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Between River and Sea: Encounters in Israel and Palestine
Dervla Murphy describes with fervour the experience of her most recent journeys into Israel and Palestine. The author is known for her passion and devotion to the Palestinian cause and equally fervid opposition and hatred of Israel whose dissolution she seeks.
Some of the photographs have been considered staged however they have been defended as having an 'essential truthfulness' in their aim to show daily life for the Palestinians.
Some of the photographs have been considered staged however they have been defended as having an 'essential truthfulness' in their aim to show daily life for the Palestinians.
572 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 19, 2015
36 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
Dervla Murphy
52 books277 followersDervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965. Over twenty travel books followed including her highly acclaimed autobiography, Wheels Within Wheels.
Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.
Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.
She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.
Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.
Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.
She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 29, 2019
I picked out Between River and Sea in from our library's catalogue because I wanted to learn more about the Israel-Palestine conflict as seen from an objective viewpoint. It’s very hard to find sources about the conflict that are balanced. I turned first to Murphy's "Impressions of Yad Yashem". I lived in Israel as a student and I have very strong memories of being moved by its exhibits honouring the victims of the Holocaust. I was horrified to read Murphy’s reaction to these exhibits: “Studying Vad Vashem’s displays of enlarged 1930s photographs, and reconstructions of street scenes in Eastern European villages, I wondered how many of those depicted had escaped and been able to benefit from the Nakba desolation.” The blurb on the back of the paper edition states “While she keeps an open mind, her sympathies are clearly with the Palestinians, remorselessly disposed of, and cut off from, their lands and frustrated and humiliated on a daily basis”. Murphy’s reaction to Yad Vashem reveals she has compassion only for the Palestinians. She writes that while she paced around the Valley of the Communities, where the names of 5000 erased Jewish communities have been carved out of the valley floor, she thought “When will the Palestinians be free to commemorate their hundreds of erased villages in a similar manner?” It's deeply worrying that Murphy doesn’t reflect on the suffering of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She seems to think that the Nakba was a worse catastrophe and the Holocaust survivors, like the Zionists, profited from the expulsion of the Palestinians and the destruction of their villages.
I wanted to better understand the roots of the conflict. I support freedom for the Palestinians, all Palestinians. I want to see an end of the abuse of their human rights in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and other countries. I wanted to learn more about their history, particularly their history seen from their viewpoint. Murphy gives misleading impressions about the history of Mandate Palestine, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, and the events that led to the current situation. Her descriptions of the tragedy of the Nakba don’t consider the Jews who were expelled from East Jerusalem and the West Bank when Jordan illegally occupied and annexed those areas from 1948-1967, nor does she mention the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab and Muslim countries after 1948. The book includes maps of Israel/Palestine in 1946, 1949, the UN Partition plan of 1947 and the changes between 1967 and 2000. I was surprised that the 1949 map labels the land controlled by the State of Israel and the Land controlled by “Palestinians and their Arab Allies, Jordan and Egypt”. The map misleadingly implies that the West Bank and Gaza were controlled by the Palestinians. They were not. Egypt illegally occupied Gaza from 1948 to 1967, and under Jordan rule the universities in the West Bank were shut down, the Palestinians lived under martial law, there was high unemployment and poor living conditions, with many homes without running water or electricity. The Palestinians in the West Bank didn't have control over their land until the 1990s, under Israel. Gaza has been self governing since Israel withdrew in 2005.
I wanted to read a balanced history. Murphy’s accounts of Zionism and the history of the Palestinians are far from balanced. Her views of Zionism and Zionists are hostile and she affirms several contentious statements that are presented as fact, with no citation or evidence for them. She claims that Zionism presents the Holocaust as a unique anti-Semitic crime. This is false: Yad Vashem honours the non Jewish groups that were victims of the Nazis, and features excellent guides on their website about the gentile Poles, Roma, the handicapped, LGBTQ, Russian prisoners of war and other groups who were victims of the Nazis (Murphy's account of her visit to Yad Vashem doesn't refer to any of these groups). She states that after the Holocaust the Zionists toured the DP camps in Europe and were “alarmed” to find that “most of these people, feeling let down by Zionism, longed to return to their homes instead of being shipped off to Palestine where they were now very welcome”. She doesn’t refer to the anti Jewish riots that followed World War II in Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe that killed Jews, that many survivors tried to return to their homes and were attacked by former neighbours worried that the Jews would reclaim their property, that Poland was in a state of political turmoil as underground groups battled Communists who fought to establish a Soviet backed government, and other nations also saw bloodshed before they were overpowered and forced into becoming part of the Eastern Block. She also doesn't acknowledge that many countries did not want to admit the Holocaust survivors. Murphy contradicts herself observing that the British would admit only a few Holocaust survivors to enter post War Mandate Palestine, to prevent the Palestinians from violently protesting against the rise of Jewish immigrants, while the underground Zionist militia smuggled boatloads of survivors past British coastguards. She then immediately criticises the Zionists for not doing more for the hundreds of thousands still in European DP camps and adds “Ben-Gurion and his officials” were “determined not to antagonise their British allies”. She doesn’t reflect that while Ben-Gurion and his fellow leaders did not want to aggrieve the British they secretly enabled Holocaust survivors to reach Palestine and become residents. Her depiction of the immigrant survivors paints them as victims and dupes; they were “promised a warm home in their new country” but as they spoke no English they found themselves after a few days training being pressed into the front line of the 1948 war “killing Palestinians against who they bore no grunge in defence of a country of which they knew nothing”. The survivors were fighting for the existence of a homeland they desperately wanted, which they believed was their homeland of their people, which they gave everything for to enter, a new country which immediately after declaring independence was attacked by neighbouring countries. Moreover, English was not the language of the new country or its new army; Hebrew was.
Murphy doesn’t demonstrate understanding of the hatred and violence towards Jews in Europe that led to the birth of Zionism, or how the early Zionists urgently sought a haven for the Jews who were being killed by the thousands in pogroms throughout the Russian Empire. She also doesn't understand that the early Zionists believed they were returning to their historical and spiritual homeland, and that Jerusalem and Israel have been the cornerstone of Jewish consciousness for centuries. The book is full of historical inaccuracies and unfounded accusations about organisations such as the Jewish National Fund. “Outsiders are puzzled by tiny Israel’s abundance of parks and nature reserves: sixty-six in all. Many were created to hide Nakba scars, others are the result of JNF machinations to appropriate still more Palestinian land”. The JNF was founded in 1901 to buy land in Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Palestine. Much of the land the JNF purchased was arid; the early settlers cleared and developed the land for agriculture, as the settlements were meant to be self-sufficient. Many of the early settlements failed due to the physical challenges. The claim that “many” of Israel’s parks are built on Palestinian villages that were destroyed in the Nakba, to conceal them, is dubious. Anti-Zionists have made allegations that Israel and the JNF planted forests after 1948 to cover the ruins of villages razed in the Nakba; they also have charged that Israel deliberately plants forests of the non-indigenous European-style pine because they needed a fast-growing species that would quickly conceal the demolished villages and rapidly hinder the return of Palestinian refugees.
Without a real understanding of Zionism Between River and Sea does not do justice to the history of Israel, the Palestinians, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Read other less biased and better researched sources to understand Israel, Palestine, the history of Zionism, and the history and issues behind the conflict
I wanted to better understand the roots of the conflict. I support freedom for the Palestinians, all Palestinians. I want to see an end of the abuse of their human rights in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and other countries. I wanted to learn more about their history, particularly their history seen from their viewpoint. Murphy gives misleading impressions about the history of Mandate Palestine, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, and the events that led to the current situation. Her descriptions of the tragedy of the Nakba don’t consider the Jews who were expelled from East Jerusalem and the West Bank when Jordan illegally occupied and annexed those areas from 1948-1967, nor does she mention the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab and Muslim countries after 1948. The book includes maps of Israel/Palestine in 1946, 1949, the UN Partition plan of 1947 and the changes between 1967 and 2000. I was surprised that the 1949 map labels the land controlled by the State of Israel and the Land controlled by “Palestinians and their Arab Allies, Jordan and Egypt”. The map misleadingly implies that the West Bank and Gaza were controlled by the Palestinians. They were not. Egypt illegally occupied Gaza from 1948 to 1967, and under Jordan rule the universities in the West Bank were shut down, the Palestinians lived under martial law, there was high unemployment and poor living conditions, with many homes without running water or electricity. The Palestinians in the West Bank didn't have control over their land until the 1990s, under Israel. Gaza has been self governing since Israel withdrew in 2005.
I wanted to read a balanced history. Murphy’s accounts of Zionism and the history of the Palestinians are far from balanced. Her views of Zionism and Zionists are hostile and she affirms several contentious statements that are presented as fact, with no citation or evidence for them. She claims that Zionism presents the Holocaust as a unique anti-Semitic crime. This is false: Yad Vashem honours the non Jewish groups that were victims of the Nazis, and features excellent guides on their website about the gentile Poles, Roma, the handicapped, LGBTQ, Russian prisoners of war and other groups who were victims of the Nazis (Murphy's account of her visit to Yad Vashem doesn't refer to any of these groups). She states that after the Holocaust the Zionists toured the DP camps in Europe and were “alarmed” to find that “most of these people, feeling let down by Zionism, longed to return to their homes instead of being shipped off to Palestine where they were now very welcome”. She doesn’t refer to the anti Jewish riots that followed World War II in Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe that killed Jews, that many survivors tried to return to their homes and were attacked by former neighbours worried that the Jews would reclaim their property, that Poland was in a state of political turmoil as underground groups battled Communists who fought to establish a Soviet backed government, and other nations also saw bloodshed before they were overpowered and forced into becoming part of the Eastern Block. She also doesn't acknowledge that many countries did not want to admit the Holocaust survivors. Murphy contradicts herself observing that the British would admit only a few Holocaust survivors to enter post War Mandate Palestine, to prevent the Palestinians from violently protesting against the rise of Jewish immigrants, while the underground Zionist militia smuggled boatloads of survivors past British coastguards. She then immediately criticises the Zionists for not doing more for the hundreds of thousands still in European DP camps and adds “Ben-Gurion and his officials” were “determined not to antagonise their British allies”. She doesn’t reflect that while Ben-Gurion and his fellow leaders did not want to aggrieve the British they secretly enabled Holocaust survivors to reach Palestine and become residents. Her depiction of the immigrant survivors paints them as victims and dupes; they were “promised a warm home in their new country” but as they spoke no English they found themselves after a few days training being pressed into the front line of the 1948 war “killing Palestinians against who they bore no grunge in defence of a country of which they knew nothing”. The survivors were fighting for the existence of a homeland they desperately wanted, which they believed was their homeland of their people, which they gave everything for to enter, a new country which immediately after declaring independence was attacked by neighbouring countries. Moreover, English was not the language of the new country or its new army; Hebrew was.
Murphy doesn’t demonstrate understanding of the hatred and violence towards Jews in Europe that led to the birth of Zionism, or how the early Zionists urgently sought a haven for the Jews who were being killed by the thousands in pogroms throughout the Russian Empire. She also doesn't understand that the early Zionists believed they were returning to their historical and spiritual homeland, and that Jerusalem and Israel have been the cornerstone of Jewish consciousness for centuries. The book is full of historical inaccuracies and unfounded accusations about organisations such as the Jewish National Fund. “Outsiders are puzzled by tiny Israel’s abundance of parks and nature reserves: sixty-six in all. Many were created to hide Nakba scars, others are the result of JNF machinations to appropriate still more Palestinian land”. The JNF was founded in 1901 to buy land in Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Palestine. Much of the land the JNF purchased was arid; the early settlers cleared and developed the land for agriculture, as the settlements were meant to be self-sufficient. Many of the early settlements failed due to the physical challenges. The claim that “many” of Israel’s parks are built on Palestinian villages that were destroyed in the Nakba, to conceal them, is dubious. Anti-Zionists have made allegations that Israel and the JNF planted forests after 1948 to cover the ruins of villages razed in the Nakba; they also have charged that Israel deliberately plants forests of the non-indigenous European-style pine because they needed a fast-growing species that would quickly conceal the demolished villages and rapidly hinder the return of Palestinian refugees.
Without a real understanding of Zionism Between River and Sea does not do justice to the history of Israel, the Palestinians, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Read other less biased and better researched sources to understand Israel, Palestine, the history of Zionism, and the history and issues behind the conflict
May 14, 2023
This is a four and a half stars. I lived in Israel 40 years ago for about 5 months. Due to my circumstances I was fortunate to meet Israelis and, what they self described themselves as, Israeli Arabs. Not West Bank nor Palestinians. The Arabs said the West Bank people were dangerous. All the Arabs I met just wanted to be treated, as they were, Israelis. We were fortunate to listen to both peoples and the Israelis were more liberal. They had grown up in school and played with Arabs. The army influenced them when they left their kibbutz. I won’t go into detail but both told us same stories. The, very intelligent, Israelis however couldn’t understand why we foreigners didn’t follow their logic. We didn’t understand how it wasn’t obvious to them that they were contradicting themselves. I remember thinking that the way the Arabs were treated was like apartheid ( South Africa and apartheid a big topic here then). Own schools/ buses/ access to jobs etc. All rubbish in comparison with Israeli ones. Kibbutz was most liberal employing Arabs from villages- although not on equal footing they were treated better than elsewhere.
I found it interesting but scary time with so many good people I met. Underlying feeling of paranoia though. Fascinating country but confusing too. I did most of usual tourist bits as well as worked on kibbutz.
Anyway. Enough. I had hoped things had changed over time. This book made me sad. It has changed but not for better. This book is still out of date so hope things improved again. I am optimistic. Places I was driven to have now been ruined by segregation and countryside also changed for same reason. My heart is sad.
This book tries to be balanced but, as author found as did I, you cannot be totally balanced once lived there and spoken to different people. No idea what is the answer but hope they find one as both sets of people have majority who just want to get on with life. Both sides misinformed about each other as I’m sure this author and I were too.
Interesting but hard work as I’m not a natural non fiction reader. Controversial too I expect. That said worth reading to update myself, although not totally, into an interesting country and it’s peoples.
I found it interesting but scary time with so many good people I met. Underlying feeling of paranoia though. Fascinating country but confusing too. I did most of usual tourist bits as well as worked on kibbutz.
Anyway. Enough. I had hoped things had changed over time. This book made me sad. It has changed but not for better. This book is still out of date so hope things improved again. I am optimistic. Places I was driven to have now been ruined by segregation and countryside also changed for same reason. My heart is sad.
This book tries to be balanced but, as author found as did I, you cannot be totally balanced once lived there and spoken to different people. No idea what is the answer but hope they find one as both sets of people have majority who just want to get on with life. Both sides misinformed about each other as I’m sure this author and I were too.
Interesting but hard work as I’m not a natural non fiction reader. Controversial too I expect. That said worth reading to update myself, although not totally, into an interesting country and it’s peoples.
October 31, 2021
A travel book with a difference
The views of the author came as quite a surprise. A brave lady who didn't shy away from staying in the occupied Palestinian territories to find the truth of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, which is more galling when you realise that the Jews had no right to deprive Palestinians of their homes and land. How the collusion of British, American and other western nations have delegitimized the original inhabitants of Palestine in favour of the outsiders ie the Jews. A historical injustice with no parallels. The only one I can think of is the annihilation of the native Americans, the red indians. Hats off to the brave author, may there be many more like her. Will the tables turn?
The views of the author came as quite a surprise. A brave lady who didn't shy away from staying in the occupied Palestinian territories to find the truth of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, which is more galling when you realise that the Jews had no right to deprive Palestinians of their homes and land. How the collusion of British, American and other western nations have delegitimized the original inhabitants of Palestine in favour of the outsiders ie the Jews. A historical injustice with no parallels. The only one I can think of is the annihilation of the native Americans, the red indians. Hats off to the brave author, may there be many more like her. Will the tables turn?
July 31, 2022
I’ve been reading this book on and off for a couple of years-it’s subject matter was such that I needed to read and digest in bite size chunks. As ever with Dervla Murphy, her books are thoughtful, insightful and open the mind, as all good travel writing should do. Israel and Palestine is one hefty topic to attempt to write about yet Murphy manages to decry describe differing perspectives and the harsh reality of life for those in the West Bank. Whilst clearly having sympathy with the Palestinians she shines a light on propaganda on both sides.
August 8, 2017
Never before (except during my degree) have I taken so many notes from a book. Murphy takes on a brave and fascinating challenge of writing a travel book, rather than a political/sociological/historical essay, to tackle the Israel-Palestine conflict.
I found this a truly riveting read, as Murphy explores both sides, speaks to so many people, and highlights so much that the media/other writers never touch on. Brilliant.
I found this a truly riveting read, as Murphy explores both sides, speaks to so many people, and highlights so much that the media/other writers never touch on. Brilliant.
October 11, 2021
What a book, what a woman. I am full of admiration and love
May 17, 2017
Well, that was depressing. She doesn't mask her opinions in any way, from the beginning - and I appreciate that, better than pretending at neutrality when that's not what she feels. That said I nearly gave up early because of the strength of her, it's not even so much her pro-Palestinian stance as the way she portrays nearly every (non Arab) Israeli she meets as ... rude, blindly hateful, and/or blithely ignorant of what is being done in their names. I'm glad I pushed on - I learned a lot, and many questions have been raised for me.
December 19, 2021
The irony of Jewish history in the 40s in particular is how many parallels there are with recent Palestinian history. Murphy, in what seems to be her last travel book, indirectly references similarities between Israeli expansionist policies and the Nazi policy of Lebensraum, between the books Torat Ha'Melech and Mein Kampf, and directly compares the Jewish attitude towards Palestinians with Nazi attitude towards the Jews, even noting the extreme similarity in meaning between the terms Shoah and al-Nakba.
It's remarkable that a people on the receiving end of such horrific treatment still within living memory for some should turn into something so close to their own despised oppressors. While Israelis will reference the Holocaust, nothing in Israeli history justifies the actions witnessed by Murphy in the course of her stay in Palestine - traders being ordered off the streets with an Uzi pointed at them, farmers being blocked off from their land by a barrier built to divide, random beatings based purely on race, the daily racism encountered at checkpoints, and so on.
Murphy made a number of trips to the region and came away with two books, this one on the West Bank area and A Month By The Sea on the Gaza Strip. I think on balance, the latter was tighter and more focussed, so one star less for Between River and Sea on that basis.
It's remarkable that a people on the receiving end of such horrific treatment still within living memory for some should turn into something so close to their own despised oppressors. While Israelis will reference the Holocaust, nothing in Israeli history justifies the actions witnessed by Murphy in the course of her stay in Palestine - traders being ordered off the streets with an Uzi pointed at them, farmers being blocked off from their land by a barrier built to divide, random beatings based purely on race, the daily racism encountered at checkpoints, and so on.
Murphy made a number of trips to the region and came away with two books, this one on the West Bank area and A Month By The Sea on the Gaza Strip. I think on balance, the latter was tighter and more focussed, so one star less for Between River and Sea on that basis.
May 28, 2017
I had ordered two books of Dervla : Through Siberia by Accident " and this one . I was already quite disappointing with the Siberia book .Her trying to stay "neutral" on the placed she visits in Siberia is quite tinted by her own view .
But in her Palestinian tour book , she is doggedly one sided and comically ,repetitively trying to justify her views . It could have been a serious book ,but can not take it so at her repetitive snickering and sarcastic remarks in parenthesis each time to make a point .Now reading three of her books can not help but think how much of the bear drinking ,amounts not calculated ,but specified at every page the amount of alcohol consumed , has effected her clear thinking and shaping her blinding hatred tinted view even to call a terrorist attack and act of PR .
But in her Palestinian tour book , she is doggedly one sided and comically ,repetitively trying to justify her views . It could have been a serious book ,but can not take it so at her repetitive snickering and sarcastic remarks in parenthesis each time to make a point .Now reading three of her books can not help but think how much of the bear drinking ,amounts not calculated ,but specified at every page the amount of alcohol consumed , has effected her clear thinking and shaping her blinding hatred tinted view even to call a terrorist attack and act of PR .
June 6, 2023
I actually had to stop reading because I didn’t feel a lot of hope for the future of these people/lands..one sad story after the next. Her experience mirrors some of mine while we were in Israel…how to find a way forward?
July 21, 2023
Outstanding travel book by, would you believe it, 80 year old, which shows clearly the political picture in Palestine. Close contacts with the people living this horror.
July 29, 2025
I'm really quite stuck for words on how to review Dervla Murphy's 'Between River and Sea'. Murphy was (she died in 2022) an intrepid Irish traveller and writer. By intrepid, I really mean intrepid - she'd go to places others wouldn't and didn't just rush through them. She was still travelling and writing well into her 80s.
She's a great writer. She really has a way with words and she does a lot of background research so her books are more than just a travelogue.
Between 2008 and 2010 she spent around 5mths, spread across several visits, in Palestine/Israel, spending the majority of that time in the West Bank/Occupied Palestinian Territories. She was able to experience first-hand what it was like for the Palestinians having to live day in, day out under Israeli occupation. The incidents she witnessed, the stories she heard, the deprivations she saw (and to a limited extent, experienced) are harrowing and horrific. I have no problem believing what she writes and understanding how important it is for these stories to get out there.
So why the confliction with what to write in my review? She says to be neutral in these circumstances is immoral, which I get, but also says she is objective. It's the objectivity I found lacking.
Right from the start every Israeli she comes into contact with is sullen, chunky, spotty with badly dyed or lank hair, caked in make-up. They can barely speak English and when she writes what they've said she writes it in very poor English to depict exactly how bad their English is (she's obviously met very different Israelis to the ones I've met!) She can't describe even a simple interaction without throwing in a few insults and derogatory remarks. Yet the Palestinians she meets are described positively and even if they don't speak good English, when she writes it, it's transcribed into good English. So right from the start she's setting up the Palestinians as some kind of noble victims and Israelis as ugly, uncouth monsters.
The history and politics she writes about is selective and she seems to have a fondness for Hamas. What would she think about them now? I have to remind myself that she was there when Hamas had only been in power (in Gaza where she didn't visit) for a year or two, but the signs had been long there and should have been clear to see. Would recent events have caused her rose-tinted spectacles to slip or would she see them as heroes?
She compares the Palestinians situation with that of the Irish when they were under British control - one colonised people connecting with another colonised people. But then at times she does acknowledge that the Palestinians also have to contend with their own leaders working against them (whether that's Hamas or the PA).
I know quite a lot about Israel/Palestine and with my prior knowledge I was able to read this book critically and add context. But having said that, I know that what I know is only the tip of the iceberg and from Murphy's research and knowledge I was able to learn about a lot I didn't know.
Then of course, she did spend most of her time in the West Bank and so the Israelis she had contact with were either young soldiers posted there as part of their national service or settlers. And settlers, by the very fact most have chosen to live in occupied territory, have as would be expected very extreme anti-Palestinian and/or religious views.
Towards the end of the book she does spend a bit of time in Israel itself and meets a few Israelis she is more positive about, but by this time it was almost too late and the damage had been done.
This is an important book and reveals so much of the daily lives of Palestinians that most would have no idea about and most travel-writers never get this depth that she has achieved. It's just a shame she didn't admit her subjectivity (which would be understandable) instead of claiming to be objective and that she didn't make it clear that her opinions of Israelis were formed mostly from the settlers and that she was only assuming that the majority of Israelis (those in Israel itself) would be the same. She could have been a lot more even-handed in her descriptions about the looks of the people she encountered and how she transcribed their English.
She also advocates for a one-state solution, which if it would work, would be the ideal solution. However, she didn't attempt to show how she thought this would work or detail all the reasons why it would never work (the best minds in world have worked on it and haven't been able to come up with a way of making it work) and this also lets the book down.
So, in my badly written way, can you see how I'm conflicted by this book and don't really know how to convey this?
She's a great writer. She really has a way with words and she does a lot of background research so her books are more than just a travelogue.
Between 2008 and 2010 she spent around 5mths, spread across several visits, in Palestine/Israel, spending the majority of that time in the West Bank/Occupied Palestinian Territories. She was able to experience first-hand what it was like for the Palestinians having to live day in, day out under Israeli occupation. The incidents she witnessed, the stories she heard, the deprivations she saw (and to a limited extent, experienced) are harrowing and horrific. I have no problem believing what she writes and understanding how important it is for these stories to get out there.
So why the confliction with what to write in my review? She says to be neutral in these circumstances is immoral, which I get, but also says she is objective. It's the objectivity I found lacking.
Right from the start every Israeli she comes into contact with is sullen, chunky, spotty with badly dyed or lank hair, caked in make-up. They can barely speak English and when she writes what they've said she writes it in very poor English to depict exactly how bad their English is (she's obviously met very different Israelis to the ones I've met!) She can't describe even a simple interaction without throwing in a few insults and derogatory remarks. Yet the Palestinians she meets are described positively and even if they don't speak good English, when she writes it, it's transcribed into good English. So right from the start she's setting up the Palestinians as some kind of noble victims and Israelis as ugly, uncouth monsters.
The history and politics she writes about is selective and she seems to have a fondness for Hamas. What would she think about them now? I have to remind myself that she was there when Hamas had only been in power (in Gaza where she didn't visit) for a year or two, but the signs had been long there and should have been clear to see. Would recent events have caused her rose-tinted spectacles to slip or would she see them as heroes?
She compares the Palestinians situation with that of the Irish when they were under British control - one colonised people connecting with another colonised people. But then at times she does acknowledge that the Palestinians also have to contend with their own leaders working against them (whether that's Hamas or the PA).
I know quite a lot about Israel/Palestine and with my prior knowledge I was able to read this book critically and add context. But having said that, I know that what I know is only the tip of the iceberg and from Murphy's research and knowledge I was able to learn about a lot I didn't know.
Then of course, she did spend most of her time in the West Bank and so the Israelis she had contact with were either young soldiers posted there as part of their national service or settlers. And settlers, by the very fact most have chosen to live in occupied territory, have as would be expected very extreme anti-Palestinian and/or religious views.
Towards the end of the book she does spend a bit of time in Israel itself and meets a few Israelis she is more positive about, but by this time it was almost too late and the damage had been done.
This is an important book and reveals so much of the daily lives of Palestinians that most would have no idea about and most travel-writers never get this depth that she has achieved. It's just a shame she didn't admit her subjectivity (which would be understandable) instead of claiming to be objective and that she didn't make it clear that her opinions of Israelis were formed mostly from the settlers and that she was only assuming that the majority of Israelis (those in Israel itself) would be the same. She could have been a lot more even-handed in her descriptions about the looks of the people she encountered and how she transcribed their English.
She also advocates for a one-state solution, which if it would work, would be the ideal solution. However, she didn't attempt to show how she thought this would work or detail all the reasons why it would never work (the best minds in world have worked on it and haven't been able to come up with a way of making it work) and this also lets the book down.
So, in my badly written way, can you see how I'm conflicted by this book and don't really know how to convey this?
January 7, 2020
I like Dervla Murphy's writing and I share her sense of outrage at the plight of the Palestinians. However, in this book she spends far too long covering the ground she wants to cover. In the end I only read half of it.
October 26, 2017
Deeply biased. Disappointing from such a broad minded and generous writer.
August 31, 2018
Interesting reaf
March 16, 2022
an absolute must read
March 13, 2023
A very difficult read, on multiple levels, but this is an important book. Eye-opening.
dnf
January 3, 2017DNF at page 36. Am putting this down for a while. Whilst the pacing is good and the subject matter interesting, I struggled with the writing style and transitional nature of jumping from place to place without any definable switch in locale.
The historical references, while good footnotes, had a tendency to overshadow the 'information gathering traveler' theme of the book.
I also found the views expressed by the few locals consulted to this point, heavily subjective and were too few to advertise a social mindset to events - perhaps this changes as the book progresses...
I may revisit BETWEEN THE RIVER AND SEA at another time. Shelved as a DNF for now.
The historical references, while good footnotes, had a tendency to overshadow the 'information gathering traveler' theme of the book.
I also found the views expressed by the few locals consulted to this point, heavily subjective and were too few to advertise a social mindset to events - perhaps this changes as the book progresses...
I may revisit BETWEEN THE RIVER AND SEA at another time. Shelved as a DNF for now.
August 7, 2015
“Elie photographing with a real camera". Really? One for Pseuds' corner.
Too many axes being ground. Flailing attacks on everything from contemporary construction workers to Irish neolithic housing reveal more about the crotchety "writer" than the matter at hand. The ironic quotation marks are done to death. Easy to read but very annoying.
Too many axes being ground. Flailing attacks on everything from contemporary construction workers to Irish neolithic housing reveal more about the crotchety "writer" than the matter at hand. The ironic quotation marks are done to death. Easy to read but very annoying.
July 16, 2015
While I enjoyed the start of the book, I found it quite heavy going. The writer assumed the reader had a lot of previous knowledge of the subject. In the end, I just didn't care.
May 2, 2017
Her experience in the West Bank is priceless, and you have to admire her willingness to shrug off the fear-baiting and cultural norms that keep people apart. Many great insights and informational gems buried in here.
My problem is with her writing style. I haven't read anything else by her, so it may be specific to this book, but I found this extremely rambly and disjointed. Sometimes she blasts through four topics on a single page. Many trains of thought are initiated and never concluded. She often references relatively obscure terms and events without sparing a sentence to explain them. And the people! So many people come and go and I don't have a lasting impression of most of them. Seems like there are roughly 100 people to keep track of, and sometimes she'll go hundreds of pages before mentioning their names again, without reminding us who they are. Sometimes she'll tease a person who sounds really fascinating and then never mention them again.
All in all, it's just too much, too messy, too long. She could have been much more effective with her message had she distilled it down to the most telling or potent experiences, developed them better and cut the rest.
She also has the habit of unnecessarily ending sentences in ellipses, which is a huge pet peeve of mine...
I really admire Murphy as a person and am in awe at the wealth of data she's gathered, but she really needs a stricter editor!
My problem is with her writing style. I haven't read anything else by her, so it may be specific to this book, but I found this extremely rambly and disjointed. Sometimes she blasts through four topics on a single page. Many trains of thought are initiated and never concluded. She often references relatively obscure terms and events without sparing a sentence to explain them. And the people! So many people come and go and I don't have a lasting impression of most of them. Seems like there are roughly 100 people to keep track of, and sometimes she'll go hundreds of pages before mentioning their names again, without reminding us who they are. Sometimes she'll tease a person who sounds really fascinating and then never mention them again.
All in all, it's just too much, too messy, too long. She could have been much more effective with her message had she distilled it down to the most telling or potent experiences, developed them better and cut the rest.
She also has the habit of unnecessarily ending sentences in ellipses, which is a huge pet peeve of mine...
I really admire Murphy as a person and am in awe at the wealth of data she's gathered, but she really needs a stricter editor!
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