What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?
When the state of Israel was formed in 1948, it precipitated the Nakba or 'disaster': the displacement of the Palestine nation, creating fracture-lines which continue to erupt in violent and tragic ways today.
In the years that followed, while the Berlin Wall crumbled and South Africa abolished apartheid, the Israeli government rejected every opportunity for reconciliation with Palestine. But Raja Shehadeh, human rights lawyer and Palestine's greatest living writer, suggests that this does not mean the two nations cannot work together as partners on the road to peace, not genocide.
In graceful, devastatingly observed prose, this is a fresh perspective for a time of great need.
Reviews
A slim, powerful work ... details the devastating consequences of the siege [of Gaza] ― New Statesman
Measured, lawyerly but always very readable... As the book comes to a close, as if summoning a last reserve of strength, [Shehadeh] manages a message of hope. Perhaps, he writes, the utter nightmarishness of the past few months may achieve what decades of war and negotiation have failed to resolve: a lasting peace ― Observer
Elegantly written ... suffused with anger without descending into bitterness ― Irish Times
An exceptionally lucid account of the underlying causes of the war in Gaza ... [Shehadeh] writes with so much humanity, recounting the story with neither rancour nor despair. This book will be particularly valuable for political education. Highly recommended all round. ― Morning Star
Praise for Raja Shehadeh: In his moral clarity and baring of the heart, his self-questioning and insistence on focusing on the experience of the individual within the storms of nationalist myth and hubris, Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi ― New York Times
A buoy in a sea of bleakness -- Rachel Kushner
Shehadeh is a great inquiring spirit with a tone that is vivid, ironic, melancholy and wise -- Colm Tóibín
Palestine's greatest prose writer ― Observer
Luminously clear-sighted ... By turns lyrical, witty and shrewd, Shehadeh is an excellent companion ― Prospect
Raja Shehadeh is Palestine's leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. Shehadeh was a National Book Award finalist in 2023 and is the author of several acclaimed books published by Profile, including the Orwell Prize-winning Palestinian Walks. He lives in Ramallah.
