable. And that's not even a platitude, in this conflict.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why you're calling it a "genocide" and, though I'd personally avoid using that emotive word in the frame of this conflict, I would probably agree with your motivations for calling it that.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Appreciate everyone's suggestions! Just for clarity, when I said neutral, I meant more in the sense of a glorified Wikipedia article about all the key moments in the history of the region in order to explain the situation today, one free of 'opinions', rather than any sort of 'neutral take' on the reasons and motivations behind the conflict. My sympathies are firmly with Palestine, but I've read plenty of personal accounts of Palestinians and Israelis over the years but often found my understanding of the deep history of the region somewhat wanting. Thanks for the suggesting that Rashid Khalidi book, Old Nehamkin - looks interesting.

[Famous Mortimer]

Maybe my book suggestion wasn't a good one, but I wouldn't throw the baby (of neutrality) out with the bathwater like that. Neutrality on this issue is really important because no murder of innocent people is acceptable. And that's not even a platitude, in this conflict.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why you're calling it a "genocide" and, though I'd personally avoid using that emotive word in the frame of this conflict, I would probably agree with your motivations for calling it that.

Emotive words are often useful for emotive subjects, and the idea of neutrality is not so handy when one side is currently murdering the other side in their thousands and stealing their land.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've just started "The Hundred Years' War On Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi, who's written a ton of more scholarly books on Palestine but, given his family have long roots there, he's done a more personal "narrative history" on a series of crucial moments in the last hundred years. 

[KennyMonster]

A few of the writers I like mention Illan Pappe.

I've read a small book where he and Chomsky have discussions and are both interviewed on the subject but that is it.

Has anyone else got a view on Pappe's books?