hem's review
I had to take this back to the library before I finished it but was deeply appreciative of all it evokes.
veethorn's review
5.0
This book is staggeringly good. Hard to read and impossible to put down, 26 writers capture many facets of the ongoing occupation of Palestine. There's the historical perspective, there are statistics (such as on the usage of water), there are innumerable human stories that make it incredibly real and present. Everyone should read this book. The proceeds benefit Breaking the silence and Youth against settlement, so as many as possible should also buy this book.
thegothiclibrary's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a powerful and difficult read. Before going into it, I was embarrassingly uninformed about Israeli occupation in Palestine, but I knew I wanted to read up on the subject before going to Israel for the first time last month. Reading a few of the essays before my trip definitely helped me to have a more informed experience.
This collection presents a nuanced, personalized, and multi-faceted view of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Each of the twenty-six authors comes at the subject from a different angle. A handful of the authors are Palestinian, one is Israeli, several are members of the Jewish Diaspora, and the rest are third-party observers from countries around the world that do not necessarily have a dog in this fight.
The collection starts strong with the essay "The Dovekeeper" by Geraldine Brooks, in which she follows the story of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem who joins his cousin on a mission to attack their neighboring Jews with kitchen knives. His cousin stabs a 13-year-old Jewish boy and is subsequently shot by Israeli soldiers. The essay asks difficult questions like, how do young children and teens become radicalized? Can children be considered terrorists? How should they be treated if they commit an act of violence?
Other authors come at the conflict from unique perspectives, such as Taiye Selasi, who investigates the taboo topic of Israeli-Palestinian romance in "Love in the Time of Qalandiya," and Porochista Khakpour, who reports on Palestinian hip-hop in "Hip-Hop Is Not Dead."
One perspective I found particularly interesting was that of Irish writer Colm Toibin. In his essay "Imagining Jericho," Colm discusses the sympathy he feels for Israel, born partly from guilt over the fact that Ireland stood by, doing essentially nothing while 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. But Colm can also identify with the Palestinians, relating their situation to Irish Catholics were driven from their land and controlled by the English. His essay goes on to compare his first visit to Israel, during the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, to the Israel-Palestine that he finds in 2016.
One of the most moving, and most hopeful, essays is "Two Stories, So Many Stories" by Colum McCann which highlights two fathers in the Parents Circle for bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, and their hope that they can end the violence by sharing their pain.
This collection presents a nuanced, personalized, and multi-faceted view of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Each of the twenty-six authors comes at the subject from a different angle. A handful of the authors are Palestinian, one is Israeli, several are members of the Jewish Diaspora, and the rest are third-party observers from countries around the world that do not necessarily have a dog in this fight.
The collection starts strong with the essay "The Dovekeeper" by Geraldine Brooks, in which she follows the story of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem who joins his cousin on a mission to attack their neighboring Jews with kitchen knives. His cousin stabs a 13-year-old Jewish boy and is subsequently shot by Israeli soldiers. The essay asks difficult questions like, how do young children and teens become radicalized? Can children be considered terrorists? How should they be treated if they commit an act of violence?
Other authors come at the conflict from unique perspectives, such as Taiye Selasi, who investigates the taboo topic of Israeli-Palestinian romance in "Love in the Time of Qalandiya," and Porochista Khakpour, who reports on Palestinian hip-hop in "Hip-Hop Is Not Dead."
One perspective I found particularly interesting was that of Irish writer Colm Toibin. In his essay "Imagining Jericho," Colm discusses the sympathy he feels for Israel, born partly from guilt over the fact that Ireland stood by, doing essentially nothing while 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. But Colm can also identify with the Palestinians, relating their situation to Irish Catholics were driven from their land and controlled by the English. His essay goes on to compare his first visit to Israel, during the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, to the Israel-Palestine that he finds in 2016.
One of the most moving, and most hopeful, essays is "Two Stories, So Many Stories" by Colum McCann which highlights two fathers in the Parents Circle for bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, and their hope that they can end the violence by sharing their pain.
jordynhaime's review
2.0
I couldn't finish it.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.
alyssarubin's review against another edition
5.0
Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon have compiled a harrowing collection of stories that feel simultaneously painful, damning, and tragically mundane. As someone who is engaged in anti-occupation work, I was shocked by how viscerally the stories affected me, and I felt that I had been desensitized to some of the horrors of the occupation. What is transformative about this body of work is the realization that occupation is as violent physically as it is temporally — the Israeli government's control of land, bodies, narratives, and most strikingly, the control of Palestinian time, is a process that dehumanizes both oppressed and oppressor.
degeneratefromnj's review against another edition
3.0
I think this a book a lot of people need to read, however it did not meet my expectations. I expected there to be more writings from actual Israelis and Palestinians, not mostly work from outsiders. They also had a few people featured who wrote about the exact same topics - this is something that could’ve been filtered out.
catherinefisher55's review against another edition
4.0
I particularly liked Hari Kunzru's essay in this anthology.
stevendedalus's review against another edition
4.0
A mixed bag of essays, mostly from outsiders, from the Palestinian perspective of Israeli occupation.
The most boring ones are the most obviously stage managed, guided by the group Breaking the Silence to specific areas, repeating the same things: too-young Israeli soldiers, a fascination with the minutely detailed oppressions of bureaucracy.
The worst of these is (unsurprisingly) Dave Eggers's overly long piece which is more about him than anything else. Why people keep employing him as a writer is beyond me.
The good ones take novel perspectives, say analyzing the conflict through professional Palestinian soccer players, or Taiye Selassi's beautiful meditation on interfaith love.
Yes, this book has an agenda but its unsensationalized presentation of the daily monotony of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is valuable, if repetitive at times.
I'd say seek out the writing that is from Palestinian authors, best able to relay the everyday nature of their lives, as well as those who bring a freshness and perspective to their writing that breaks up through the usual stories, and you'll be well served.
The most boring ones are the most obviously stage managed, guided by the group Breaking the Silence to specific areas, repeating the same things: too-young Israeli soldiers, a fascination with the minutely detailed oppressions of bureaucracy.
The worst of these is (unsurprisingly) Dave Eggers's overly long piece which is more about him than anything else. Why people keep employing him as a writer is beyond me.
The good ones take novel perspectives, say analyzing the conflict through professional Palestinian soccer players, or Taiye Selassi's beautiful meditation on interfaith love.
Yes, this book has an agenda but its unsensationalized presentation of the daily monotony of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is valuable, if repetitive at times.
I'd say seek out the writing that is from Palestinian authors, best able to relay the everyday nature of their lives, as well as those who bring a freshness and perspective to their writing that breaks up through the usual stories, and you'll be well served.
ironi's review against another edition
2.0
I can't move my wrist without waking up my cat so yeah, I'm totally just going to type out this review now. This is a perfect excuse for not working on my Logic homework.
In any case, Kingdom of Olives and Ash is interesting because you have various authors from different backgrounds, each one writing short parts. In that sense, this book manages to show more diversity of thought than other books I've read about the conflict.
However, I think this book would have been better if there would have been some communication between the authors as some of the stories were very similar. We don't need to be introduced to Yehuda Shaul 4 different times. It seems like the vast majority of the authors here were going into very similar spaces and writing down similar experiences.
Of course, this meant that the stories that broke this mold stood out even more. There's a part of someone who writes about his experiences in Gaza or a story about the organization that connects between Israeli terror victims and Palestinian deaths. However, I can't help but wish there was even more variety. Where are the stories about the Druze and how they feel? When do you talk about the different sects of Palestinians? At what point do you dig deep into what the army actually means and who are these soldiers that keep getting described as children? Where's my story about the people like me, the centerist Israelis who are Zionist and peace-loving?
Since I feel very strongly that certain thoughts aren't worded in this book (or are said in brief sentences), I'd like to add my input. I've split this into topics that repeated themselves throughout the book.
Occupation
As an Israel, I'm hesitant to use the word "occupation" because I've heard the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" which implies that the entirety of Israel is an occupation. Now, not only is this claim incorrect and misleading, it's also fairly antisemitic. So, when I hear people use the word occupation, I have to ask them if they're talking about the West Bank or the entire country. And, more often then not, when it comes to foreigners, some of them don't even know enough to answer this question.
Beyond this, occupation implies that (a) there was a Palestinian country before the occupation and (b) that Israel has a different piece of land, beyond what it's occupying (i.e. Germany occupied Denmark). Neither of these are true and so I feel like the usage of the word "occupation" is a little misleading.
However, I do use the word occupation for the West Bank but I think this occupation is a result of so many other aspects so the entire title of this book strikes me as kind of misleading.
Foreignness in Israel- Palestinian
There's a sense of privilege that comes with being in this region and not being a local. Being able to walk both in Tel Aviv and in the streets of Ramallah is privilege. Waving your EU passport, talking to natives of each area, being able to pretend to be neutral, all of these are things that Israelis and Palestinians can't do and there is something so arrogant about the way a lot of these authors communicate.
Not all of them. Lars Saabye Christensen's part totally restored my faith in humanity. But a lot of these people just don't seem to realize that this is our identity, this is emotional, this is painful, this entire thing isn't just something that you can pop in, feel like you're so influential and enlightened, and then pop out. We don't have that privilege and so, when you voice an opinion, as an outsider, there's room to consider that you are not the one that will pay the price for the implications of it.
Pragmatism
A few weeks ago, I was asked what I think is the biggest question in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It took me a while to answer but I realized that my answer is that there is a clash of narratives. This is a clash of culture, beliefs, world views, and history.
And I will insist that the majority of Palestinians support terror and they will continue to insist that the majority of Israelis support getting rid of all of the Arabs in the region and we will argue and argue and no matter how much we will both practice active listening and empathy, we have solved nothing.
If these authors wish to be helpful, they should jump in and be willing to get their hands dirty. I want someone to ask the hard questions. Someone who's willing to facilitate conversations that don't end with "so the Palestinians are oppressed and the Israelis are the oppressors". Let's dig deeper than that and figure out how we can actually live together, despite our deep narrative clash. Of this very long book, there is one author who does this.
So, I do have more to say but my cat left me and my homework awaits, I will hopefully continue this review later.
It's been a few weeks and it doesn't seem like I am going to finish this review. So, I'll wrap it up by saying that this book didn't have almost any Palestinian or Israeli authors. This book could have been a chance to hear perspectives of people from here and understand their own experiences. That would have been incredible.
And you know, it makes sense that the organizers didn't do that because Breaking the Silence, the organization that helped create this book, is not actually invested in creating changes locally. I think this video
really sums up my feelings about them but it's in Hebrew so I will say that they focus on creating an international buzz around the injustice in the West Bank. It's so important that we will know what's going on in the West Bank but when Breaking the Silence create demonstrations (and write books) that are for people outside of Israel, they're causing antagonism towards them.
As an Israeli, I am more than happy to acknowledge that sometimes soldiers behave against the law and that when that happens, there absolutely needs to be an Israeli response. And that's why the media and our courts exist. If a soldier feels that what they did was immoral, they should speak up and they will get support from the mechanisms that exist. However, Breaking the Silence don't do this, instead they focus on sharing these misdemeanors around the world, without any context and without clarification that they aren't the majority.
In the same vein, this book does the same by introducing these people to a specific shade of the conflict. I mean, we have two descriptions of Jerusalem Day and neither one attempt to engage with anything but a very similar mindset. (And that's just Jerusalem Day, a day where it's obvious that way too many people in this conflict are aggressive and violent.)
To conclude, some stories here were fantastic. However, for the most part, they weren't enough. They didn't attempt to engage with the diversity within this conflict. The fact that this didn't have enough Palestinian and Israeli voices is just a shame.
In any case, Kingdom of Olives and Ash is interesting because you have various authors from different backgrounds, each one writing short parts. In that sense, this book manages to show more diversity of thought than other books I've read about the conflict.
However, I think this book would have been better if there would have been some communication between the authors as some of the stories were very similar. We don't need to be introduced to Yehuda Shaul 4 different times. It seems like the vast majority of the authors here were going into very similar spaces and writing down similar experiences.
Of course, this meant that the stories that broke this mold stood out even more. There's a part of someone who writes about his experiences in Gaza or a story about the organization that connects between Israeli terror victims and Palestinian deaths. However, I can't help but wish there was even more variety. Where are the stories about the Druze and how they feel? When do you talk about the different sects of Palestinians? At what point do you dig deep into what the army actually means and who are these soldiers that keep getting described as children? Where's my story about the people like me, the centerist Israelis who are Zionist and peace-loving?
Since I feel very strongly that certain thoughts aren't worded in this book (or are said in brief sentences), I'd like to add my input. I've split this into topics that repeated themselves throughout the book.
Occupation
As an Israel, I'm hesitant to use the word "occupation" because I've heard the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" which implies that the entirety of Israel is an occupation. Now, not only is this claim incorrect and misleading, it's also fairly antisemitic. So, when I hear people use the word occupation, I have to ask them if they're talking about the West Bank or the entire country. And, more often then not, when it comes to foreigners, some of them don't even know enough to answer this question.
Beyond this, occupation implies that (a) there was a Palestinian country before the occupation and (b) that Israel has a different piece of land, beyond what it's occupying (i.e. Germany occupied Denmark). Neither of these are true and so I feel like the usage of the word "occupation" is a little misleading.
However, I do use the word occupation for the West Bank but I think this occupation is a result of so many other aspects so the entire title of this book strikes me as kind of misleading.
Foreignness in Israel- Palestinian
There's a sense of privilege that comes with being in this region and not being a local. Being able to walk both in Tel Aviv and in the streets of Ramallah is privilege. Waving your EU passport, talking to natives of each area, being able to pretend to be neutral, all of these are things that Israelis and Palestinians can't do and there is something so arrogant about the way a lot of these authors communicate.
Not all of them. Lars Saabye Christensen's part totally restored my faith in humanity. But a lot of these people just don't seem to realize that this is our identity, this is emotional, this is painful, this entire thing isn't just something that you can pop in, feel like you're so influential and enlightened, and then pop out. We don't have that privilege and so, when you voice an opinion, as an outsider, there's room to consider that you are not the one that will pay the price for the implications of it.
Pragmatism
A few weeks ago, I was asked what I think is the biggest question in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It took me a while to answer but I realized that my answer is that there is a clash of narratives. This is a clash of culture, beliefs, world views, and history.
And I will insist that the majority of Palestinians support terror and they will continue to insist that the majority of Israelis support getting rid of all of the Arabs in the region and we will argue and argue and no matter how much we will both practice active listening and empathy, we have solved nothing.
If these authors wish to be helpful, they should jump in and be willing to get their hands dirty. I want someone to ask the hard questions. Someone who's willing to facilitate conversations that don't end with "so the Palestinians are oppressed and the Israelis are the oppressors". Let's dig deeper than that and figure out how we can actually live together, despite our deep narrative clash. Of this very long book, there is one author who does this.
It's been a few weeks and it doesn't seem like I am going to finish this review. So, I'll wrap it up by saying that this book didn't have almost any Palestinian or Israeli authors. This book could have been a chance to hear perspectives of people from here and understand their own experiences. That would have been incredible.
And you know, it makes sense that the organizers didn't do that because Breaking the Silence, the organization that helped create this book, is not actually invested in creating changes locally. I think this video
really sums up my feelings about them but it's in Hebrew so I will say that they focus on creating an international buzz around the injustice in the West Bank. It's so important that we will know what's going on in the West Bank but when Breaking the Silence create demonstrations (and write books) that are for people outside of Israel, they're causing antagonism towards them.
As an Israeli, I am more than happy to acknowledge that sometimes soldiers behave against the law and that when that happens, there absolutely needs to be an Israeli response. And that's why the media and our courts exist. If a soldier feels that what they did was immoral, they should speak up and they will get support from the mechanisms that exist. However, Breaking the Silence don't do this, instead they focus on sharing these misdemeanors around the world, without any context and without clarification that they aren't the majority.
In the same vein, this book does the same by introducing these people to a specific shade of the conflict. I mean, we have two descriptions of Jerusalem Day and neither one attempt to engage with anything but a very similar mindset. (And that's just Jerusalem Day, a day where it's obvious that way too many people in this conflict are aggressive and violent.)
To conclude, some stories here were fantastic. However, for the most part, they weren't enough. They didn't attempt to engage with the diversity within this conflict. The fact that this didn't have enough Palestinian and Israeli voices is just a shame.
jordynhaime's review against another edition
2.0
I couldn't finish it.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.