The 1994 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians were hailed as the start of a process that would bring about resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Five years later, Oslo must be judged a failure. For the Arab and Islamic world, Israel remains what it was at the outset of Oslo — a pariah state illegally occupying Arab lands.Gaza-based journalist Graham Usher witnessed many of the pivotal events of the peace process, and his insightful new book gives voice to the people of Palestine. In addition to presenting the views of ordinary individuals on the street, the book includes interviews with many of the leading commentators and figures from Palestinian Hamas and Fatah, Lebanese Hezballah, and Shas (the Sephardic Jews within Israel). Among the key figures interviewed are Azmi Bishara (Arab activist/Israeli citizen running for President), Yossi Beilin (former Israeli Labour Cabinet member) Aryeh Deri (Shas), Marwan Barghouti (Fatah), and Ibrahim Ghoshah (Hamas). The collection also contains longer, analytical pieces that describe the rise of Hamas in the occupied territories; the growing authoritarianism of Yassar Arafat's Palestinian Authority; the politics of Hezballah in Lebanon; and the causes behind the nihilistic violence of the Gamaa Islamiyya in Egypt. Dispatches from Palestine offers the contemporary history of a process that has irreversibly changed the nature of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict — and one whose failure is bound to leave its mark on the region and the world in the future.

Essays by “Jerusalem’s version of Charles Bukowski . . . Just as aware and critical—of his city, his family, Israel, the Arabs, but most of all of himself” (NPR). Sayed Kashua has been praised by the New York Times as “a master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society.” An Arab-Israeli who lived in Jerusalem for most of his life, Kashua started writing with the hope of creating one story that both Palestinians and Israelis could relate to, rather than two that cannot coexist together. He devoted his novels and his satirical weekly column published in Haaretz to telling the Palestinian story and exploring the contradictions of modern Israel, while also capturing the nuances of everyday family life in all its tenderness and chaos. With an intimate tone fueled by deep-seated apprehension and razor-sharp ironic wit, Kashua has been documenting his own life as well as that of society at large: he writes about his children’s upbringing and encounters with racism, about fatherhood and married life, the Jewish-Arab conflict, his professional ambitions, travels around the world as an author, and—more than anything—his love of books and literature. He brings forth a series of brilliant, caustic, wry, and fearless reflections on social and cultural dynamics as experienced by someone who straddles two societies. “One of the most celebrated satirists in Hebrew literature . . . [Kashua] has an acerbic, dry wit and a talent for turning everyday events into apocalyptic scenarios.”—Philadelphia Inquirer “What is most striking in these columns is the universality of what it means to be a father, husband and man.”—Toronto Star

"The Tales of Bismuth" is the sequel to Jamie Kirkpatrick's debut novel, "This Salted Soil." In that novel, Kirkpatrick introduces his readers to Declan Shaw, a young Irish journalist who is based in Tunisia and assigned to cover the Allied North African campaign against Nazi Germany. Upon completion of that journalistic assignment, young Mr. DShaw goes to Palestine to cover events unfolding there. He arrives in the waning days of the British Mandate and begins to understand the complexities of of life in Palestine, complexities of relations between Palestinians and Jewish immigrants, as well as complexities of the heart. Mr. Shaw strives to report on events as a neutral observer, an almost impossible perspective to maintain given the entangled story of two peoples who claim one land.

Israeli journalist Amira Hass chronicles the experiences she had while living in Ramallah.

The main goal of this book is to record as much of the Palestinian refugees' political history as possible. The author is becoming increasingly aware of the ebb and flow of general interest in the refugee issue and the strong possibility of subsuming that chapter in the larger Palestinian story. As the PLO itself moved further and further away from the refugee constituency, it became necessary to examine and define the impact of the refugee issue on the larger Palestinian political picture, for indeed, as it turned out, they were always a tremendous influence on the course of Palestinian and Arab history. Although they lost their leadership positions within the PLO, as the latter became increasingly elitist and bureaucratic, the powerless refugees apparently never lost the means to influence the course of Palestinian history. This book relies heavily on early State Department dispatches, Israeli Foreign Office correspondence, early accounts of the stirrings of a refugee movement in Jordan and declarations, statements and studies of the Badil Research Centre and some right of return groups. Also investigated is much of the known literature to emerge from the secretive Oslo negotiations and the reverberations produced by their deliberations throughout the Palestinian diaspora. The resilience of the refugee question should never be questioned or declared until one of two things happened: either the obliteration or dispersal of concentrated refugee communities became a reality or the Palestinian refugees accepted a resolution of some kind or another.

After Zionism brings together some of the world's leading thinkers on the Middle East question to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and to explore possible forms of a one-state solution. Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Jewish colonisation of Palestinian land. Although deep mistrust exists on both sides of the conflict, growing numbers of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs are working together to forge a different, unified future. Progressive and realist ideas are at last gaining a foothold in the discourse, while those influenced by the colonial era have been discredited or abandoned. Whatever the political solution may be, Palestinian and Israeli lives are intertwined, enmeshed, irrevocably. This daring and timely collection includes essays by Omar Barghouti, Diana Buttu, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss. 'Nothing will change until we are capable of imagining a radically different future. By bringing together many of the clearest and most ethical thinkers about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book gives us the intellectual tools we need to do just that. Courageous and exciting.' Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

A collection of interrelated essays by the Arab-Israeli satirical columnist captures the nuances of everyday family life in modern Jerusalem, detailing his experiences with racism, marriage, parenthood, Jewish-Arab conflicts, professional ambition and world traveling. --Publisher's description.