How the "peace process" has made life impossible for ordinary Palestinians.
This book is not about suicide bombers. Tending one's fields, visiting a relative, going to the hospital: for ordinary Palestinians, such everyday activities require negotiating permits and passes, curfews and closures, "sterile roads" and "seam zones"—bureaucratic hurdles ultimately as deadly as outright military incursion. Not since the late Edward Said has there been such an articulate Arab voice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In devastating detail, Saree Makdisi reveals how the "peace process" institutionalized Palestinians' loss of control over their inner and outer lives. He shows how Israel's massive concrete walls going up around Gaza and the West Bank isolate communities from their lands, their livelihoods, and each other. Through eye-opening statistics and day-by-day reports, we learn how Palestinians have seen their hopes for freedom and statehood culminate in the creation of abject "territories" comparable to open-air prisons. Anyone surprised at Arab anger or the election of Hamas must read this book.
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In chronicling Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories—from road blocks to curfews, economic chaos to health care crises—UCLA professor Makdisi sketches a powerful, relentlessly heartbreaking account of a reality few Westerners know. According to Makdisi, the global media rarely covers the routine destruction of the occupation; rather than assessing the hermetic sealing of the Gaza Strip or the slicing up of West Bank communities for the sake of Israeli settlements, the media focuses on violence—eclipsing the deadly effects of the Israeli apparatus of bureaucracy and control. Makdisi unequivocally condemns attacks on civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, and acknowledges the many Israelis working toward conflict resolution (indeed, much of his data comes from Israeli human rights organizations), but his scholarship occasionally fails when surveying Israeli society: Jews who fled Arab lands don't generally consider themselves Arab Jews, for instance, and Zionism is a 19th-century nationalist movement, not a reaction to the Holocaust. Yet this doesn't detract from the urgency of Makdisi's work. The combined weight of personal stories of abject suffering, harsh statistics (in the past seven years, Israeli military operations have killed 854 Palestinian children) and facts on the ground make Makdisi's case that the occupation is destroying the Palestinian people, and possibly any chance for peaceful coexistence. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“This book needs to be required reading for all who seek a peaceful future for these two long-tormented peoples.” (Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Palestine )
“An extraordinarily detailed portrait. . . . Weaves together a tapestry of harrowing narratives in a lucid and measured tone.” (Times Higher Education Supplement )
“A lucid, invaluable chronicle of Palestinian daily life in the occupied territories.” (Boston Globe ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
“An extraordinarily detailed portrait. . . . Weaves together a tapestry of harrowing narratives in a lucid and measured tone.” (Times Higher Education Supplement )
“A lucid, invaluable chronicle of Palestinian daily life in the occupied territories.” (Boston Globe ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 71 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have been involved for some years in pro-Palestinian activism, and have read innumerable books on the subject. Nonetheless, Makdisi's book presented the stark facts of Israeli occupation with such vividness that I felt I was learning them - and raging and weeping at them - for the first time. There were times when Makdisi's sober, understated account of intolerable injustice forced me to put the book down; sometimes I didn't take it up again for days - but I always did take it up again.
Makdisi has an honourable pedigree: his uncle was the late Edward Said, for several decades not alone the leading advocate of Palestinian rights in the unfriendly environment of the USA, but also one of the world's leading intellectuals and literary critics. Makdisi is American-Lebanese-Palestinian, a mixture that renders him particularly qualified to approach his painful subject from a multitude of perspectives. As professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and an expert on the poetry of English romanticism, he can hardly be caricatured by the ill-intentioned as some wild-eyed anti-Western fanatic (although given the bloodsoaked history of Western interference in the rest of the world, of which the fate of Palestine is a particularly poignant example, it's perhaps time that more conscientious Westerners adopted such "fanaticism").
"Palestine Inside Out" isn't a history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, although it necessarily incorporates much historical reflection, but an anlysis of the "facts on the ground" created by Zionism and its US and EU backers, whereby Palestinian Arabs - Muslims and Christians - are deprived of human and political rights while simultaneously being demonised for resisting this state of affairs. Makdisi sees that Israel, the US and EU (and indeed the PLO) have jointly rendered impossible the two-state solution they all profess to support. His conclusions about a political solution will be uncomfortable for those who have pre-formed views on the matter - but his premises are supplied by the aforementioned "facts on the ground", and I believe that none but the most ingrained prejudices can withstand such a marshalling of evidence.
It is on the reef of Palestine that all narratives of progress in the field of political justice come to grief, and it is Palestine that reveals most nakedly the hollowness and hypocrisy of Western rhetoric concerning democracy and the rule of international law.
"Palestine Inside Out" could be subtitled "The World Inside Out". Read it, and be inspired to protest and take action against the conditions - or against your governments' support for the conditions - that make such injustice possible.
Makdisi has an honourable pedigree: his uncle was the late Edward Said, for several decades not alone the leading advocate of Palestinian rights in the unfriendly environment of the USA, but also one of the world's leading intellectuals and literary critics. Makdisi is American-Lebanese-Palestinian, a mixture that renders him particularly qualified to approach his painful subject from a multitude of perspectives. As professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and an expert on the poetry of English romanticism, he can hardly be caricatured by the ill-intentioned as some wild-eyed anti-Western fanatic (although given the bloodsoaked history of Western interference in the rest of the world, of which the fate of Palestine is a particularly poignant example, it's perhaps time that more conscientious Westerners adopted such "fanaticism").
"Palestine Inside Out" isn't a history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, although it necessarily incorporates much historical reflection, but an anlysis of the "facts on the ground" created by Zionism and its US and EU backers, whereby Palestinian Arabs - Muslims and Christians - are deprived of human and political rights while simultaneously being demonised for resisting this state of affairs. Makdisi sees that Israel, the US and EU (and indeed the PLO) have jointly rendered impossible the two-state solution they all profess to support. His conclusions about a political solution will be uncomfortable for those who have pre-formed views on the matter - but his premises are supplied by the aforementioned "facts on the ground", and I believe that none but the most ingrained prejudices can withstand such a marshalling of evidence.
It is on the reef of Palestine that all narratives of progress in the field of political justice come to grief, and it is Palestine that reveals most nakedly the hollowness and hypocrisy of Western rhetoric concerning democracy and the rule of international law.
"Palestine Inside Out" could be subtitled "The World Inside Out". Read it, and be inspired to protest and take action against the conditions - or against your governments' support for the conditions - that make such injustice possible.
59 of 68 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I think one would indeed be hard pressed to find a more detailed and accurate account of the predicament faced by the Palestinians since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Six Day War(resulting then in the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank). Of course there have been other books(most recently, Jimmy Carter's account based on his trip to Israel)but this book is unique in presenting a true "microscopic" account of the effect of the occupation on the lives of Palestinians in the occupied lands. I occasionally found myself rather depressed by it, even angry that the Israelis could act with such brutality and callous disregard for the welfare of those they treat with such contempt(but of course they're not out to win any popularity contests as both this and their historical disregard of U.N. Resolutions so amply demonstrates!).
So based on the evidence presented, Makdisi presents a clear cut solid case arguing for the desirability of having a single state instead of a two state solution to resolving the long term conflict there.
So based on the evidence presented, Makdisi presents a clear cut solid case arguing for the desirability of having a single state instead of a two state solution to resolving the long term conflict there.
38 of 43 people found the following review helpful
By Shawn Duffy
Format:Hardcover
I've been studying the Israel/Palestine issue for almost 18 years now and I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territories twice and I can't recall a single book that has taught me more about the conflict than this one. Instead of focusing on history, politics, and suicide bombers as most books do, this one documents the daily occupation and how it plays out in the daily lives of Palestinians. It is absolutely appalling and eye-opening. More than once, I'm sure my jaw literally dropped open when confronted with the realities of what the occupation means. This book should undoubtedly be on the reading list of every member of Congress and every American citizen.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Israel Not Palestine
The correct historical name of the country is Israel, named by its indigenous Jewish population 3000 years ago. "Palestine" is just the European Christian name for Israel. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kitchen Magician
3.0 out of 5 stars
Get used to it
For the writing, "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation", I would give Mr. Makdisi a one for being so naive within the realm of the one-state solution and a five for... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jack D.R.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Book
Saree Makdisi has written one of the best books on modern day Palestine. I have read dozens of books on the subject, and this is truly one of the best. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Gus
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible.
Rhetoric. No facts, very little sources - mostly anonymous testimony and excessive hyperbole and pathos. Read more
Published on May 11, 2011 by Rafael Eitan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Misdirection and outright lies.
I am amazed that someone who claims to be a scholar can be so one sided And out right dishonest. We start out with an idealistic scene of peaceful people on there land and... Read more
Published on April 24, 2011 by Daniel
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
This book is terribly one-sided, even from the perspective of one who cares deeply about the rights and well-being of Palestinians. Read more
Published on April 8, 2011 by Sandy & Richard
1.0 out of 5 stars
Twisted history and an old proposal
The author writes a lenghty book about the history of the conflict from an extremely one-sided viewpoint and then tries to sell the good old "one state" solution. Read more
Published on June 14, 2010 by Thomas P. Noland
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palestine Inside Out - Insightful!
UCLA tenured English/Comp Lit Professor, Saree Makdisi, presents an incredibly well-written, well documented account of Palestinian life in the occupied territories of Israel. Read more
Published on June 5, 2010 by Mighty Mouse
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who thought they understood
Saree Makdisi's book is meant to be accessible. It is intended to start with mundane yet harsh realities of occupation that readers might at first ascribe to Israeli bureaucratic... Read more
Published on September 26, 2009 by Paul Larudee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent piece of work
Saree Makdisi has done an outstanding job in telling the whole world what is really going on in the Middle East contrary to what we normally read in the newspapers and what the... Read more
Published on September 7, 2009 by Isaac Perez-madrid
