This collection of critical essays includes eyewitness accounts from the West Bank and Gaza, discussions of Palenstinian society and politics, and analyses of the role of the United States in the Middle East and Palestine.

The theme is the struggle for Palestinian national liberation from `colonial' rule, of which the uprising since December 1987 is seen as the latest and most powerful phase. Most of the contributors are professionals in the occupied territories (in sociology, economics, political science, public health, etc.), and they write as scholars and firsthand observers as well as supporters of the intifada. There is much interesting material on the respective roles of villagers, urban workers, the merchant class and Palestinian women, as well as on the competing secular and Islamic wings of the nationalist movement. Foreign Affairs An unusually well-informed collection of 19 essays on the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which has been underway since December 1987. The contributors know their subject and in composite they provide a clear, pithy (and sympathetic) picture of the economic, political, and social underpinnings of the uprising. Although the perspective is generally inside looking outward, there are several good chapters on the international aspects of the intifada. . . . Highly recommended for academic libraries. Choice This edited volume presents a historical background of the occupation and its nature and ramifications to Palestinian nationalism. Its coverage also embraces the catalysts for and the revolutionary transformation of the Palestinian uprising and it includes an interim assessment of the achievements and failures of the Intifada. By relying on first-hand original Arabic and Hebrew sources, the book provides a comprehensive survey and analysis of the Palestinian uprising. Intifada's perspective is unique in that many of its contributors have been actual participants in the uprising as well as its professional observers. Part I presents the setting and conditions that gave rise to the uprising, with an analysis of the nature of the occupation, a presentation of the colonial economic policies imposed by the Israelis and the development of the Palestinian political consciousness, and an analysis of the infrastructure of the resistance. Part II looks at the participants of the uprising from several different perspectives: refugee camps, villages, the role of women, the working class, petite bourgeoisie, religion, revolution, and the PLO. Part III examines the Intifada's implications on the Arab world, the United States, and the European community. Part IV examines the impact on the protagonists, Israel and the Palestinians. The conclusion takes a look at prospects for the future. This book should appeal to students and scholars of Middle East/Israeli-Arab relations.

Late Modern Palestine looks at the ways in which the relationship between the subject and representation and the political problematic of postcolonial late modernity is articulated in the context of the Palestinians’ struggle for liberation. Junko-Aikio provides a rich, theoretically and empirically, and in part also visually grounded study of the complex ways in which ordinary Palestinians face, negotiate and resist multiple regimes of power and desire in the context of everyday life in the West Bank and Gaza. The volume examines the early years of the second Palestinian uprising, an intifada, whose political status remains highly disputed. The book examines the ways in which Palestinian politics during the second intifada has been entangled with the broader social and political changes that are associated with postcolonial late modernity. It is argued that the dislocation between modern colonial and late modern/postcolonial regimes of power and subjectivity greatly complicates the map of power and resistance in contemporary Palestine, and also renders articulation of national unity and hegemonic political strategy increasingly unlikely. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of Middle East Studies, Postcolonial Studies, International Relations, Political Sociology, Critical Security Studies, and Political Theory.

Looks at the strategies used to begin negotiated settlements in the first Palestinian Intifada, and the impact that the media has on such affairs.

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

Originally published: Glasgow: Scottish Herald Books, 2006.

“A brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism . . . a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane.” —Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine. “Careful and captivating . . . This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are—and what they could become.” —Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents

Before the intifada began, Joost Hiltermann had already looked at local organizations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and seen there the main elements that would eventually be used to mobilize the Palestinian masses. In the first comprehensive study of these organizations, Hiltermann shows how local organizers provided basic services unavailable under military rule, while recruiting for the cause of Palestinian nationalism.

From its establishment to the present day, Israel has enjoyed a special position in the American roster of international friends. In Fateful Triangle Noam Chomsky explores the character and historical development of this special relationship as well as its impact on the fate of the Palestinian people. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.