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Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
How the "peace process" has made life impossible for ordinary Palestinians. This book is not about suicide bombers. Tending one's fields, visiting a relative, going to the for ordinary Palestinians, such everyday activities require negotiating permits and passes, curfews and closures, "sterile roads" and "seam zones"―bureaucratic hurdles ultimately as deadly as outright military incursion.Not since the late Edward Said has there been such an articulate Arab voice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In devastating detail, Saree Makdisi reveals how the "peace process" institutionalized Palestinians' loss of control over their inner and outer lives. He shows how Israel's massive concrete walls going up around Gaza and the West Bank isolate communities from their lands, their livelihoods, and each other. Through eye-opening statistics and day-by-day reports, we learn how Palestinians have seen their hopes for freedom and statehood culminate in the creation of abject "territories" comparable to open-air prisons.Anyone surprised at Arab anger or the election of Hamas must read this book.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2008
40 people are currently reading
1336 people want to read
About the author
Saree Makdisi
17 books27 followersSaree Makdisi is an American literary critic of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, specializing in eighteenth and nineteenth century British literature. He also writes on contemporary Arab politics and culture. Makdisi currently holds the title of Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA .
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 9, 2012
In July of last year I went to Palestine as a solidarity volunteer. In my time there, I saw early morning raids by Occupation soldiers, got pushed around and gassed by those same soldiers are demonstrations, saw friends attacked and arrested, and saw the blight of settlements and the Wall firsthand. That said, this book was still a difficult read. Not because it was poorly written, but because it presents such a sweeping summary of the long-running oppression of the Palestinians.
Makdisi presents the struggle of the Palestinian people in an accessible 5 part format: looking at the West Bank, Gaza, Palestinians within Israel, a history of the occupation of Palestine by Zionists, and a discussion of the situation within the Occupied Territories in 2007 and possible ways forward. All of this is delivered smoothly and concisely, through the stories of Palestinians, anecdotes, and facts and observations from the UN and Israeli peace organizations among others. Most of the book is focused on the mundane nature of the Occupation that rarely appears in the press, such as the arbitrary and excruciating nature of checkpoints, the calculated and heartbreaking methods Israel uses to deny family unification to Palestinians.
In the past, I've struggled to think of books to recommend to people unfamiliar with the Occupation. This book has solved that problem. It is well-written, concentrates on powerful examples to illustrate larger points and follows them with facts from outside observers, and has an exhaustive and readable section for sources and further reading. And for those already familiar with the conflict, you may just take away a thing or two yourself!
Makdisi presents the struggle of the Palestinian people in an accessible 5 part format: looking at the West Bank, Gaza, Palestinians within Israel, a history of the occupation of Palestine by Zionists, and a discussion of the situation within the Occupied Territories in 2007 and possible ways forward. All of this is delivered smoothly and concisely, through the stories of Palestinians, anecdotes, and facts and observations from the UN and Israeli peace organizations among others. Most of the book is focused on the mundane nature of the Occupation that rarely appears in the press, such as the arbitrary and excruciating nature of checkpoints, the calculated and heartbreaking methods Israel uses to deny family unification to Palestinians.
In the past, I've struggled to think of books to recommend to people unfamiliar with the Occupation. This book has solved that problem. It is well-written, concentrates on powerful examples to illustrate larger points and follows them with facts from outside observers, and has an exhaustive and readable section for sources and further reading. And for those already familiar with the conflict, you may just take away a thing or two yourself!
August 13, 2008
This was probably the most intense book I've ever read on the Occupation, as well as the most meticulous and methodical (although I'm about to read Chomsky's work on the subject, so that may change). I couldn't read more than a page or two at a time. It was just too intense. I would read a page and then get up and pace around the room and digest the information before sitting down and reading a few more pages. It should be required reading for any course dealing with the topic of Israel and Palestine.
May 19, 2008
I've stayed up until 3 am for the last two nights reading this book and i imagine i will again tonight to finish it. it takes up where amira hass' "drinknig from the sea of gaza" left off, but looks at all of occupied-palestine instead of just Gaza. It is about how bureaucracy kills individuals and communities and the banaltity of laws and their ferocious power, and about the innability of the UN and human rights groups to do anything but record and amerliorate the actual evils of zionist-settler actions and policies.
This books makes me angry and frustrated and dejected, but makes me also want to fight and reinforces that this is a colonial struggle, that laws are what are killing palestinians and that we need to look towards struggle.
He's also an English scholar and by coincidence I just read an article he wrote on Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley", a book I am currently writing on. I wrote him a long email telling him all this. The magic of coincidence.
This books makes me angry and frustrated and dejected, but makes me also want to fight and reinforces that this is a colonial struggle, that laws are what are killing palestinians and that we need to look towards struggle.
He's also an English scholar and by coincidence I just read an article he wrote on Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley", a book I am currently writing on. I wrote him a long email telling him all this. The magic of coincidence.
May 26, 2024
“The surest way for Israel to ensure its own security would be for it to adhere to international demands that it end the occupation.” “According to the Geneva Convention, an occupying power has the obligation to ensure the well-being of the occupied people, their medical care, freedom of movement, access to food, water, work, and educational institutions: obligations that Israel has not fulfilled.” The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not about terrorism, it is about land and ensuring a Jewish majority on that land settler-colonial style by forcibly removing all non-Jews. So sad when you want free land but someone is already happily living on it; how dare they? Zionist Jabotinsky expressed this when he said, “every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement.” Could Himmler have said it any better?
Israel built its illegal wall to restrict movement of 1,000,000+ Palestinians. “Whole towns have been cut off from some of their richest and most productive land, devasting the local farming-based economy.” The joy of Israeli bypass roads is that they cannot be crossed and even approached by pesty Palestinians daring to want what was stolen from them – access to their own lands. Cutting off Palestinians from other Palestinians or their livelihood is the name of the game. “For Jewish settlers, roads connect; for Palestinians, they separate.” Palestinians can’t drive beyond their towns or cities w/o two permits – one for the driver and one for the car. Those permits cost $450 a year, intentionally more than the average Palestinian can afford (48% of Palestinians live in poverty while only 15% of Jews in Israel live in poverty), AND usually involves them becoming an informant or collaborator with their occupiers. What’s not to like? No Palestinian needing a service or a permit since 1967 hasn’t also been asked by the Israeli military (GSS) to betray his people in return (p.38). Once you get that permit, you still have time-consuming gates, roadblocks and checkpoints all to make your day a little slice of heaven. And don’t forget those “flying” checkpoints - and the fact that Israeli checkpoints intentionally “open and close at random intervals.” “Stories of the beating and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli army checkpoints are very common (p.48).” Zionist empathy: between 2000 and 2004, thirty-six babies (and a whole bunch of Palestinians needing medical help) died because of checkpoints keeping mothers from getting to health services in time (p.50). A soldier on page 52 says, “The idea is to make life hard for the Palestinian citizenry, there is no operational objective” to the checkpoints.
All this makes shipping costs for Palestinians insanely high, and for Zionists there’s the fun of making Palestinian produce wilt and rot. To make it more fun is the “back-to-back” system where Israelis force Palestinians to stop their vehicle get searched, unload their entire vehicle and load all their shit onto a second vehicle on the other side of the barrier. Moving stuff is hard enough w/o having to lift it all twice in the heat.
Israel takes control over 9 million Palestinian olive trees in the occupied territories and then, to show its empathy and love of nature, burns, uproots or bulldozes 465,945 of them. The UN’s John Dugard reminds us that East Jerusalem is not part of Israel but is occupied territory, subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention – not sovereign territory. Israel’s “notorious” Absentee Property Law allows Palestinian absentees to be stripped of their land even if they are “absent” only because a wall has been built between them and their land. According to Addameer, “650,000 Palestinians have been held prisoner by Israel since 1967: about 40 percent of today’s entire male population.” There are 135 religious sites in Israel granted protective status and funding – not surprisingly, all 135 are Jewish.
Building a Better Future: Israeli construction in the occupied territories is state-funded for settlers while Palestinians must fund all construction themselves. In addition, from 2000 to 2004, 2,540 Palestinian homes in Gaza were demolished by the state making 23,900 homeless. Israel has demolished 18,000 Palestinians homes and held 650,000 Palestinian prisoners since 1967. Israel destroyed Gaza’s only airport in 2001 and Gazans aren’t allowed to use the Tel Aviv airport. Blacks in the US South had separate drinking fountains, Palestinians rely on less: tainted water that doesn’t always run that is miles from the nearest Israeli drinking fountain. Deal with it. Israel has 25 art schools and NONE are available to Palestinians. NYC has a population density of 25,000 per square kilometer, Gaza’s density is three times higher than that.
Thomas Jefferson writes “all men are created equal.” Zionism says, wait, what’s this ALL men equality crap? You are including Palestinians (and even Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews)? That ain’t going to fly here in Israel, nor is your separation of church and state shit, and your “regardless of race or creed” nonsense, if you want fairness go to Judaism. Zionism is ONLY for the “chosen” - provided you both look Ashkenazi and worship illegal unchecked settler-colonialism. And to hell with your US ability of ALL people to buy and sell real estate without discrimination. That also won’t fly in Israel. This is why Israel deliberately has no constitution like the US does which guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination. Israel is NOT a secular state.
Before October 7th, Gazan construction workers couldn’t import building materials, agricultural workers couldn’t export their crops, factory workers couldn’t import raw materials for manufacture, Israel has banned fishing for Gazans, and shopkeepers were out of work because most Gazans are too poor to shop. Before October 7th, “more than one half of the families in Gaza now eat only one meager meal a day.” This is ALL done to punish Gazans “without ringing alarm bells in the West” says UN’s John Dugard. “Because Palestinians have no air defenses, Israeli aircraft can fly as low as they like with total impunity.” B’Tselem reported that in 2006, the Israeli air force was causing three of four sonic booms a night to keep Gazan residents from sleeping and to keep up “fear and anxiety.” “The use of sonic booms flagrantly breaches a number of provisions of international law” as it is intentionally directed against civilians. And don’t forget Israel’s bombing Gaza’s power plant before 10/7 so no one could refrigerate food or bake bread and were instead forced to live without fans in darkness. One Israeli soldier said he was told “if there isn’t mayhem, we’ll create it to demonstrate that we are everywhere.” Could the SS have said it better? Israel has a long history of using Palestinians as human shields – confirm it yourself on the web. There’s also proof of Israeli bulldozer operators intentionally bringing down Palestinian homes knowing that people were still inside (p.184).
Arbitrary Curfews: “Israelis imposed 379 hours of curfew on Nablus in 2005, 342 hours in 2006, and 224 hours in only the first half of 2007.” “In 2002, Israel imposed 156 days of 24-hour curfew on Bethlehem.” That will teach them to not live in the town of Christ’s birth! I can understand imposing curfews on one’s crack-addict daughter, but why on an entire population that’s already occupied? For those that still care about international law, “curfews are to be used only for the short-term PROTECTION of civilians during military operations, not as a form of collective punishment.”
“The Israeli army’s open-fire policy officially permits the use of live ammunition against Palestinians, including civilians, even when soldiers’ lives are not in any danger.” A 2003 USAID study found that 90% of Palestinian children were living in fear – if only those children had Israel’s PR, Americans might begin to care that their tax dollars finance this. Israel’s Wall is illegal and Israel banned all construction near the wall “in order for snipers and machine gunners to maintain a clear line of sight from the tower, nothing is allowed to grow there”, not even hope. Colonel Shaul Arieli of the Israeli army reserves says it is all to make Palestinians want to leave for good “for demographic reasons.” How dare those darned Palestinians get in the way of an ethnically pure racist paradise? In 2007, Gaza had 400,000 Palestinians of age to go to universities but only room available for 70,000 of them. Because since 10/7 all Gaza’s universities have been destroyed dooming Palestinian youth further – Israel has solved the education problem by removing higher ed entirely - Mission Accomplished. Pause to salute Israel’s red white & blue flag – yeah, it used to be just blue & white, but it’s covered so much in Palestinian blood it looks mostly red these days.
King-Crane Commission of 1919 Findings: “No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist program could be carried out (against the Palestinians) without force of arms (violence).” This became known by the euphemized term “transfer” – funny how seemingly non-violent “transfer” only happens at gunpoint. If a US car thief pointed his gun at you shouting, “Get out of your car, it’s mine now, it’s ‘transfer’ time.” You’d think, “No, it’s ‘theft’ time.” Anyway, transfer has always been about, forcibly removing all non-Zionists so that Israel’s Zionists remain forever in the demographic majority. Ben-Gurion wrote his son “we must expel the Arabs and take their places, when we have force at our disposal.” Funny how blatant theft is ok in Zionism, as long as ONLY Zionists are the thieves. Settler-Colonialism 101. This book shows many times how top Zionists knew exactly what they were doing during the Nakba; as one foreign minister wrote the chairman of the World Jewish Congress, discussing “the wholesale evacuation of its Arab Population (p.254)”. This was followed by Israelis methodically demolishing over 400 Palestinian villages. “Household goods, were sold, destroyed, or used to furnish formerly Arab homes for their new Jewish tenants.” UN mediator Bernadotte is murdered by the Zionist Stern Gang for saying that it is “an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine.”
Moshe Dayan candidly said in 1969, “there is not one place in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” “There are today almost 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, including almost 2 million in Jordan, and about a half million each in Lebanon and Syria.” Israel intentionally does NOT have any laws that guarantee equality of citizenship or court rulings that uphold equality as a right (p.263). For those that care, international law demands a people’s right to self-determination and their right to resist occupation.
US liberals (but not progressives) are hard-wired to yawn at the thought of random brown people on their TV screens being “victims of aerial or artillery bombardment, fuel air-explosives, flechette rounds, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, phosphorus and napalm” yet miraculously come alive in outrage for any suicide bombings of white people – “oh that’s disturbingly inhumane!” As if intentionally burning the flesh of a child w/ phosphorus incendiaries w/o anesthetic isn’t? One side (the occupiers) covets the land of the other side (the occupied), and if the other side doesn’t want to give up everything they have, they must be terrorists, or at best, dirty Arabs. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
What Zionists won’t tell you about Hamas: “People voted for Hamas not because of its Islamic ideology and sloganeering (only a small minority of Palestinians favor the creation of an Islamic state) but because of the substantive political program it held out; because of its documented record in providing social assistance to underprivileged Palestinians,” and (unlike Fatah) Hamas refused to cooperate with the occupation, was rightfully skeptical about the Oslo Accords and was “untainted by corruption”. And don’t forget in 2006 most Palestinians were voting against Fatah (because of its corruption and hopelessness), rather than FOR Hamas. Note that Hamas was asked to renounce violence but “no such demand was made of Israel.” This leads the author Saree to rightfully ask, “Why was the onus for ending an illegal occupation being placed on its victims rather than on its perpetrators?”
In the end, justice and peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved “through mutual affirmation, not denial.” Let’s face it, Israel is never going to end up with a purely Jewish state and the Palestinians are never going to recuperate Palestine so why not DARE to live in peace with all races, creeds and colors, like in the US? Because Israel wants all Palestinians gone to get their gas reserves, Gaza’s water-front property and unrestricted access to beach activities like drowning a remaining Gazan fisherman, ecstasy fueled raves, or sniper-shooting any beachcombing Palestinians begging for food. Professor Arnon Sofer of Haifa University has a deep concern about the present genocide by Zionists, saying, “The only thing that concerns me, is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.” Don’t be such a pussy Arnon - Goering was a total murdering sadist - and look he was still a great family person. So was the BTK killer (Dennis Rader) as well as Richard Cottingham in the US. Don’t be such a negative Nellie, Arnon, Jeez… Israel’s paranoid thinking is simple – if it gave Palestinians equal rights the State of Israel would be finished – “But God said only WE were the ‘chosen’ and he promised it ALL to only us!” But again, for the author (and myself) the ONLY viable answer for Israel is a one-state solution – a real democracy – “where Israel is a state for Jews and non-Jews alike, a state for its citizens.”
So, “mutual and democratic cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis is not only feasible, it offers the only alternative, the real hope for peace in the long run.” Why in the 21st century would anyone want forcibly separate people according to religious preferences when the simple alternative is peaceful secular and democratic cooperation between people. “One person, one vote.” The UN’s John Dugard says no matter how you slice it, colonialism, apartheid and foreign occupation are all “inimical to human rights”. What Israel has is, “the longest-lasting military occupation of the modern age.” It’s not a war, as a war involves two armed forces and Gaza is not a state but occupied territory. It’s like battling someone who is chained to your wall; you kind of have the upper hand. And how do you legally attack the very defenseless population you are legally responsible for? You can’t without acting as a rogue state. But “Israel’s contempt for international law is nothing new.” One Israeli soldier (p.301) says “If anything looks suspicious to you, you open fire. If you are not sure, kill.” When in doubt pull the trigger – words to live by when you’re a flaming narcissist racist determined (as Israel) to defile both the sacred Jewish teachings of Tikkun Olam and Deuteronomy 16:20 (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof - Justice, justice, you shall pursue).
This was a great book and possibly the very BEST in making you feel the extraordinary daily oppression all Palestinians living in the occupied territories felt before it got much worse after October 7th. This book sends you there and paints vivid pictures you will never forget. Cheers and Kudos to the author Saree Makdisi.
Israel built its illegal wall to restrict movement of 1,000,000+ Palestinians. “Whole towns have been cut off from some of their richest and most productive land, devasting the local farming-based economy.” The joy of Israeli bypass roads is that they cannot be crossed and even approached by pesty Palestinians daring to want what was stolen from them – access to their own lands. Cutting off Palestinians from other Palestinians or their livelihood is the name of the game. “For Jewish settlers, roads connect; for Palestinians, they separate.” Palestinians can’t drive beyond their towns or cities w/o two permits – one for the driver and one for the car. Those permits cost $450 a year, intentionally more than the average Palestinian can afford (48% of Palestinians live in poverty while only 15% of Jews in Israel live in poverty), AND usually involves them becoming an informant or collaborator with their occupiers. What’s not to like? No Palestinian needing a service or a permit since 1967 hasn’t also been asked by the Israeli military (GSS) to betray his people in return (p.38). Once you get that permit, you still have time-consuming gates, roadblocks and checkpoints all to make your day a little slice of heaven. And don’t forget those “flying” checkpoints - and the fact that Israeli checkpoints intentionally “open and close at random intervals.” “Stories of the beating and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli army checkpoints are very common (p.48).” Zionist empathy: between 2000 and 2004, thirty-six babies (and a whole bunch of Palestinians needing medical help) died because of checkpoints keeping mothers from getting to health services in time (p.50). A soldier on page 52 says, “The idea is to make life hard for the Palestinian citizenry, there is no operational objective” to the checkpoints.
All this makes shipping costs for Palestinians insanely high, and for Zionists there’s the fun of making Palestinian produce wilt and rot. To make it more fun is the “back-to-back” system where Israelis force Palestinians to stop their vehicle get searched, unload their entire vehicle and load all their shit onto a second vehicle on the other side of the barrier. Moving stuff is hard enough w/o having to lift it all twice in the heat.
Israel takes control over 9 million Palestinian olive trees in the occupied territories and then, to show its empathy and love of nature, burns, uproots or bulldozes 465,945 of them. The UN’s John Dugard reminds us that East Jerusalem is not part of Israel but is occupied territory, subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention – not sovereign territory. Israel’s “notorious” Absentee Property Law allows Palestinian absentees to be stripped of their land even if they are “absent” only because a wall has been built between them and their land. According to Addameer, “650,000 Palestinians have been held prisoner by Israel since 1967: about 40 percent of today’s entire male population.” There are 135 religious sites in Israel granted protective status and funding – not surprisingly, all 135 are Jewish.
Building a Better Future: Israeli construction in the occupied territories is state-funded for settlers while Palestinians must fund all construction themselves. In addition, from 2000 to 2004, 2,540 Palestinian homes in Gaza were demolished by the state making 23,900 homeless. Israel has demolished 18,000 Palestinians homes and held 650,000 Palestinian prisoners since 1967. Israel destroyed Gaza’s only airport in 2001 and Gazans aren’t allowed to use the Tel Aviv airport. Blacks in the US South had separate drinking fountains, Palestinians rely on less: tainted water that doesn’t always run that is miles from the nearest Israeli drinking fountain. Deal with it. Israel has 25 art schools and NONE are available to Palestinians. NYC has a population density of 25,000 per square kilometer, Gaza’s density is three times higher than that.
Thomas Jefferson writes “all men are created equal.” Zionism says, wait, what’s this ALL men equality crap? You are including Palestinians (and even Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews)? That ain’t going to fly here in Israel, nor is your separation of church and state shit, and your “regardless of race or creed” nonsense, if you want fairness go to Judaism. Zionism is ONLY for the “chosen” - provided you both look Ashkenazi and worship illegal unchecked settler-colonialism. And to hell with your US ability of ALL people to buy and sell real estate without discrimination. That also won’t fly in Israel. This is why Israel deliberately has no constitution like the US does which guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination. Israel is NOT a secular state.
Before October 7th, Gazan construction workers couldn’t import building materials, agricultural workers couldn’t export their crops, factory workers couldn’t import raw materials for manufacture, Israel has banned fishing for Gazans, and shopkeepers were out of work because most Gazans are too poor to shop. Before October 7th, “more than one half of the families in Gaza now eat only one meager meal a day.” This is ALL done to punish Gazans “without ringing alarm bells in the West” says UN’s John Dugard. “Because Palestinians have no air defenses, Israeli aircraft can fly as low as they like with total impunity.” B’Tselem reported that in 2006, the Israeli air force was causing three of four sonic booms a night to keep Gazan residents from sleeping and to keep up “fear and anxiety.” “The use of sonic booms flagrantly breaches a number of provisions of international law” as it is intentionally directed against civilians. And don’t forget Israel’s bombing Gaza’s power plant before 10/7 so no one could refrigerate food or bake bread and were instead forced to live without fans in darkness. One Israeli soldier said he was told “if there isn’t mayhem, we’ll create it to demonstrate that we are everywhere.” Could the SS have said it better? Israel has a long history of using Palestinians as human shields – confirm it yourself on the web. There’s also proof of Israeli bulldozer operators intentionally bringing down Palestinian homes knowing that people were still inside (p.184).
Arbitrary Curfews: “Israelis imposed 379 hours of curfew on Nablus in 2005, 342 hours in 2006, and 224 hours in only the first half of 2007.” “In 2002, Israel imposed 156 days of 24-hour curfew on Bethlehem.” That will teach them to not live in the town of Christ’s birth! I can understand imposing curfews on one’s crack-addict daughter, but why on an entire population that’s already occupied? For those that still care about international law, “curfews are to be used only for the short-term PROTECTION of civilians during military operations, not as a form of collective punishment.”
“The Israeli army’s open-fire policy officially permits the use of live ammunition against Palestinians, including civilians, even when soldiers’ lives are not in any danger.” A 2003 USAID study found that 90% of Palestinian children were living in fear – if only those children had Israel’s PR, Americans might begin to care that their tax dollars finance this. Israel’s Wall is illegal and Israel banned all construction near the wall “in order for snipers and machine gunners to maintain a clear line of sight from the tower, nothing is allowed to grow there”, not even hope. Colonel Shaul Arieli of the Israeli army reserves says it is all to make Palestinians want to leave for good “for demographic reasons.” How dare those darned Palestinians get in the way of an ethnically pure racist paradise? In 2007, Gaza had 400,000 Palestinians of age to go to universities but only room available for 70,000 of them. Because since 10/7 all Gaza’s universities have been destroyed dooming Palestinian youth further – Israel has solved the education problem by removing higher ed entirely - Mission Accomplished. Pause to salute Israel’s red white & blue flag – yeah, it used to be just blue & white, but it’s covered so much in Palestinian blood it looks mostly red these days.
King-Crane Commission of 1919 Findings: “No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist program could be carried out (against the Palestinians) without force of arms (violence).” This became known by the euphemized term “transfer” – funny how seemingly non-violent “transfer” only happens at gunpoint. If a US car thief pointed his gun at you shouting, “Get out of your car, it’s mine now, it’s ‘transfer’ time.” You’d think, “No, it’s ‘theft’ time.” Anyway, transfer has always been about, forcibly removing all non-Zionists so that Israel’s Zionists remain forever in the demographic majority. Ben-Gurion wrote his son “we must expel the Arabs and take their places, when we have force at our disposal.” Funny how blatant theft is ok in Zionism, as long as ONLY Zionists are the thieves. Settler-Colonialism 101. This book shows many times how top Zionists knew exactly what they were doing during the Nakba; as one foreign minister wrote the chairman of the World Jewish Congress, discussing “the wholesale evacuation of its Arab Population (p.254)”. This was followed by Israelis methodically demolishing over 400 Palestinian villages. “Household goods, were sold, destroyed, or used to furnish formerly Arab homes for their new Jewish tenants.” UN mediator Bernadotte is murdered by the Zionist Stern Gang for saying that it is “an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine.”
Moshe Dayan candidly said in 1969, “there is not one place in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” “There are today almost 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, including almost 2 million in Jordan, and about a half million each in Lebanon and Syria.” Israel intentionally does NOT have any laws that guarantee equality of citizenship or court rulings that uphold equality as a right (p.263). For those that care, international law demands a people’s right to self-determination and their right to resist occupation.
US liberals (but not progressives) are hard-wired to yawn at the thought of random brown people on their TV screens being “victims of aerial or artillery bombardment, fuel air-explosives, flechette rounds, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, phosphorus and napalm” yet miraculously come alive in outrage for any suicide bombings of white people – “oh that’s disturbingly inhumane!” As if intentionally burning the flesh of a child w/ phosphorus incendiaries w/o anesthetic isn’t? One side (the occupiers) covets the land of the other side (the occupied), and if the other side doesn’t want to give up everything they have, they must be terrorists, or at best, dirty Arabs. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
What Zionists won’t tell you about Hamas: “People voted for Hamas not because of its Islamic ideology and sloganeering (only a small minority of Palestinians favor the creation of an Islamic state) but because of the substantive political program it held out; because of its documented record in providing social assistance to underprivileged Palestinians,” and (unlike Fatah) Hamas refused to cooperate with the occupation, was rightfully skeptical about the Oslo Accords and was “untainted by corruption”. And don’t forget in 2006 most Palestinians were voting against Fatah (because of its corruption and hopelessness), rather than FOR Hamas. Note that Hamas was asked to renounce violence but “no such demand was made of Israel.” This leads the author Saree to rightfully ask, “Why was the onus for ending an illegal occupation being placed on its victims rather than on its perpetrators?”
In the end, justice and peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved “through mutual affirmation, not denial.” Let’s face it, Israel is never going to end up with a purely Jewish state and the Palestinians are never going to recuperate Palestine so why not DARE to live in peace with all races, creeds and colors, like in the US? Because Israel wants all Palestinians gone to get their gas reserves, Gaza’s water-front property and unrestricted access to beach activities like drowning a remaining Gazan fisherman, ecstasy fueled raves, or sniper-shooting any beachcombing Palestinians begging for food. Professor Arnon Sofer of Haifa University has a deep concern about the present genocide by Zionists, saying, “The only thing that concerns me, is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.” Don’t be such a pussy Arnon - Goering was a total murdering sadist - and look he was still a great family person. So was the BTK killer (Dennis Rader) as well as Richard Cottingham in the US. Don’t be such a negative Nellie, Arnon, Jeez… Israel’s paranoid thinking is simple – if it gave Palestinians equal rights the State of Israel would be finished – “But God said only WE were the ‘chosen’ and he promised it ALL to only us!” But again, for the author (and myself) the ONLY viable answer for Israel is a one-state solution – a real democracy – “where Israel is a state for Jews and non-Jews alike, a state for its citizens.”
So, “mutual and democratic cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis is not only feasible, it offers the only alternative, the real hope for peace in the long run.” Why in the 21st century would anyone want forcibly separate people according to religious preferences when the simple alternative is peaceful secular and democratic cooperation between people. “One person, one vote.” The UN’s John Dugard says no matter how you slice it, colonialism, apartheid and foreign occupation are all “inimical to human rights”. What Israel has is, “the longest-lasting military occupation of the modern age.” It’s not a war, as a war involves two armed forces and Gaza is not a state but occupied territory. It’s like battling someone who is chained to your wall; you kind of have the upper hand. And how do you legally attack the very defenseless population you are legally responsible for? You can’t without acting as a rogue state. But “Israel’s contempt for international law is nothing new.” One Israeli soldier (p.301) says “If anything looks suspicious to you, you open fire. If you are not sure, kill.” When in doubt pull the trigger – words to live by when you’re a flaming narcissist racist determined (as Israel) to defile both the sacred Jewish teachings of Tikkun Olam and Deuteronomy 16:20 (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof - Justice, justice, you shall pursue).
This was a great book and possibly the very BEST in making you feel the extraordinary daily oppression all Palestinians living in the occupied territories felt before it got much worse after October 7th. This book sends you there and paints vivid pictures you will never forget. Cheers and Kudos to the author Saree Makdisi.
October 15, 2011
Do you think that you know everything about the suffering of Palestinians in the occupied territories? Before you answer, allow me to answer on your behalf. Unless you are a Palestinian living in the West Bank then your answer must be NO. Only a handful of books can help you start to understand the extent of the humiliation, suffering and dire conditions under which our brothers and sisters in humanity, the Palestinians, and suffering at the hands of our other brothers and sisters in humanity, the Zionists.
One of those books that I strongly recommend is Palestine Inside Out by Saree Makdisi.
On page one of the introduction, you are introduced to a unique Palestinian tragedy. Sam Bahour, a Palestinian businessman happily settled with his wife and two daughters in the West back was informed that because he was born in Ohia, he must leave his home in the Palestinian territories because the Israeli government facility in the settlement of Beit El, has decided not to renew his permit!!!
Allow me to repeat this because I had difficulty understanding it the first time around. A Palestinian born to two Palestinian parents, who was born in Ohio because his parents were forcibly expelled from their home and land, and who is married to a Palestinian women born in the West Bank and who is listed on the territory’s official population registry, thus the couple is eligible for family unification, yet an illegal occupying force stationed in an illegal settlement built on internationally acknowledged Palestinian land has the authority to throw him out at will!!! I still don’t get it!!!
One page three we are assured that Sam’s case is not an isolated incident. Amal al-Amleh, a wife and mother and a resident of the West bank made the unforgivable mistake of crossing the Jordan River to visit her ailing father in Jordan. When she tried to return to the West Bank, the Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge denied her the required permit to rejoin her husband, a West bank native, and her children because Amel was born in Jordan. Though she is only a few miles away, it’s been years since Amel last saw her children. Her youngest who was only ten months old when she left and her siblings are growing motherless because an Israeli occupier is preventing a Palestinian woman from traveling from one Arab country where her father lives to an Arab territory where her husband and children are awaiting her.
According to the Israeli Human Rights Organization B’Tselem , 120,000Palestinian applications for family unification have been pending since 2000.
Having read this, you must be either outraged by the cruelty and injustice of the Israeli practices, or you could be suspicious of the credibility of it all. You might be thinking why would any people, especially when some of them or of their parents have suffered tremendous injustice and cruelty at the hands of the Nazis.
The answer to this question is simple. The Israeli forces are merely implementing an Israeli government policy (as set in place by Ariel Sharon and reaffirmed by his successors) with the stated objective to separate the Jews from non-Jews. Thus the concept of transfer.
“Transfer” is a euphemism referring to the removal or expulsion of the indigenous, non-Jewish, population of Palestine. During the creation of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced (transferred) from their homes, and forcibly prevented from returning afterwards, despite their moral and legal right to do so. Having captured what remained of Palestine during the 1967 war, Israel again found itself taking control of land with a population it did not want. Thus a shift from the 1948 large scale “forcible expulsion” to the “voluntary transfer” by basically turning the lives of Palestinian in the West Bank to hell!!!
Some of the devilish tools used to ensure the transfer:
The Immense Wall
Gates closure
Sterile highways
Work Permits
Travel Permits
Visa permits
Check points
Back-to-Back cargo checkpoints
Back-to-back cargo road blocks
Uprooting of trees
House demolitions
Land confiscation
New military zones
New seam zones
And the list goes on and on and on.
Look up those terms and see how each one of them is making lives of the Arab residents of the West Bank unbearable.
As suggested earlier, read Saree Makdisi’s book and learn much more about the injustice that we are all guilty of not speaking out against.
One of those books that I strongly recommend is Palestine Inside Out by Saree Makdisi.
On page one of the introduction, you are introduced to a unique Palestinian tragedy. Sam Bahour, a Palestinian businessman happily settled with his wife and two daughters in the West back was informed that because he was born in Ohia, he must leave his home in the Palestinian territories because the Israeli government facility in the settlement of Beit El, has decided not to renew his permit!!!
Allow me to repeat this because I had difficulty understanding it the first time around. A Palestinian born to two Palestinian parents, who was born in Ohio because his parents were forcibly expelled from their home and land, and who is married to a Palestinian women born in the West Bank and who is listed on the territory’s official population registry, thus the couple is eligible for family unification, yet an illegal occupying force stationed in an illegal settlement built on internationally acknowledged Palestinian land has the authority to throw him out at will!!! I still don’t get it!!!
One page three we are assured that Sam’s case is not an isolated incident. Amal al-Amleh, a wife and mother and a resident of the West bank made the unforgivable mistake of crossing the Jordan River to visit her ailing father in Jordan. When she tried to return to the West Bank, the Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge denied her the required permit to rejoin her husband, a West bank native, and her children because Amel was born in Jordan. Though she is only a few miles away, it’s been years since Amel last saw her children. Her youngest who was only ten months old when she left and her siblings are growing motherless because an Israeli occupier is preventing a Palestinian woman from traveling from one Arab country where her father lives to an Arab territory where her husband and children are awaiting her.
According to the Israeli Human Rights Organization B’Tselem , 120,000Palestinian applications for family unification have been pending since 2000.
Having read this, you must be either outraged by the cruelty and injustice of the Israeli practices, or you could be suspicious of the credibility of it all. You might be thinking why would any people, especially when some of them or of their parents have suffered tremendous injustice and cruelty at the hands of the Nazis.
The answer to this question is simple. The Israeli forces are merely implementing an Israeli government policy (as set in place by Ariel Sharon and reaffirmed by his successors) with the stated objective to separate the Jews from non-Jews. Thus the concept of transfer.
“Transfer” is a euphemism referring to the removal or expulsion of the indigenous, non-Jewish, population of Palestine. During the creation of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced (transferred) from their homes, and forcibly prevented from returning afterwards, despite their moral and legal right to do so. Having captured what remained of Palestine during the 1967 war, Israel again found itself taking control of land with a population it did not want. Thus a shift from the 1948 large scale “forcible expulsion” to the “voluntary transfer” by basically turning the lives of Palestinian in the West Bank to hell!!!
Some of the devilish tools used to ensure the transfer:
The Immense Wall
Gates closure
Sterile highways
Work Permits
Travel Permits
Visa permits
Check points
Back-to-Back cargo checkpoints
Back-to-back cargo road blocks
Uprooting of trees
House demolitions
Land confiscation
New military zones
New seam zones
And the list goes on and on and on.
Look up those terms and see how each one of them is making lives of the Arab residents of the West Bank unbearable.
As suggested earlier, read Saree Makdisi’s book and learn much more about the injustice that we are all guilty of not speaking out against.
May 8, 2019
Many critics of this book contend that Makdisi presents a one-sided view of decades-long conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. While I wholeheartedly believe his book presents one-side, it is the one side that needs to be recounted because so much of what we hear in this country leans towards the Israeli viewpoint. One critic vehemently declares that the author hates Israelis. I don't think that recounting the facts quantifies hatred; rather, Makdisi wants to find a peaceful soluti0n so that the Palestinians can live their lives in peace and equality. Makdisi does not deny that the Palestinians have been guilty of terrorism against Israel, but innocent civilians continue to suffer because they are paying for the crimes of a minority.
From the beginning foreword by Alice Walker to the Epilogue, I was completely entranced by this book. There were several points where I had to put the book down because the information was making me nauseated. The author asserts, "The idea that people should be forcibly separated from each other according to religious preferences has no place in the 21st century." In today's multicultural and interconnected society it is unrealistic to believe that a country can survive in its own little bubble. Building a wall that purposefully separates farmers from their livelihood is a crime. It is shocking that much of the rights stated in the 1948 UDHR are being completely ignored by Israeli government and the international community sits idly by without interference. Makdisi reiterates several times that the ultimate goal of Israeli's government is not to kill Palestinians but to use force to make their lives so uncomfortable and difficult that the only option will be eventual migration from the occupied territories. If these assertions are indeed true, Palestinians are being punished for not being Jewish. Is this is, indeed, true, this is yet another brutal example of history repeating itself.
The only complaint I have about this book is that the author repeats several of the same facts over and over again. Perhaps this repetition is purposeful to help the reader truly understand the enormity of the conflict. I have read several books that have portrayed both sides of the conflict and, as I said, neither side is clear of guilt. However, as an international community we have to take a stand against human rights violations and declare, "Enough!"
From the beginning foreword by Alice Walker to the Epilogue, I was completely entranced by this book. There were several points where I had to put the book down because the information was making me nauseated. The author asserts, "The idea that people should be forcibly separated from each other according to religious preferences has no place in the 21st century." In today's multicultural and interconnected society it is unrealistic to believe that a country can survive in its own little bubble. Building a wall that purposefully separates farmers from their livelihood is a crime. It is shocking that much of the rights stated in the 1948 UDHR are being completely ignored by Israeli government and the international community sits idly by without interference. Makdisi reiterates several times that the ultimate goal of Israeli's government is not to kill Palestinians but to use force to make their lives so uncomfortable and difficult that the only option will be eventual migration from the occupied territories. If these assertions are indeed true, Palestinians are being punished for not being Jewish. Is this is, indeed, true, this is yet another brutal example of history repeating itself.
The only complaint I have about this book is that the author repeats several of the same facts over and over again. Perhaps this repetition is purposeful to help the reader truly understand the enormity of the conflict. I have read several books that have portrayed both sides of the conflict and, as I said, neither side is clear of guilt. However, as an international community we have to take a stand against human rights violations and declare, "Enough!"
March 2, 2012
I thought I knew a lot about the Israeli/Palestine conflict, but this book proved I was wrong. Makdisi takes us through the day to day existence of a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation, and it is heartbreaking. From families having to get permission from the Israeli governement in order to visit, or for married people to live together, or for their children to remain living with them. The people who need to get to a hospital and have to travel miles to a checkpoint only to find it has been closed, and to die while waiting for it to reopen. This is the reality of the occupation, and how the truth is supressed in the US through a lack of coverage or understanding of the media, and the reasons why we do not see their story.. AIPAC! (if you don't know about AIPAC...find out who and what they are). The book is well documented with not only first hand accounts, but weekly reports from both international human rights organizations, and from an Israeli human rights organization. Makdisi not only gives a current account (I read the paperback version which was updated in 2010), but he gives us the history of the Zionist's seeking a "homeland" dating back to 1896, and the things that were written then and now. I know this will sound harsh, but after reading this I felt the Israeli government learned a lot from their experience of a Nazi Holocaust, because they have used it to create a sytematic genocide against the people of Palestine. I implore everyone to read this.
February 1, 2015
Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.
Don't these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys,
Where there's one you're bound to divide it.
Right in two.
Angels on the sideline,
Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
And this is what they choose.
And this is what they choose...
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs,
They forge a blade,
And where there's one
they're bound to divide it,
Right in two.
Right in two.
~ Right in Two (by Tool)
As a child, I was extremely scared and afraid. I was sensitive and watching movies where people were shot, killed and harassed, made me speculate about the possibility of staying at home, wear a bullet-proof jacket and other several drastic survival strategies in my daily life, even if it came at the cost of my freedom.
Time passed, I became more "reasonable". There is no reason for me to be afraid of gunmen firing and harassing me on the streets at their whims; I could sleep peacefully at night without the fear of sonic booms which could case psychosomatic damage in children and miscarriages in women; I wouldn't be driven out of my house and be used as a human shield; I could easily move from my house to school and visit my relatives without going through long lines in checkposts, through which I might or might not be allowed to move depending on the soldier's whim.
I was not living in a occupied territory after all.
It is interesting that while reading this book, I would suddenly become aware of my considering the survival strategies to counter such a horrific military occupation. I couldn't help but think what must be the state of those actually living in West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem along with the oppressed Palestinians living in Israel and those facing perpetual exile.
It is surprising that the Jews who had just faced intense atrocities in Germany could actually settle themselves at the "giving" end of things. To quote the Israeli novelist Amos Oz,
"The Zionist enterprise has no other objective justification than the right of a drowning man to grasp the only plank that can save him. But there is a vast moral difference between the man who grasps a plank and makes room for himself by pushing the others who are sitting on it to one side, even by force, and the drowning man who grabs the whole plank for himself and pushes the others into the sea."
Israeli policy makers experience immense power, not only in devising and exercising the discriminative policies but also the way they influence the world media when they justify their use of military(which includes use of shells and napalm on innocent Palestinians) as a "counter" to the use of violence from factions (which are expected to arise at the face of blatant oppression during the 40-odd years of occupation). Israel's influence is also prominent in the way their Zionist interests are veiled in the rhetorical conclusions of "peace treaties".
One couldn't help associating and studying this discrimination with apartheid in South Africa, Jim Crow laws in US and the practice of holding slaves. One of the major points common with these cases are the way they ended - in having a common level of citizenship and granting people rights without sacrificing those of the others. This might also be extended and use it as a solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict and is known as the One-State solution i.e. to abandon the idea of forming a Jewish state, have a single state catering to the needs of of its citizen rather than Jews.
The Two-state solution is considered decrepit, its implementable days long gone. The occupied territories have been segregated by means of walls and roads and Jewish settlement; The Israel nation itself has a large majority of non-Jewish citizen. Forming two states would imply large-scale exodus on both sides. Neither does it take into account the interests of those on exile. Also, formation of a Jewish state would imply the non-Jewish citizens of Israel would be subjected to even greater segregation. The need is to recognize and address the futility of placing segregational sentiments like nationalism,religion and subspeciation ahead of universal human rights. The two-state solution just does not fit the bill in present time.
As an individual living miles away from the conflict, it does make me think how one can influence it. Perhaps our knowing of things around can lead to a thought, a discussion, sharing. We are a part of this pool of humanity and are capable of massive karmic imprint. It was not the sudden enlightenment of South African citizens and policy makers to eradicate apartheid (perhaps a small faction were opposed to it), but international pressure manifesting in form of isolation that lead them to rethink their strategies.
It is evident the world is becoming more peaceful with time. I don't know how feasible John Lennon's "Imagine"d world is, but I would be happy if we could move an inch towards it each day.
February 25, 2009
The Palestinian people , according to US-Palestinian academic Saree Makdisi, have been obliged in a society which has been turned inside out half-century old occupation. In a series of vignettes showing the lives of people forced to endure this situation we learn of the permits and the paper work which restrain all normal aspects of live of the Palestinian people, determining the routes they must take to work or to school each morning, the security gates through which they might be permitted to pass, the hospitals and clinics that may be open to them, and even the roads they might drive along, transport their good, or herd their animals.
The arbitrariness of this life lived under permanent scrutiny has an effect on human social life which is akin to torture. The emergency journey of a man injured in a farm accident is halted by Israeli soldiers who complain that his permit to pass through the infamous Wall requires him to travel in one car, rather than the vehicle he has been packed into by panicked friends. School children their usual route to school has been closed off, sometimes for days on end, by an obscure Israeli Defence Force decision to lock down a neighbourhood. A woman leaving her family in East Jerusalem for a day’s visit to her brother’s home across the Jordan border returns in the evening to find her residence permit has been cancelled and the years of exile from her spouse and children have begun.
The misery of Palestinian life is explained by Israel’s supporters as arising from the failure of their communities to produce a political leadership which is reconciled to their subordinate status in territories where Israeli interests take precedence over all else. The Intifadas justify the most draconian security measures which add to the already intolerable grievances the people have to ensure. The Inftadas, the firends of the Palestinians surely rightly argue, are themselves the product of a brutal, decades long, occupation
These is surreal and tragic stuff, but were the Palestinian always fated to suffer such torment once the Zionist settlement of the region began in earnest after 1919? In parts of his argument Makdisi implies that this is the case, and that a pre-condition for Zionist success was the utter and abject defeat of the already present people. His history of the years after the founding the Israeli state only considers the position of revisionist Zionism, with its unabashed right wing nationalism, with the once powerful socialist versions of the ideology going undiscussed. Something interesting could surely have been said about the way in which the fate of labour Zionism was itself eventually sealed by its failure to rally to a defence of the Palestinian people which were losing rights and suffering displacement at a savage rate.
And yet it is to the possibility of a revival of a leftist, democratic version of Zionism amongst the Jewish inhabitants of the land that he turns in the final pages of this powerful book when he sets out an argument, not for a Palestinian eking out an existence alongside Israel, but for a unitary, secular national drawing its legitimacy from a citizenship common to both Jews and Muslims and the other faiths of the region. Makadisi makes a plausible case for a line of political development which perhaps along holds out the long term prospect for peace and democracy in the region: a vision which willsend shivers up the spine of spine of extreme nationalists of both the Israeli and Palestinian persuasion.
The arbitrariness of this life lived under permanent scrutiny has an effect on human social life which is akin to torture. The emergency journey of a man injured in a farm accident is halted by Israeli soldiers who complain that his permit to pass through the infamous Wall requires him to travel in one car, rather than the vehicle he has been packed into by panicked friends. School children their usual route to school has been closed off, sometimes for days on end, by an obscure Israeli Defence Force decision to lock down a neighbourhood. A woman leaving her family in East Jerusalem for a day’s visit to her brother’s home across the Jordan border returns in the evening to find her residence permit has been cancelled and the years of exile from her spouse and children have begun.
The misery of Palestinian life is explained by Israel’s supporters as arising from the failure of their communities to produce a political leadership which is reconciled to their subordinate status in territories where Israeli interests take precedence over all else. The Intifadas justify the most draconian security measures which add to the already intolerable grievances the people have to ensure. The Inftadas, the firends of the Palestinians surely rightly argue, are themselves the product of a brutal, decades long, occupation
These is surreal and tragic stuff, but were the Palestinian always fated to suffer such torment once the Zionist settlement of the region began in earnest after 1919? In parts of his argument Makdisi implies that this is the case, and that a pre-condition for Zionist success was the utter and abject defeat of the already present people. His history of the years after the founding the Israeli state only considers the position of revisionist Zionism, with its unabashed right wing nationalism, with the once powerful socialist versions of the ideology going undiscussed. Something interesting could surely have been said about the way in which the fate of labour Zionism was itself eventually sealed by its failure to rally to a defence of the Palestinian people which were losing rights and suffering displacement at a savage rate.
And yet it is to the possibility of a revival of a leftist, democratic version of Zionism amongst the Jewish inhabitants of the land that he turns in the final pages of this powerful book when he sets out an argument, not for a Palestinian eking out an existence alongside Israel, but for a unitary, secular national drawing its legitimacy from a citizenship common to both Jews and Muslims and the other faiths of the region. Makadisi makes a plausible case for a line of political development which perhaps along holds out the long term prospect for peace and democracy in the region: a vision which willsend shivers up the spine of spine of extreme nationalists of both the Israeli and Palestinian persuasion.
March 1, 2022
I read this book twice now. It takes only moments to be swept up in its horror of accounts. Page after page - it becomes more and more difficult to get through. I keep asking myself why do I continue to read these books- is there no hope? My husband said I continue because I am looking for a different ending. This book has that--- the ending is in the future. The future holds the promise.
Quotes I commit to memory while I wait for the future.
"If neither people's former ideal will be realized- if the Palestinians will never recuperate Palestine as it was before the arrival of Zionism, and Israelis will never realize a purely Jewish state-- they can at least put their two impossible ideals aside for the sake of a common future" (pg. 287)
"Historically speaking, privileged groups have always felt insecure about relinquishing their privileges. ---- There is no reason to think that the situation of Israelis and Palestinians is any different. --- that their conflict may not be resolved along the lines in which the South African conflict was finally resolved.---"
"yesterday's South African township dweller can tell you about today's life in the occupied territories, To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage solider. More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earners you a trip to jail." -Archbishop Tutu (pg. 291)
working towards a goal of peace.
Quotes I commit to memory while I wait for the future.
"If neither people's former ideal will be realized- if the Palestinians will never recuperate Palestine as it was before the arrival of Zionism, and Israelis will never realize a purely Jewish state-- they can at least put their two impossible ideals aside for the sake of a common future" (pg. 287)
"Historically speaking, privileged groups have always felt insecure about relinquishing their privileges. ---- There is no reason to think that the situation of Israelis and Palestinians is any different. --- that their conflict may not be resolved along the lines in which the South African conflict was finally resolved.---"
"yesterday's South African township dweller can tell you about today's life in the occupied territories, To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage solider. More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earners you a trip to jail." -Archbishop Tutu (pg. 291)
working towards a goal of peace.
June 15, 2013
This should be required reading for everyone in the US, since the media usually shines Palestinians in a negative light. It disturbs me that this situation in Palestine has gone on for so long. What is most unnerving though is that after they endured all the anti-semitism in Europe and the suffering in the concentration camps, the Israeli Jewish population doesn't see that their treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is not too far from the behavior of their own oppressors in WWII. You would think, of all people, they wouldn't want anyone else to suffer like they did.
November 29, 2008
For anyone wanting a coomprehensive, human overview of the state of Palestine and Palestinians today, how it got that way and the impact of the Israeli occupation, this is the book for you. I keep very few books in my personal library, but this one I will. Makdisi comes to the conclusion that one country, with equal rights for everyone, is the only realistic, logical solution to this long-running conflict, and I couldn't agree more.
October 21, 2017
This book's power is its unflinching documentation of the every day, grinding oppression of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. I am so grateful for this book and the eye-opening documentation it provides for those--like myself--who knew little about the complexities and realities of everyday life in Palestine.
January 11, 2009
This is a great approach to the conflict in Palestine..gives a really in-depth account of the plight of Palestinians on a day-to-say basis and makes a strong arguement for the creation of one, secular state for both Jews and Arabs. I fresh work and approach to an entrenched conflict.
January 29, 2025
This is from 2008 and in any other topic, it might be obsolete - the recommendation might be to read the more recent books. And we do need to read the most recent stuff.
But! This older book is still very valuable. The older ones usually give a lot more detail around the time of their publishing than a recent work might. Even if you just read the last chapter and coda, you could get a concise history of what everyone always views as the complicated conflict. I would say it's not so complicated as it is a lot of US/Israeli lies to debunk - there's a lot of ground to cover and racism to unpack if you use official US policy as your starting point. But the whole problem is Zionists looked at Argentina and Palestine, chose Palestine, were unhappy there were people already there and looked for ways to get rid of them (from before 1917 to the present).
I was initially intimidated by this one, so I put off reading it. There are a lot of numbers and sometimes numbers are harder to conceive of than the individual stories. Don't worry, there are individual accounts by Palestinians, soldiers, academics, and human rights officials. The brutality of the everyday violence of occupation is illustrated in brilliantly devastating detail.
This book sets the record straight. People (USians) always - get the origin of the conflict wrong; blame the Palestinians for losing in "war" in '48 instead of the ethnic cleansing it actually was; blame Arafat for not being a partner for peace talks; never addressing the injustices - occupation, apartheid, return of refugees; wrongly conflate Hamas and Hezbollah and wrongly ascribe their goal as Islamist instead of resistance to occupation; allow Israel to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians as policy but the second Palestinians kill one Israeli, statehood, refugees' return, freeing political prisoners, etc is ALL off the table + Israel is allowed to retaliate against the resistance to occupation, meaning it inflicts double violence and has the West's support.
I thought it was also interesting in that it addressed why the US population persists in quoting Israeli propaganda. Until about the time of the book, only scholarly articles and books by academics contained the necessary debunking. I think since that time, more accessible things have been written for the general public. I suppose you could credit social media too. It's a shame that the answers we needed to combat Zionist lies that still persist today were hidden in the ivory tower for so long.
But! This older book is still very valuable. The older ones usually give a lot more detail around the time of their publishing than a recent work might. Even if you just read the last chapter and coda, you could get a concise history of what everyone always views as the complicated conflict. I would say it's not so complicated as it is a lot of US/Israeli lies to debunk - there's a lot of ground to cover and racism to unpack if you use official US policy as your starting point. But the whole problem is Zionists looked at Argentina and Palestine, chose Palestine, were unhappy there were people already there and looked for ways to get rid of them (from before 1917 to the present).
I was initially intimidated by this one, so I put off reading it. There are a lot of numbers and sometimes numbers are harder to conceive of than the individual stories. Don't worry, there are individual accounts by Palestinians, soldiers, academics, and human rights officials. The brutality of the everyday violence of occupation is illustrated in brilliantly devastating detail.
This book sets the record straight. People (USians) always - get the origin of the conflict wrong; blame the Palestinians for losing in "war" in '48 instead of the ethnic cleansing it actually was; blame Arafat for not being a partner for peace talks; never addressing the injustices - occupation, apartheid, return of refugees; wrongly conflate Hamas and Hezbollah and wrongly ascribe their goal as Islamist instead of resistance to occupation; allow Israel to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians as policy but the second Palestinians kill one Israeli, statehood, refugees' return, freeing political prisoners, etc is ALL off the table + Israel is allowed to retaliate against the resistance to occupation, meaning it inflicts double violence and has the West's support.
I thought it was also interesting in that it addressed why the US population persists in quoting Israeli propaganda. Until about the time of the book, only scholarly articles and books by academics contained the necessary debunking. I think since that time, more accessible things have been written for the general public. I suppose you could credit social media too. It's a shame that the answers we needed to combat Zionist lies that still persist today were hidden in the ivory tower for so long.
April 28, 2013
This is a very thought-provoking book that goes in-depth on the issues at hand. It is easy to follow and read, though (despite it taking me so long – only because of school and I wanted to read it when I was actually able to focus on it and give it my full attention!)
Makdisi goes over the history, over why/how the Jews ended up in Palestine, the struggles and abuses they went through in Europe and how they want a land to call their own, a land where they belong and will no longer be discriminated against, hated or treated wrongly. There’s nothing wrong with this desire – all people want and need to belong, truly belong, somewhere. However, in struggling for so long and desiring this so much, they became willing to do anything necessary to get what they want. And they did, at the expense of wronging others as they had been wronged. The result is the Israeli state we have today in Palestine.
Makdisi goes over the Palestine-Israeli conflict from not only the Palestinians point of view and what government and defenders say, but also by interviews and news reports from Israeli soldiers and colonists, international human rights organizations, Israeli human rights organizations, heads of the Israeli governments.
Fun facts in the book:
In 1967, Israel formulated a plan to deny Palestinians citizenship – Israel wanted to control all occupied territories and maintain its claim to “Jewsishness” by restricting political/human rights of Palestinians because if they allowed Palestinians to become citizens, their population would not consist of even a majority of Jews (In pre-1967 borders, 1 in 5 citizens would have been Palestinian Muslims/Christians).
Makdisi goes over a lot of stories of Palestinian men, women and children’s struggles and difficulties with the occupation, with the Israeli soldiers guarding the walls of separation between the two communities. Even other Arab countries – Palestinians desiring to leave or enter Gaza are made to wait, are denied, or beat simply for wanted to cross to get back home or reach a place of relative safety. As one Egyptian soldier is quoted to have said, “…no one gives a damn what happens to you… You are simply not human enough for them to care.” Their lands and homes are destroyed or taken away, ambulances are denied, the wounded, ill and pregnant are delayed, if they are even allowed to reach hospitals at all, medical treatment is prevented from going to them. Thousands have died from these circumstances. As one Palestinian says, “I am a native of this land, and this is actually my country – the stranger is the one who came from outside and refuses to recognize me. I live in my own country. My people and my ancestors are buried here. I belong to this land. I do feel like a stranger among the Jews, and they feel like I am not of their world. But I am not a stranger to this soil.”
America’s support of Israel: Although Israel, similar to America, has “free speech”, an innovative economy, and “culture of freedom”, the US does not deny citizenship due to race/color/nationality, after all, it is the land of immigrants. The Constitution forbids inequality/discrimination based on race, color, gender, or religion. It has a separation of religion and government. Israel differentiates between nationality and citizenship. It is a state of Jewish people, whether they live there or not. It is not a state of the those who live there, and therefore, Jews who don’t live there have more rights than the Palestinians who do. There is no such thing as an Israeli nationality, rather just a “Jewish nationality” because, as the Israeli High Court ruled in 1972, “there is no such thing as an Israeli nation separate from the Jewish people.”
In 2006, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that they would not be able to maintain the State of Israel with continual control of the Palestinian population; the essential realization of Zionism is to ensure the existence of a Jewish and democratic state in Israel, and in order to do so they must create a clear boundary (with Israel maintaining security control) between Israel and an independent Palestine. This, in and of itself is impossible as the Palestinian state would be a patchwork of lands. Makdisi goes over the impossibility of a two-state solution. He argues using history to support his claim, paralleling Israel with the South African apartheid. “Short of an actual genocide, it is utterly futile for one people to try to achieve security at the expense of another.” The Israeli Jews maintain their presence in Palestine at the expense of the Palestinians and have never felt secure – there is always a threat just over the wall. The solution he presents is that although a “two-state solution is gone forever. Only full equal rights for both people in their historic homeland will bring an end to this conflict… [and although this is] a naïve dream and will never become a reality, we would do well to remember that the success of any struggle depends on the determination of its leaders and the clarity of its purpose, not the doubts of naysayers.” An Israeli-American journalist, Nir Rosen, also stated that “what needs to happen… is a one-state solution, where Palestinian refugees are allowed to go back to their homes, where Israel is a state for Jews and non-Jews alike, a state for its citizens… One way or the other, Israel can’t exist as a Jewish state that doesn’t give equal rights to its non-Jewish Arab citizens.” The 2007 UN-OCHA report made clear that it is physically impossible for an independent Palestinian state to exist. Makdisi ends with “[The Jews and Palestinians] must decide between remaining locked in a deadly struggle that neither side is in a position to win – or taking a path of peace and reconciliation. For Jewish Israelis, it would mean giving up on the dream of a state that was meant to be Jewish but never really was; for Palestinians, it would mean giving up on the dream of a sovereign Palestinian state, for which they have yearned for so long. But there is no longer any way out.”
Makdisi goes over the history, over why/how the Jews ended up in Palestine, the struggles and abuses they went through in Europe and how they want a land to call their own, a land where they belong and will no longer be discriminated against, hated or treated wrongly. There’s nothing wrong with this desire – all people want and need to belong, truly belong, somewhere. However, in struggling for so long and desiring this so much, they became willing to do anything necessary to get what they want. And they did, at the expense of wronging others as they had been wronged. The result is the Israeli state we have today in Palestine.
Makdisi goes over the Palestine-Israeli conflict from not only the Palestinians point of view and what government and defenders say, but also by interviews and news reports from Israeli soldiers and colonists, international human rights organizations, Israeli human rights organizations, heads of the Israeli governments.
Fun facts in the book:
In 1967, Israel formulated a plan to deny Palestinians citizenship – Israel wanted to control all occupied territories and maintain its claim to “Jewsishness” by restricting political/human rights of Palestinians because if they allowed Palestinians to become citizens, their population would not consist of even a majority of Jews (In pre-1967 borders, 1 in 5 citizens would have been Palestinian Muslims/Christians).
Makdisi goes over a lot of stories of Palestinian men, women and children’s struggles and difficulties with the occupation, with the Israeli soldiers guarding the walls of separation between the two communities. Even other Arab countries – Palestinians desiring to leave or enter Gaza are made to wait, are denied, or beat simply for wanted to cross to get back home or reach a place of relative safety. As one Egyptian soldier is quoted to have said, “…no one gives a damn what happens to you… You are simply not human enough for them to care.” Their lands and homes are destroyed or taken away, ambulances are denied, the wounded, ill and pregnant are delayed, if they are even allowed to reach hospitals at all, medical treatment is prevented from going to them. Thousands have died from these circumstances. As one Palestinian says, “I am a native of this land, and this is actually my country – the stranger is the one who came from outside and refuses to recognize me. I live in my own country. My people and my ancestors are buried here. I belong to this land. I do feel like a stranger among the Jews, and they feel like I am not of their world. But I am not a stranger to this soil.”
America’s support of Israel: Although Israel, similar to America, has “free speech”, an innovative economy, and “culture of freedom”, the US does not deny citizenship due to race/color/nationality, after all, it is the land of immigrants. The Constitution forbids inequality/discrimination based on race, color, gender, or religion. It has a separation of religion and government. Israel differentiates between nationality and citizenship. It is a state of Jewish people, whether they live there or not. It is not a state of the those who live there, and therefore, Jews who don’t live there have more rights than the Palestinians who do. There is no such thing as an Israeli nationality, rather just a “Jewish nationality” because, as the Israeli High Court ruled in 1972, “there is no such thing as an Israeli nation separate from the Jewish people.”
In 2006, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that they would not be able to maintain the State of Israel with continual control of the Palestinian population; the essential realization of Zionism is to ensure the existence of a Jewish and democratic state in Israel, and in order to do so they must create a clear boundary (with Israel maintaining security control) between Israel and an independent Palestine. This, in and of itself is impossible as the Palestinian state would be a patchwork of lands. Makdisi goes over the impossibility of a two-state solution. He argues using history to support his claim, paralleling Israel with the South African apartheid. “Short of an actual genocide, it is utterly futile for one people to try to achieve security at the expense of another.” The Israeli Jews maintain their presence in Palestine at the expense of the Palestinians and have never felt secure – there is always a threat just over the wall. The solution he presents is that although a “two-state solution is gone forever. Only full equal rights for both people in their historic homeland will bring an end to this conflict… [and although this is] a naïve dream and will never become a reality, we would do well to remember that the success of any struggle depends on the determination of its leaders and the clarity of its purpose, not the doubts of naysayers.” An Israeli-American journalist, Nir Rosen, also stated that “what needs to happen… is a one-state solution, where Palestinian refugees are allowed to go back to their homes, where Israel is a state for Jews and non-Jews alike, a state for its citizens… One way or the other, Israel can’t exist as a Jewish state that doesn’t give equal rights to its non-Jewish Arab citizens.” The 2007 UN-OCHA report made clear that it is physically impossible for an independent Palestinian state to exist. Makdisi ends with “[The Jews and Palestinians] must decide between remaining locked in a deadly struggle that neither side is in a position to win – or taking a path of peace and reconciliation. For Jewish Israelis, it would mean giving up on the dream of a state that was meant to be Jewish but never really was; for Palestinians, it would mean giving up on the dream of a sovereign Palestinian state, for which they have yearned for so long. But there is no longer any way out.”
April 12, 2024
Everyone needs to read this book
considering
September 10, 2015Saree Makdisi, en Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, describe cómo, aunque la ocupación israelí de la Ribera Occidental esté en última instancia impuesta por los militares, es una ocupación «por medio de la burocracia», cuyos primeros instrumentos son los impresos para solicitudes, escrituras de propiedad, papeles de residencia y otros permisos. Esta microgestión de la vida diaria es lo que permite asegurar la incesante expansión israelí: hace falta un permiso para moverse con la propia familia, para cultivar la propia tierra, para cavar un pozo, para ir al trabajo, al colegio o al hospital. De uno en uno, los palestinos nacidos en Jerusalén son de ese modo despojados del derecho a vivir allí, se les impide ganarse la vida, se les niegan los permisos para construir viviendas, etc. Los palestinos a menudo utilizan el problemático cliché de describir la franja de Gaza como «el campo de concentración más grande del mundo»; pero últimamente esta designación se ha aproximado peligrosamente a la verdad. Esta es la realidad fundamental, que hace que todas las abstractas «oraciones por la paz» sean obscenas e hipócritas. El Estado de Israel está claramente comprometido en un lento proceso como el del viejo topo cavando bajo tierra, invisible e ignorado por los medios de comunicación, de manera que un día el mundo se despertará y se dará cuenta de que ya no hay una Ribera Occidental palestina, de que la tierra está libre de palestinos, y de que no podemos hacer otra cosa que aceptar el hecho. El mapa de la Ribera Occidental palestina ya parece el de un fragmentado archipiélago.
Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.158
Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.158
July 9, 2010
Don't know much about history.....don't much.... anyway, I'm totally doomed to repeat mistakes of the past because at best my knowledge of all things historical is elementary!!! Which is why I chose this book to learn more! :s
It tooook me forever and a day to read this book but I'm glad I stuck with it. Made me feel like I accomplished something. It was soooo like reading a Toni Morrison novel, Read-Digest-Rest-Read....repeat. Lots of information and images to digest.
It is well written and if you are looking for about Palestinian side of this the mess that is Israel-Palestine this is the one. The phrase "crimes against humanity" was used so very appropriately. It covers the bleakness of everyday life in for the Palestinians. He provides data and maps to convey the starkness of their everyday lives. The numbers will astound. It is hard to imagine a solution to this issue and the one given at the end is so simple.
Peace!
It tooook me forever and a day to read this book but I'm glad I stuck with it. Made me feel like I accomplished something. It was soooo like reading a Toni Morrison novel, Read-Digest-Rest-Read....repeat. Lots of information and images to digest.
It is well written and if you are looking for about Palestinian side of this the mess that is Israel-Palestine this is the one. The phrase "crimes against humanity" was used so very appropriately. It covers the bleakness of everyday life in for the Palestinians. He provides data and maps to convey the starkness of their everyday lives. The numbers will astound. It is hard to imagine a solution to this issue and the one given at the end is so simple.
Peace!
Read
May 14, 2008We are having an event at our store with this author on May 29th at 7 pm.
July 26, 2011
A must read if you really want to know the realities of Palestinian life under Israeli Occupation
February 5, 2013
If you want to know all the details about what's REALLY happening. Trustworthy. Compassionate.
May 19, 2014
A detailed and precise account of the harsh realities the Palestinian people are subjected to you by the racist policies of Zionism.
November 19, 2014
A necessary read for those who want to get a historical and present day understanding of the occupation.
December 8, 2014
I wish every Christian would read this....
February 28, 2015
It's amazing and heartbreaking to read this book, at the same time. It will leave you questioning humanity and if possibally people could do this to people.
May 31, 2015
Tear down the wall.
October 26, 2016
I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to educate themselves about the horrors going on in Palestine. Very accessible!
December 23, 2025
Saree Makdisi’s Palestine Inside Out is a powerful examination of everyday life under Israeli occupation. Rather than focusing on diplomacy or war, Makdisi analyses space, movement, and bureaucratic control as instruments of domination. Using personal observation, legal analysis, and cultural critique, Makdisi shows how checkpoints, permits, and segregated roads fragment Palestinian existence. Occupation, he argues, is not only military but also epistemic—it shapes how Palestinians imagine their future. The book’s strength lies in its immediacy. Makdisi’s prose is lucid and morally charged, though critics argue that its activist tone may alienate readers seeking neutrality. Nevertheless, Palestine Inside Out is essential for understanding how occupation operates beyond headlines. Recommended.
November 26, 2025
Great, super recommend. I usually struggle to stay engaged with nonfiction but this was super digestible and I was constantly picking it up. Made so many annotations, so many effective quotes and statistics, going to recommend to to everyone.
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