ei: Peace Fire: "An explosive story unfolds"

It seems that the public has lost track, not to mention hope.

Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story, edited by Ethan Casey and Paul Hilder, aligns the chronological stories with thoughtful analyses, some of which are passionate, others disinterested and several of which have already been proved wrong. In the process it brings together the intemperate opinions, anger, hatred and confusion of the crisis.

In this book, 107 voices offer individual perspectives on the deepening crisis in Israel-Palestine, thereby providing a ground-level understanding of the intifada from every angle.

This is not a polemic, a drama, or a history, and it does not come from either side. It's a story, told first through experience: what people saw, heard, and felt during 2000-2002.

The editors, Ethan Casey, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the global journalism community BlueEar.com, and Paul Hilder, co-founder of openDemocracy.net, assembled 107 voices to tell the story of two years of Intifada. They bring perspective to bear on the political, military, social, individual and emotional developments of two years of deepening crisis, from the summer of 2000 to the autumn of 2002.

Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story brings together public figures and analysts with vivid street-level diaries from the people in the conflict - Israeli soldiers, peace activists, settlers, Palestinian gunmen, NGO workers, and refugees. "As the individual narrators offer their accounts, an explosive story unfolds."

The volume includes a number of contributions that appeared on Electronic Intifada's Live from Palestine diaries project:

Rafah Camps: On the Border with Egypt by Ben Granby

Bourj al-Barajneh Camp, Lebanon by Andrea Becker

Convoy to Nablus: 'This is our land!' by Andrea Becker

'We heard many explosions' by Majdi al-Malki

Sleepless in Gaza by Hanan Elmasu

Days go by by Hanan Elmasu

Hakam Kanafani's diaries from Ramallah

Toine van Teeffelen's Bethlehem diaries

Islah Jad's diaries from Ramallah

Yosef Grodzinsky's diaries from Tel Aviv

EI's Arjan El Fassed's diaries from Ram.

EI's Ali Abunimah's Notes on a visit to Palestine features in the prologue.

Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story spreads out from personal experiences of tragedy, conflict and hope to touch on the alarming global ripple effects, with contributors ranging from those on the both sides directly affected to expert observers from around the world.

It is a gathering of fragments, possible only in our networked world. "History informs the story told here, but we are telling it from the point of view of the present day," the editors write. Indeed, "for it is the people of today, not the ghosts of yesterday, who decide how, where, and whether the children of tomorrow shall live."

Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story, published by Free Association Books in association with BlueEar.com, is a collective diary of the Israel-Palestine conflict in its greatest crisis for 35 years.

The recent maelstrom in the occupied Palestinian territories has dominated the world's newspapers but left people feeling powerless and uncomprehending. This book shows what is driving the present crisis and whether there's a way out of the abyss. The story begins on the ground.

Buy Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story on Amazon.com now!

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