Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada

by Wendy Pearlman, Laura Junka (Photographer)

As the Middle East peace process disintegrates & the second Palestinian Intifada begins, Wendy Pearlman, a young Jewish woman from the American Midwest travels to the West Bank & Gaza Strip in a quest to talk to ordinary Palestinians. A remarkable narrative emerges from her conversations with doctors, artists, school kids & families who have lost loved ones or watched their homes destroyed. Their stories, ranging from the humorous to the tragic, paint a profile of the Palestinians that's as honest as it's uncommon in the Western media: that of ordinary people who simply want to live ordinary lives. As Pearlman writes, "the personal stories & heartfelt reflections that I encountered did not expose a hatred of Jews or a yearning to push Israelis into the sea. Rather, they painted a portrait of a people who longed for precisely that which had inspired the first Israelis: the chance to be citizens in a country of their own."

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Middle East, Politics, Biography Memoir

250 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about 4 years ago. And what stays with me is the fact that when I was read the book, I took 2 buses to work, and 2 buses from work every day. In between the 2 buses I would have a 20 minute wait outside. And for the time I read this book. I literally sat in shock on the street outside. Desperately trying not to cry. And in shock, literally, at the peace around me. The lack of bombs. The birds flying. People walking to/from work. Clean sidewalks. Everyday life just happening. No war, no bombs passing through houses. No kids sleeping in hallways night after night to avoid the bombs and bullets passing through their houses. No soldiers shooting at kids' feet to help pass the time and prevent boredom. No trauma-induced rashes covering children's bodies, one after another after another. I work with torture survivors all around the world. And my professional background in international security (therefore analyzing the worst crime, in the worst places, all around the world). And this book broke my heart. Four years later and it still does, like nothing else I have ever read, and that is saying a lot. I, personally, think the fact that the world functions while allowing this to take place, and people arent making themselves knowledgeable of what's happening.... is INSANITY. Reading this book is Step #1. It's saying, for example, if I have a stavring child at my feet I will not walking by and pretend I see nothing. Or, on a larger scale, if I knew what was happening during WWII, I would not have been silent.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intellectual debate over Israel's hellish rule over the Palestinians often gets lost in details of dates, resolutions, Camp Davids, and recriminations. In the end, though, it's about real people, and this book does a wonderful job at compiling accounts from actual Palestinians -- surgeons, engineers, students, merchants.

Here's just a taste from one account, from Mohammed, a surgeon, heart specialist at Ramallah Hospital. He grew up in a refugee camp:

"Last week an eleven-year-old boy was shot by an Israeli soldier near the checkpoint. He was all alone and he was just a kid on his way to school. If you could have seen his parents when they received his body, it was more than horrible. This was a child. What sort of threat did he present to an adult soldier three hundred meters away from him?...

"We've seen all sorts of injuries in this Intifada. All types of weapons have been used against civilians, from rubber bullets to explosives. We've had to pull all sorts of bullets out of the bodies of injured Palestinians. We've seen bodies that were turned to shreds because of the explosives used against them.

I wonder about the people who have been shot during demonstrations inside Palestinian areas. Isn't it their right to demonstrate? They didn't go outside areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Why have the Israelis come from outside to shoot these people in their own territory?

You can't even imagine the nature of some of the cases we've received. The number of dead and injured is enormous. Why were they killed? Why were they injured? Because they asked for their freedom? In this era [2002:] there is no nation that is still occupied. No people would accept it if their country were occupied by a foreign nation and then they were forced to leave their homes. We are demanding nothing more than our freedom." (97,98).

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada by Wendy Pearlman consists of interviews conducted in Palestine, as well as the author's anecdotes and reflections on the circumstances surrounding each interview. Pearlman is an American professor of Political Science with a specialty in Middle East politics at Northwestern , but during the time in which she did the interviews contained in Occupied Voices, she was still pursuing a doctoral degree in politics of the Middle East and North Africa. She states in the book's intro that she knew that in order to fully understand the politics of the region, she must gain better understanding of the Israeli-Arabic conflict. Raised Jewish in nowhere, Nebraska, she had only ever heard about the Israeli side of the conflict; however, a trip to the West Bank and Gaza opened her eyes to the suffering and desperation of the Palestinian people and the horrific violence and psychological torture they experienced on an almost daily basis. (As well as food scarcity, lack of available jobs, inaccessibility to basic healthcare and clean water, etc.) The interviews were absolutely heartbreaking, but I think the most heartbreaking thing of all was reading the pleas for peace and mercy that were voiced over two decades ago, with the knowledge that today, 24 years later, the conditions in Palestine are more horrific than ever. I also can't shake the thought that it is extremely likely that the people she interviewed (and their children) are dead, imprisoned, or have been radicalized beyond recognition by all they have suffered.

This is something I feel all Americans should read as it gives voices to the voiceless and will help invoke empathy for the occupied and oppressed. If you seek a better understanding of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book is for you... If you've wondered or complained about the fact that several American universities have had impassioned protests on behalf of the Palestinian people--or have ever said that the suffering being wreaked upon them is justified-- then this book is especially for you.

[Ethan Hedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pain and loss and displacement that Pearlman found during the second intifada and put into text could have been nearly unaltered and published today.

Two passages stood out to me in my first reading.

“You know, I think that peace would be the most dangerous thing for the Israeli community. Peace means that the outside enemy is no longer there. If they didn't have an external enemy, then they would probably have to look for another enemy among themselves. This was the psychological process behind the killing of Rabin. Rabin was serious about making peace with Arabs and Palestinians, and that is why an Israeli killed him.”

“In the West they may have luxury and security. But all of those luxuries can make people forget what "homeland" means. It can keep them from truly feeling for their neighbors or caring about their own people.”

[H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has no 2- or 1-star ratings for a reason. Great collection of long-form interviews on par with Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl. Wendy Pearlman speaks Arabic, lived in the West Bank for a time, and went to Gaza during the second Intifada to interview ordinary Palestinian people. In between each chapter, Pearlman wrote short pieces outlining certain facts about Palestinian/Israeli life, culture, history, and policies. More than any other book I've read so far, Occupied Voices helped me understand why the Oslo Accords failed.

[Brendan Campisi · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are lot of books like this--a sincere American/Westerner decides to help Palestinians be heard by the Western public. Pearlman does a good job of it, because of her evident empathy. Reading this in 2024 gives one a constant oscillation between thinking "nothing has changed" and thinking "it's gotten so much worse."

[Noor نور · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most important book someone can read. Everyone HAS to read this. They must. It is so crucial. It is so good. I went through like three sticky note packs.

America needs to read this. The Palestinians’ voices are so important to hear. We cannot just label them as terrorists for wanting freedom.

[Dima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and heartbreaking. The way the author presents each interview offers an important context to what the interviewee is speaking about.

[Juan · Rating 3 out of 5]

We need more books in this format (long form interviews)

[Helen Fordyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m so grateful for the opportunity to read a book like this. also i want to shove it in any israel sympathizer’s face and force them to read it

[amal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent peek into the human lives at stake in the struggle for Palestinian liberation.

[Valarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must-read for anyone who wants to debate about the Israeli/Palestine conflict. The testimonies of real Palestinians are invaluable to understanding the effects of Israeli occupation. Even if you believe that Israel has a right to all of that land, I think we can all agree that killing civilians and strangling Palestine's economy is not the way to achieve this goal. The reason I took away a star was due to the narrator's self-centered intrusions on her interview subjects. Pearlman feels the need to explain how she became such great friends with each individual, and frequently mentions one of her credentials (e.g. "My dad said he had given up talking sense into me when I decided to get a Ph.D. in political science." How is that relevant?). However, these Occupied Voices really speak for what our media is not showing.

[Guido · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really just a collection of interviews with a little prefacing by the author (a Jewish girl from Nebraska interviewing Palestinians). Good read if you're interested in the perspective of occupied Palestinians with some general history of the Israeli/Palestinain "situation".

Mildly interesting anecdote about how I discovered this book: my roommate at the time, a Jordanian by birth, was given a copy by some girl he met at an Arabic conference in NYC. Unfortunately, he had read a total of zero books his whole life so the copy remained on a side table in our living room for many months. Finally, I took pity on it and moved it to the bathroom (my favorite place for reading). The rest is Goodreads history.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read the story of the Palestinians from the viewpoint of the Palestinians. This book did do that but the ironic part was I found out Wendy Pearlman is a Jewish girl from Lincon NE. In high school she was the head of the Lincoln ACLU and since then has gone on to study history at harvard. She did interviews with various Palestinians from the west bank and Gaza strip and let the Palestinians tell their own stories. It was interesting.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly an unbiased read - there's a definite agenda, but its still informative. And plus, I'm a sucker for personal histories, or short stories, and these fit the bill. I could have done with less author commentary, but c'est la vie. Especially interesting at the moment, given Israel's recent actions in Gaza.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a Jewish woman from the Mudwest, which is interesting. The stories in this book are from Paledtinians of all walks if life, telling stories of personal tragedies and just general life experiences during the Intifada.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compelling read. I had to keep picking this one up to find out the next person’s story. I found the author’s stories of getting to the interviews as informative as the interviews themselves. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the middle east.