Reviews

Book review: Juan Cole's "Engaging the Muslim World"

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad 19 October 2009


In his timely and insightful new book, Engaging the Muslim World, University of Michigan professor Juan Cole debunks prevailing myths and presents a set of compelling policy prescriptions that aim to encourage dialogue and defuse hostilities. However, while he convincingly addresses the questions of knowledge, he leaves issues of power largely unexamined. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Book review: Palestinian views on suicide operations

Asa Winstanley 13 October 2009


In his new book The Making of a Human Bomb: An Ethnography of Palestinian Resistance, Nasser Abufarha examines the phenomena of Palestinian suicide operations. It is based on extensive fieldwork conducted in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, mostly in and around the northern town of Jenin. A native of the city, Abufarha interviewed families of suicide bombers, observed demonstrations and studied Palestinian cultural products that addressed suicide attacks. Asa Winstanley reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Review: Darwish, between the national and the human

Raymond Deane 5 October 2009


“All beautiful poetry,” wrote the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “is an act of resistance.”. At a time when the US unconditionally backs Israel’s war against the Palestinians, and when everyone agrees that books are on their way out, two new, beautifully produced translated collections of Darwish’s work from independent American publishers are real acts of resistance. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Review: Gannit Ankori's "Palestinian Art"

Maymanah Farhat 2 October 2009


In 2006 Israeli art historian Gannit Ankori published Palestinian Art (Reaktion Books LTD, London), a 200-plus page text that attempts to “emphasize the broad range and richness that characterize Palestinian art, as well as its specific manifestations and individual narratives. Maymanah Farhat writes for The Electronic Intifada, the first in a series reviewing recent surveys of Palestinian art. 

Review: Erasing the borders in "A Map of Home"

Robin Yassin-Kassab 31 August 2009


Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home is a beautifully achieved coming of age novel which follows a clever girl through a war, a domestic battlefield, and repeated forced migrations. For our heroine, these events are aspects of normal everyday life (because everything’s normal when it happens to you), like school, friends, family and shopping. Robin Yassin-Kassab reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Book review: "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide"

Raymond Deane 27 July 2009


In pondering “a different kind of future,” author Ben White in his new book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide stresses that there is no point in “trying to ‘undo’ things that cannot be undone.” He castigates rhetoric about a “two-state solution” or demands that Palestinians should “compromise,” as if the solution could bypass the dissolution of Israeli apartheid. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Book review: Lebanon's political posters as sites of struggle

Hicham Safieddine 6 July 2009


The power of posters, as not merely symbolic weapons but also sites of hegemonic struggle during Lebanon’s civil war, is a central theme of Zeina Maasri’s new book Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War. A mix of text and image, the book is a rich and visually engaging work that tackles a dimension of war long-neglected by Lebanese historians. Hicham Safieddine reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Book review: Resurrecting "America's Defense Line"

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad 1 May 2009


In his new book, America’s Defense Line: the Justice Department’s Battle to Register the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government, tenacious analyst Grant F. Smith focuses on an important aspect of the Israel lobby’s origins that has implications for how it operates today. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

Film review: Kindness as vengeance in "Heart of Jenin"

Maureen Clare Murphy 23 April 2009


After his young son Ahmad was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp in 2005, Ismail Khatib was propositioned by the Israeli doctor treating his son: would Ismail wish that his son Ahmad’s organs be donated to children (in Israel) who needed them? The Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Clare Murphy reviews Heart of Jenin, a documentary about the Khatib family’s experience.