Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

This book is the culmination of 20 years of research, fieldwork and analysis on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the impact of Israeli occupation. Discussion of Israeli policy toward Palestinians is often regarded as a taboo subject, with the result that few people -- especially in the U.S. -- understand the origins and consequences of the conflict. Roy's book provides an indispensable context for understanding why the situation remains so intractable. The focus of Roy's work is the Gaza Strip, an area that remains consistently neglected and misunderstood despite its political centrality. Drawing on more than two thousand interviews and extensive first-hand experience, Roy chronicles the impact of Israeli occupation in Palestine over nearly a generation. Exploring the devastating consequences of socio-economic and political decline, this is a unique and powerful account of the reality of life in the West Bank and Gaza. Written by one of the world's foremost scholars of the region, it offers an unrivalled breadth of scholarship and insight.

Sara Roy is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. A distinguished political economist, she has written extensively on the Palestinian economy and has documented over the last three decades. She is the author of The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development (1995, 2001), The Gaza Strip Survey (1986); editor of The Economics of Middle East Peace: A Reassessment (1999); and is currently completing Political Islam in Palestine: From Extremism to Civism.