From Publishers Weekly
The Palestinian friends Finkelstein made during his numerous visits to the occupied territories are not the terrorists and stone-throwing thugs of news stories, but hardworking, sensitive family men and women who want only to live in freedom and with respect. "History will not forgive what was done to the innocent people of Palestine," his friend Moussa tells him after the 1993 Oslo agreement. "We lost everything because everyone was against us. Even our leadership." Finkelstein can be sententious, especially when he compares the Palestinians to the Cherokee Nation, and when he explores the double standard with which the international community views Israel and the Palestinians. But as the son of Holocaust survivors, he brings a unique perspective to his subject; he sees the intifada as analogous to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and Yitzhak Shamir's reaction to the death of civilians on a bus overturned by a vengeful Gazan as similar to that of Josef Goebbels's to the incident that provoked Kristallnacht. Taken out of context, it's appalling, but Finkelstein is trying to show the Palestinians as victims of an arbitrary, senseless and cruel Israeli government whose actions are designed to "reduce them to despair and force them to go away."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
An American Jewish academician with strong sympathies for Palestinian causes provides a personal perspective on what has been commonly referred to as the intifada. Finkelstein (Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, Routledge, 1995) focuses on the quality of life of the Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. He argues that Palestinian-initiated violence in the area and support for Iraq during the Persian Gulf War must be understood as a reflection of frustration at Israeli control over Palestinians' daily lives. The author was a frequent visitor to Israel and the occupied territories during the period 1988-92 and conducted extensive interviews with Palestinian activists and politicians. While the ideological similarities between him and his subjects may be seen by some as an inability to assess objectively the relationship between violence and political goals in the Palestinian community, this witness statement is worth critical analysis by a wide range of audiences. For academic and larger public collections.?Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
