Promises, Then the Storm: Notes on Memory, Protest, and the Israel–Gaza War

by Melani McAlister

On the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Melani McAlister began to use her journal to track the rapid development of the conflict and the parallel evolution in the ways it was represented in the US media. Drawing on McAlister’s decades of experience as a scholar of US–Middle East relations, as well as her personal history in activism, this incisive and dynamic text traces the devastating development of the current war in real time, identifying echoes with previous moments in the history of the region and the protests and artistic responses they prompted. This series of meditations explores the enduring power of narrative and memory, threading throughout the work of Arab and Arab American poets and musicians to tell a story of Palestinian resistance and resilience.

Encompassing the earliest political promises, made and broken, that laid the ground for the Israel–Palestine conflict, subsequent wars and attempts at peace, through to the flashpoint campus protests of 2024, this text serves as a primer to the history of the region and its unique place in global consciousness. Promises, Then the Storm is a reflection on the significance of Palestinian liberation at a moment when it has never been more urgently at stake – one that reckons with possibilities for justice and equality and the hopes carried by activists and artists, against all odds, into the future.

Paperback

Published September 25, 2024

Reviews

[carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

information-wise, this book was very interesting, however, when it comes to the commentary, it did not live up to expectation I had for it (probably my mistake) which is why I think the 3-star rating is very fair. when writing on a topic like this, it's hard to create lasting change or have a social impact when trying to remain neutral and be politically correct, which was the case in several opinions given throughout this book. not only that but sometimes this felt a lot like the view of someone who was ready to settle on any resolution, just to end the war, even if the solution did not necessarily bring any benefits to Palestinians. one comment especially stuck with me when the author wrote "we need to know when it is time to seek new horizons of possibility. I have long doubted that the decades-long horizon of a possible future for Palestine and Israel - the one that centered on two states for two peoples - can any longer be useful framework in our present" and I believe that we owe the Palestinian people more than to simply be giving up on an idea that they have been fighting for, for so many decades now.

[Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable and compelling––I just wish I had more background knowledge on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Middle Eastern history in general. McAlister does a solid job explaining the relevant bits and pieces, but I felt like I was missing a certain base of knowledge as I was reading. Must now go find some Palestinian historians...