Journey to Jerusalem

by Grace Halsell

A religious book.

Genres: Politics, Middle East, History

193 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

The daughter of writer Harry H. Halsell, she studied at Texas Tech from 1939 to 1942, at Columbia from 1943 to 1944, at Texas Christian University from 1945 to 1951, and at the Sorbonne (Paris) from 1957 to 1958.

She worked for several newspapers between 1942 and 1965, including the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Washington bureau of the Houston Post. She covered both the Korean and Vietnam Wars as a reporter, and was a White House speech writer for President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1968. Halsell wrote thirteen books, the best-known of which was Soul Sister (1969)

Reviews

[Nicoletta Chiodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What did I think? I thought a lot, not all of it about the writing, or the journalism: this was undoubtedly the type of book that leaves you with a lot more questions than you started with. Most of which are along the lines of, "How can we do this to each other?" or "Why aren't we saying something about this?"
Perhaps I should start by explaining a little about the book itself. It is a journalistic account by an American journalist (who wrote some other rather cool accounts, such as disguising herself as black and going into the South a year or so after the death of MLK Jr, and being amongst the Navajo Native Americans and illegal Mexican immigrants) on the holy land, going first through the Jewish parts, then the Christian parts, and finally into the Muslim areas.
It is fairly unbiased, but even in the Jewish side of the book, there are a few tell-tale signs that the author was always on the Palestinian side. But really, after seeing what is really going on over there, who wouldn't be? Is it biased? Yes. Is it untrue? No.
So, what did I think? (Spoiler: I rated it five stars). The writing was slightly antiquated (as I find non-fiction from the '80's and before can be), and some of the terminology was very 19th century, but that didn't make it bad or tough to read at all. I wasn't always a big fan of her prose, and every so often I found her borderline racist (she became worried being alone with a Palestinian driver, when she had been alone with white Jewish drivers all the time), which, needless to say, bugged me. But overall, the subject and the way she showed it more than made up for any faults (personal or prosaic) that she had.
This is not the type of book you 'enjoy' or even read because you're feeling in the mood; it's a very heavy, dark story of a people robbed of their lands, rights, and often, lives. One of the things that made it all the darker was the amount of hope it showed. The Palestinians always seemed to see the best in any little victory, any little triumph. But this was written in 1981, and from talking to Palestinians and reading more modern books, I know that not much has changed. If anything has changed, it's for the worse.
The perspective was very human, very real, and for the most part, she let the people speak for themselves, merely giving a voice and lending some of her own feelings to it. It's an easy, quick read, and I'm looking forward to move on to more books, such as those written by Palestinians themselves.

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grace Halsell was a remarkable immersion journalist with an uncomfortable writing style. The historian Robin Kelley is writing her biography, so soon there may be an uptick in interest in her earlier schlocky experiments “passing” as a black woman, an American Indian and as a migrant worker. This surprisingly substantial book—long out of print—covers her sojourn in Israel and the Occupied Territories during the early 1980s. Sadly, the book, its predictions, warnings and observations could have been written yesterday. What’s worth noting is that, to my knowledge, this was one of the first sympathetic portraits of Palestinians—both in Israel and the Territories—coupled with a fair account of Jewish religious settlers, published by a mainstream press. A remarkable chapter—“Arab Jews: The Silent Majority”—sketches the conditions of Mizrachim before it was common in America to call attention to their Arabic origins and identity issues. Includes an unflattering cameo by dove Meron Benevisti.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A depressing read. She first enters and associates with Jewish settlers who relay their worries about the Palestinians from their air conditioned homes and complain about inflation and limited opportunities from the free homes and agriculture settlements they were granted. There is a brief section on local Christians who are treated with open contempt by the Israeli settlers. Then we get into the Palestinians who are subject to strip searches, home invasion, violence from the Israeli government as well as Jewish extremist. The final chapter briefly relates accounts of torture in Israeli prison as to even complain about the Israelis can result in a night raid on your home and charges of terrorism. At best you can be released if you do not sign a confession after about 2 to 5 years of starvation and torture that always ends in a disability. There have been recent news accounts of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian prisoners only to be praised by the Jewish settlers for defending Israel.