Refugees in Our Own Land : Chronicles from a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Bethlehem [Hardcover]

Muna Hamzeh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2001

This book is an eye-witness account of what it is like to live in Palestine as a refugee in your own homeland. Born in Jerusalem, Muna Hamzeh is a journalist who has been writing about Palestinian affairs since 1985. She first worked as a journalist in Washington DC, but moved back to Palestine in 1989 to cover the first Palestine Intifada - the war of stones. She then settled in Dheisheh, near Bethlehem, - one of 59 Palestinian refugee camps that are considered the oldest refugee camps in the world. Immediately accessible and fully up-to-date, the first part of the book consists of a diary which Hamzeh wrote between October 4th and December 4th 2000, telling the story of the second Intifada. Facing the tanks and armed guards of one of the best equipped armies in the world, the Palestinians have nothing. They fight back with stones. The anguish and terror that Muna and her friends face on a daily basis is tangible. Who will be the next to die? Whose house will be the next to burn down? This deeply moving personal account brings to life the harsh realities of the Palestinian struggle. The second part of the book provides the background to these current events. It describes what life has been like for Dheisheh's refugees since 1990, and explains why the second Intifada was a natural development of the Oslo peace accord. "Refugees in Our Own Land: Chronicles from a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Bethlehem" is a rare insider's look into the heart and minds of Palestinian refugees. It is a tribute to the bravery of the Palestinian people, and a wake-up call to the world that has ignored so much of their struggle and their suffering.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Always compelling, [Hamzeh's writing] movingly conveys these tragedies, and how, in a tight-knit society on a small patch of land, they are all inter-connected.' The Financial Times 'Muna Hamzeh has given us a unique insight into women's everyday life during the Al Aqsa Intifada - anger, sorrow, frustration fly off every page this book is a slice of living history which will now never be forgotten.' Victoria Brittain"

About the Author

Muna Hamzeh is a Palestinian-American journalist whose work on the Palestinian question has appeared in The Economist, Ha'aretz, The Christian Science Monitor, Jerusalem Report, and Middle East International, among others. Hamzeh was born in Jerusalem to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, both of whom were half Palestinian, half Lebanese. She lived in the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethelehm from 1988 - 2000. She is currently based at the Univeresity of Texas at Austin.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press (August 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745316522
• ISBN-13: 978-0745316529
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #969,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Occupation Personified, May 28, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Refugees in Our Own Land : Chronicles from a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Bethlehem (Hardcover)

Few are the works that have given the personal touch to what it means to be living under the ugliest forms of occupation of modern times: The Israeli Occupation of West Bank and Gaza. Ms. Hamzeh's work is one of such works. Her diaries give a face to the people who are suffering on a daily basis faced with what an Apartheid-like situation - those people are the Palestinians who are being dispossessed and forced to live as refugees in their own land. Ms. Hamzeh's diaries and the additional essays give the personal touch and the political situation in the form of Oslo agreement that is shown to be nothing more than a mask that was intended all along to squeeze the Palestinians out of their land.
This book should be recommended reading to students of Politics who risk losing sight of what it means to live under Occupation while reading Academic oriented works, and this book should be displayed as a testimony by all peace loving people against Violence and Racism and pure Murder that is being applied against Palestinians on a daily basis.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Promotes war, March 6, 2005

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Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Refugees in Our Own Land : Chronicles from a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Bethlehem (Hardcover)

I'd love to find a book by a book by a Palestinian that truly seeks peace. This is not such a volume.

Beginning from the preface, which in hysterical tones accuses Israel of committing genocide, to the last pages, this is a book loaded with code-words calling for Israel's destruction. It's full of "humiliation," "murder," "genocide," and the like.

Had those things actually been perpetrated by Israel, I would be first in line to condemn them. But even the United Nations has concluded that Israel has not committed genocide, in Jenin, or anywhere else. As for murder, it seems that the only murder is taking place by Palestinians against Israeli civilians, and that whosoever amongst Palestinians has been killed has died either in battle, in the line of fire, or by accident, for which Israel has apologized. When, on the other hand, was the last time a Palestinian leader actually sought an end to suicide bombings, because they are evil, not because they are inexpedient.

My biggest problem with this book is that for most of the events that Hamzeh reports, she relies on hearsay. There has been no scientific or objective attempt to verify the information, much less the veracity of the sources. Even that might be all right, had the reporter not assumed an hysterical tone. But Hamzeh is so willing to believe everything nasty she hears about Israel or Israelis, or Jews for that matter, that nothing escapes unscathed.

I want peace, but books like this one--filled with blame and outright hatred--do nothing to promote it.

--Alyssa A. Lappen