“How can we speak to each other like equals when one of us is holding a gun?”
On October 7th 2023, the militant Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Hundreds of gunmen infiltrated communities across the Gaza Strip, taking over 199 soldiers and civilians as hostages. 1,400 Israelis lost their lives, marking the day as the bloodiest since the country was founded in 1948.
In response, Israel has inflicted a massive blockade on Gaze, starving the area of food, water, and electricity, and the country’s waves of air strikes against the region have already claimed over 2,700 Palestinian lives. With further escalation likely, join us at What We Reading for the best Israel-Palestine books that help provide light and context on the current conflict, as well as the turbulent history shared between both sides.
In Search Of Fatima – Ghada Karmi
Ghada Karmi’s In Search of Fatima is a personal memoir that is as intimate as it is powerful. It recounts Karmi’s own experiences of nostalgia, displacement and loss against some of the most pivotal events that have shaped the Middle East.
In Search of Fatima illuminates the psychological toil losing one’s home and sense of identity brings, but the book is so much more than just a heart-wrenching memoir. It also speaks to the millions of people whose lives have forever been altered by being caught in the crossfires of history, forced to adapt to life in a new country whilst always longing for the one they left behind.
My Promised Land: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Israel – Ari Shavit
To understand what Israel means both historically and for contemporary Jews, Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land is still one of the best resources available. Groundbreaking, ambitious and authoritative, this 2013 release explores a century’s worth of Zionist history.
Shavit gains intimate and rare access to Jews across the country’s political, economic, and social spectrum, retelling the most significant stories through the eyes of the ordinary people who lived through it. The result is one of the best books on Israel for answering the questions around its formation, its present state, and the biggest threats it faces for its survival.
Six Days Of War – Michael B. Oren
Though it only consisted of six days of fighting, the legacy of the 1967 Six-Day War shaped the modern-day Middle East. From the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the harrowing scenes witnessed today, all of the major events that have rocked the region have their roots in this conflict. And so, for one of the best Israel-Palestine books for understanding the intifada as it exists now, Michael B. Oren’s Six Days of War is a must-read.
Blending a novelist’s skill for storytelling with a historian’s eye for detail, this acclaimed bestseller chronicles the entire Six-Day War. From the charismatic political personalities to the dry strategies employed on the battlefield, it is an invaluable resource for explaining how boundaries were drawn and the power balance of the Middle East was forged.
Bibi: The Turbulent Life And Times Of Benjamin Netanyahu – Anshel Pfeffer
At the heart of the current Israel-Palestine conflict is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A titanic figure in Middle Eastern politics, he remains one of the most controversial leaders of his generation and has grown to embody the spirit of the right-wing Zionist Revisionist movement. And in Anshel Pfeffer’s acclaimed biography, Bibi, readers gain access to the first-ever complete character study of a man who has overcome both political and personal defeat to endure as Israel’s most prominent politician.
Bibi is a full collection of Netanyahu’s tumultuous personal life and controversial political career. Blurring the lines between high-tech globalist hopes and ancient phobias, it is impossible to understand Israel as it is today without knowing the man at the centre of it all.
On Palestine – Noam Chomsky And Ilan Pappé
Written in 2015 in the wake of Operation Protective Edge, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé provide one of the most critical assessments of the balance of power in the Middle East. The book is a sequel to the pair’s acclaimed book Gaza in Crisis.
With Chomsky standing as one of the greatest political thinkers in American history and Pappé of Israel’s most prominent activists and historians, it makes for a nuanced and analytical read, documenting not only Palestine’s recent history but also the shifting situation in the region still reverberating to this day.
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The Way To The Spring: Life and Death In Palestine – Ben Ehrenreich
Award-winning journalist Ben Ehrenreich immerses readers into the everyday lives of Palestinians in The Way to the Spring. In a stunning act of bravery for his craft and empathy as a person, this is the conclusion to three years of Ehrenreich living personally amongst those living in the West Bank.
From the smallest villages to the largest urban areas, he documents the most unique means of living, chronically how Palestinians are harassed by the ruling Israeli military. Delivered with clarity and written with grace, it is a powerful and eye-opening read that gives voice to those so often caught in the crossfire, issuing a rallying call that the world can no longer turn away from.
Arabs And Israelis: Conflict And Peacemaking In The Middle East – Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman And Khalil Shikaki
Written by an accomplished team of Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian scholars, Arabs and Israelis is a thoughtful and innovative textbook for understanding the modern Arab-Israeli conflict. Essential reading for students, academics as well and those looking to gain a broader understanding of the present-day crisis, the book chronicles the evolution of the conflict, the ideologies and goals all sides host and the efforts to find a resolution.
Broad in its scope but well-balanced in its execution, it is the perfect guide through modern Middle Eastern politics without all the propaganda that sometimes plagues it.
I Saw Ramallah – Mourid Barghouti
I Saw Ramallah is the Naguib Mahfouz Medal-winning book from poet Mourid Barghouti. Banned from his country following the Six-Day War, Barghouti spent thirty years in exile, never at ease with his surroundings or certain in his position as either a refugee, visitor, citizen or guest.
Finally returning home to the city of his youth following the Israeli occupation, Ramallah is unrecognisable to him. An unparalleled rendering of the human aspects of the Palestinian predicament, I Saw Ramallah contrasts Barghouti’s memories of ‘old’ Palestine with the struggles of forging a ‘new’ Palestine. Masterfully told, it is a powerful exploration of memory, reconciliation and what it means to be deprived of a place that feels like home.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
