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Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation
This striking collection of more than 200 full-color infographics is a vivid portrait of Israeli settler colonialism and the Palestinian struggle for freedom.
As a new generation of movement-builders seek to understand Israel’s brutal, illegal occupation of Palestine, Visualizing Impact’s vivid and informative graphics reveal deep truths about the decades-long Palestinian struggle for freedom.
The infographics present more than just colorful, accessible, and thoughtfully arranged, the oppression they document in stark detail dovetails with stories of perseverance and strength. From the history of Zionist settlement to the depopulation of Palestinian villages; from the construction of an apartheid wall to the destruction of olive trees; from hunger strikes to mass protests to boycotts, Visualizing Palestine’s graphics are powerful, comprehensive, and demand our attention.
As a new generation of movement-builders seek to understand Israel’s brutal, illegal occupation of Palestine, Visualizing Impact’s vivid and informative graphics reveal deep truths about the decades-long Palestinian struggle for freedom.
The infographics present more than just colorful, accessible, and thoughtfully arranged, the oppression they document in stark detail dovetails with stories of perseverance and strength. From the history of Zionist settlement to the depopulation of Palestinian villages; from the construction of an apartheid wall to the destruction of olive trees; from hunger strikes to mass protests to boycotts, Visualizing Palestine’s graphics are powerful, comprehensive, and demand our attention.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
392 pages, Hardcover
First published September 3, 2024
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December 10, 2024
The human rights activist organization Visualizing Palestine has spent over a decade harnessing research and data to create accessible and informative infographics for the purpose of educating people and calling for justice and liberation of the colonized Palestinian people. ‘We focus on shifting narratives, recognizing that Palestine has been the subject of a century of colonial narratives designed to obscure, justify, and perpetuate oppression,’ the organization writes in the introduction to Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation, a wonderful full color collection of their works and historical information newly released from Haymarket Books. It is a long chronicle of Palestinian history and struggles organized into helpful categories with bold data explanations and visuals that help promote awareness, knowledge and activism. ‘The anatomy of occupation is laid bare,’ Arundhati Roy states in one of the many infographics from the Writers Stand for Justice movement and such is the case here looking through the wealth of data collected by Visualizing Palestine. This is an important look at the struggles of Palestinian’s under oppressive colonial control that is as informative as it is well formatted.
Visualizing Palestine began in 2012 publishing infographics under the name Hunger Strike in support of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike in an Israeli jail where he was being held without charges or trial. He would spend 6 years of his life in prison without ever being charged of a crime and died in 2023 on the 87th day of his hunger strike. ‘With Khader Adnan’s death, Hunger Strikes became part of the story of what the Palestinian collective body has endured while calling for freedom.’ They emphasize being able to portray a narrative that is often suppressed or politically denied and detail how this occurs, such as listing the names of the 150 journalists killed by Israel from 2000-2023. They are an incredible resource and a productive use of social media and their infographics are useful for academia, protests or simply distribution to raise awareness.
‘To say “settler colonialism” is to name a distinctive phenomenon in which the settler arrives with the intent to stay and supplant native sovereignty—not merely to rule, but to replace through forced assimilation, geographical containment, juridical erasure, and killing.’
—Noura Erakat and John Reynolds, “Understanding Apartheid”
The book is organized by topics, such as Navigating Apartheid with information about the lack of freedoms afforded to Palestinian’s living under Israeli control such as being denied access to ride buses, only 10% of Jerusalem’s budget going towards Palestinian neighborhoods despite being 37% of the population, lack of legal status of citizenship, inequalities in services from cellular service to clean water, and more. There are sections detailing the historical struggles as well and highlighting the vast violence done against Palestinians.
Sections on boycotts show a hopeful side of musicians and other artists rallying to call for change, though sections on global imperialism show a much more dire depiction of the issues.
There is also a rather devastating section offering quotations from from Palestinians living under siege in Gaza to really drive home the horrors being faced.
I learned a lot about how the struggles in the region also affect the world around to show the importance of intersectionality and solidarity in calls for support. Issues such as the Elbit Systems, an Israeli surveillance company that field-tested their equipment on Palestinians, received $82million in contracts to be used at places such as the southern US border. This is an important section as well to see other corporate complicity.
There is also plenty of information on complicity from other countries, especially with the US military industrial complex. There are several infographics that detail Trump’s decision to break from the UN and from US precedent to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv—his daughter and son-in-law who helped broker the deal made $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, much of which was through private business contracts with Israel—as steps towards his proposed “peace plan” that would annex parts of the West Bank to Israel and deny Refugee Right to Return for Palestinian refugees among other issues. This is particularly important as this administration will be assuming control of the US in a month and while the Biden administration continued to perpetuate policies from the previous administration one can only speculate what will be next from a former tv show host with already dark history of imperialist violence and war crimes. And while refusing to divest in business deals makes the few very wealthy, we see how it comes at the costs of Palestinian lives paid for by the US taxpayers.
This book and the infographics are great tools to use in classrooms as well and this certainly has a high educational value. Their website, VisualizingPalestine.org allows you to download the infographics at no cost (donate if you can!) but also has interactive portions such as an interactive map that steps through the history of how the Nakba changed Palestine. There is also an interactive portion called Remember Their Names which provides the names of the 34,344 Palestinians killed in Gaza between 7 Oct 2023 and 31 Aug 2024. Each name appears when you hover over the individual images of people and scrolling down through the visual of small red bodies provides a devastating context of the sheer amount of death and destruction being done to them.
I enjoy having these collected in a book and it is a good reminder why buying directly through a publisher can be helpful since Haymarket Books provides a free ebook version in addition to your purchase of a physical copy.
5/5
Visualizing Palestine began in 2012 publishing infographics under the name Hunger Strike in support of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike in an Israeli jail where he was being held without charges or trial. He would spend 6 years of his life in prison without ever being charged of a crime and died in 2023 on the 87th day of his hunger strike. ‘With Khader Adnan’s death, Hunger Strikes became part of the story of what the Palestinian collective body has endured while calling for freedom.’ They emphasize being able to portray a narrative that is often suppressed or politically denied and detail how this occurs, such as listing the names of the 150 journalists killed by Israel from 2000-2023. They are an incredible resource and a productive use of social media and their infographics are useful for academia, protests or simply distribution to raise awareness.
‘To say “settler colonialism” is to name a distinctive phenomenon in which the settler arrives with the intent to stay and supplant native sovereignty—not merely to rule, but to replace through forced assimilation, geographical containment, juridical erasure, and killing.’
—Noura Erakat and John Reynolds, “Understanding Apartheid”
The book is organized by topics, such as Navigating Apartheid with information about the lack of freedoms afforded to Palestinian’s living under Israeli control such as being denied access to ride buses, only 10% of Jerusalem’s budget going towards Palestinian neighborhoods despite being 37% of the population, lack of legal status of citizenship, inequalities in services from cellular service to clean water, and more. There are sections detailing the historical struggles as well and highlighting the vast violence done against Palestinians.
Sections on boycotts show a hopeful side of musicians and other artists rallying to call for change, though sections on global imperialism show a much more dire depiction of the issues.
There is also a rather devastating section offering quotations from from Palestinians living under siege in Gaza to really drive home the horrors being faced.
‘If I die, remember that I, we, were individuals, humans, we had names, dreams and achievements and our only fault was that we were classified as inferior’
—Belal Albabbour
I learned a lot about how the struggles in the region also affect the world around to show the importance of intersectionality and solidarity in calls for support. Issues such as the Elbit Systems, an Israeli surveillance company that field-tested their equipment on Palestinians, received $82million in contracts to be used at places such as the southern US border. This is an important section as well to see other corporate complicity.
There is also plenty of information on complicity from other countries, especially with the US military industrial complex. There are several infographics that detail Trump’s decision to break from the UN and from US precedent to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv—his daughter and son-in-law who helped broker the deal made $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, much of which was through private business contracts with Israel—as steps towards his proposed “peace plan” that would annex parts of the West Bank to Israel and deny Refugee Right to Return for Palestinian refugees among other issues. This is particularly important as this administration will be assuming control of the US in a month and while the Biden administration continued to perpetuate policies from the previous administration one can only speculate what will be next from a former tv show host with already dark history of imperialist violence and war crimes. And while refusing to divest in business deals makes the few very wealthy, we see how it comes at the costs of Palestinian lives paid for by the US taxpayers.
This book and the infographics are great tools to use in classrooms as well and this certainly has a high educational value. Their website, VisualizingPalestine.org allows you to download the infographics at no cost (donate if you can!) but also has interactive portions such as an interactive map that steps through the history of how the Nakba changed Palestine. There is also an interactive portion called Remember Their Names which provides the names of the 34,344 Palestinians killed in Gaza between 7 Oct 2023 and 31 Aug 2024. Each name appears when you hover over the individual images of people and scrolling down through the visual of small red bodies provides a devastating context of the sheer amount of death and destruction being done to them.
I enjoy having these collected in a book and it is a good reminder why buying directly through a publisher can be helpful since Haymarket Books provides a free ebook version in addition to your purchase of a physical copy.
5/5
October 20, 2024
[5 stars] A compendium of Visualizing Palestine’s infographics and journalism chronicling the impacts of Israeli occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.
I’ve been a following Visualizing Palestine for years, so when the option came to choose this as my Haymarket monthly book club print selection, it was an easy decision. The compiled graphics give a visual narrative to more than seven decades of violence and deprivation to the Palestinian people, their land, and their culture. Whether you follow the project on Instagram or not, the curation of this book provides additional commentary and throughlines to those both new to and familiar with Palestine and Palestinians. My only critique is that the binding of the print edition makes it difficult to see some of the info at the center of each graphic but luckily each Haymarket print purchase includes a free e-book as well. Highly recommended for fans of visual narrative and journalism, community and classroom educators and cohort / group study and learning groups, those who prefer to learn history and injustice through visual media, and anyone who supports or is curious about Palestinian liberation.
Publication Info: Haymarket Books, September 2024
Goodreads Challenge 2024: 37/48
Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: about media / media literacy
CN / TW: descriptions of land theft, murder, incarceration, famine, ecocide, miscarriage, trauma, and a range of other methods of state violence and genocide
I’ve been a following Visualizing Palestine for years, so when the option came to choose this as my Haymarket monthly book club print selection, it was an easy decision. The compiled graphics give a visual narrative to more than seven decades of violence and deprivation to the Palestinian people, their land, and their culture. Whether you follow the project on Instagram or not, the curation of this book provides additional commentary and throughlines to those both new to and familiar with Palestine and Palestinians. My only critique is that the binding of the print edition makes it difficult to see some of the info at the center of each graphic but luckily each Haymarket print purchase includes a free e-book as well. Highly recommended for fans of visual narrative and journalism, community and classroom educators and cohort / group study and learning groups, those who prefer to learn history and injustice through visual media, and anyone who supports or is curious about Palestinian liberation.
Publication Info: Haymarket Books, September 2024
Goodreads Challenge 2024: 37/48
Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: about media / media literacy
CN / TW: descriptions of land theft, murder, incarceration, famine, ecocide, miscarriage, trauma, and a range of other methods of state violence and genocide
January 1, 2025
“In Gaza, there is no ‘post-traumatic’ because the trauma is repetitive and ongoing and continuous.” said, Samah Jabr the Chair of Mental Health Unit, Palestinian Ministry of Health. The first Foreign Minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett clearly wrote, “We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it. But we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it.” In 1948, Ben Gurion wrote, “The Arabs of the Land of Israel have only one function left to them – to run away.” “77% of former Palestinian towns and villages in Israel have never been built over.” Only 23% of former Palestinian villages were built over. “90% of the total fatalities in Israel between 1988-2023 were Palestinian. Hafrada is the Hebrew word for Israeli apartheid, and it means the separation of people by ethnicity. During the 2018 Great March of Return, 42 unarmed Palestinians were killed in Gaza in just one day. That will teach you not to be unarmed in Gaza. Provoking unarmed people until they fight back is the recipe not for peace, but for eternal conflict.
Gaza used to have a thriving export sector of agriculture, garments, and furniture but Israel’s intentional blockade bought Gazan exports to “virtually zero.” Israel personally extracts 94% of all Palestinian resources (p.188) and thus “Israeli restrictions on Palestinian quarries strip the Palestinian economy of $3.4 billion per year.” Just Israel’s constant theft of bromine, potash, and magnesium alone from Palestinian lands costs Palestinians $918 million in lost revenue annually p.263). All this Palestinian de-development is intentional – read Sara Roy’s “The Political Economy of De-Development” book. “Under Israeli Military Order 101, issued in 1967, Palestinian participation in a gathering of more than ten people on an issue ‘that would be construed as political’ requires a permit from the very Israeli military authorities that Palestinians gather to protest. The order effectively constitutes a ban on protest, with violations punishable by a prison sentence of up to ten years.”
Fun Facts: “As Israel began carrying out acts of genocide in October 2023, the US State Department under Joe Biden’s administration issued a memo instructing high-level officials not to use the phrase ‘de-escalation/ceasefire’, ‘end to violence/bloodshed’ and ‘restoring calm’, while White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the demand for a ceasefire ‘disgraceful’ and ‘repugnant’.” I’d call Karine’s blatantly selling out to financers of genocide “disgraceful” and “repugnant”. Between 2000 and 2009, “Over 595,000 tear gas (were) sent to Israel. “From 1946 to 2023, Israel received more than $124 billion in US military funding and missile systems.” “From 2009 to 2013, US organizations masquerading as charities funneled over $220 million to Israeli organizations involved in the expansion of illegal Israel settlements.”
What do Palestinians want? Palestinian equal Rights w/ Jewish citizens, an end to Israel’s occupation, and return of the (6.4 million) Palestinian refugees. This was a great book bringing you up to date graphically with what the Palestinians are up against, and how the settler-colonial state of Israel still takes advantage of them. Picture 357 pages of easy-to-read attractive charts, graphs and other visual aids. This large book certainly fills a niche on the subject of Israel/Palestine.
Gaza used to have a thriving export sector of agriculture, garments, and furniture but Israel’s intentional blockade bought Gazan exports to “virtually zero.” Israel personally extracts 94% of all Palestinian resources (p.188) and thus “Israeli restrictions on Palestinian quarries strip the Palestinian economy of $3.4 billion per year.” Just Israel’s constant theft of bromine, potash, and magnesium alone from Palestinian lands costs Palestinians $918 million in lost revenue annually p.263). All this Palestinian de-development is intentional – read Sara Roy’s “The Political Economy of De-Development” book. “Under Israeli Military Order 101, issued in 1967, Palestinian participation in a gathering of more than ten people on an issue ‘that would be construed as political’ requires a permit from the very Israeli military authorities that Palestinians gather to protest. The order effectively constitutes a ban on protest, with violations punishable by a prison sentence of up to ten years.”
Fun Facts: “As Israel began carrying out acts of genocide in October 2023, the US State Department under Joe Biden’s administration issued a memo instructing high-level officials not to use the phrase ‘de-escalation/ceasefire’, ‘end to violence/bloodshed’ and ‘restoring calm’, while White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the demand for a ceasefire ‘disgraceful’ and ‘repugnant’.” I’d call Karine’s blatantly selling out to financers of genocide “disgraceful” and “repugnant”. Between 2000 and 2009, “Over 595,000 tear gas (were) sent to Israel. “From 1946 to 2023, Israel received more than $124 billion in US military funding and missile systems.” “From 2009 to 2013, US organizations masquerading as charities funneled over $220 million to Israeli organizations involved in the expansion of illegal Israel settlements.”
What do Palestinians want? Palestinian equal Rights w/ Jewish citizens, an end to Israel’s occupation, and return of the (6.4 million) Palestinian refugees. This was a great book bringing you up to date graphically with what the Palestinians are up against, and how the settler-colonial state of Israel still takes advantage of them. Picture 357 pages of easy-to-read attractive charts, graphs and other visual aids. This large book certainly fills a niche on the subject of Israel/Palestine.
March 3, 2025
As someone who has been following the work of Visualizing Palestine for a few years now it's a great experience to see that visualizing Palestine's team published such a relevant, accurate, artistic, and amazing work of solidarity toward the Palestinian cause. Visualizing Palestine has created a timeless reference to anyone who wants to be introduced to Palestine in an intrinsic and educational way. The digital projects referenced at the back of the book made me fall in love again with learning about my culture and my people. I recommend this to anyone who is willing to learn more about their country as a Palestine, anyone hoping to continue to be in solidarity with Palestine and other people of the world. What a tool to decolonize your mind and unlearn disgusting Zionist propaganda. I would give this a million stars if I could.
January 19, 2025
Bringing data to life with infographics! I learned a lot about the history and current circumstances surrounding Palestinians while reading this. The book was put together well, explained throughout.
One critique for the actual physical copy: I wish there was space allotted along the binding so I could see the entire data set on multi page spreads.
One critique for the actual physical copy: I wish there was space allotted along the binding so I could see the entire data set on multi page spreads.
January 7, 2025
Striking visuals & powerful data storytelling. A valuable resource for any ally’s toolkit. 🤝
January 22, 2025
I was looking for something which would help me understand the complexities of Palestine. The book was interesting and mostly from one point of view.
February 25, 2025
I am in awe of all the hard work that went into this stunning book of infographics. This is an absolute must-read to understanding Palestine and what its people have suffered and are still enduring.
November 23, 2025
One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to read. The sheer brutality of the Israeli government on Palestinian people over the span of decades is indefensible. Two years after October 7th and we are led to believe that the most advanced military in the world knew nothing of the planned attacks? When they have sophisticated surveillance technology like Pegasus?
I applaud the entire team of people who worked on this and any person that has dedicated time in their life to documenting something that for many years was swept under the rug or rationalized under the “war on terror”
It’s brave and we need courage above anything else now.
I applaud the entire team of people who worked on this and any person that has dedicated time in their life to documenting something that for many years was swept under the rug or rationalized under the “war on terror”
It’s brave and we need courage above anything else now.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews