This book fulfills its title´s promise; it is an informative, engrossing, readable and moving history; a chronicle in the best sense of a period and place for which we have had little news or analysis that is not filtered by the aggressors of Palestine and their friends worldwide.
In their foreword, Kathleen and Bill Christison write that, “The Palestinian—Israeli conflict has gone beyond being a mere political problem, beyond the stuff of cool debate. It is a human disaster that can no longer be treated with dispassion… The Israeli Read more [...] Monthly Archives: September 2012
Baroud, Ramzy. THE SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: a Chronicle of a People´s Struggle. 2006. Pluto Press, London, UK.
This book fulfills its title´s promise; it is an informative, engrossing, readable and moving history; a chronicle in the best sense of a period and place for which we have had little news or analysis that is not filtered by the aggressors of Palestine and their friends worldwide.
In their foreword, Kathleen and Bill Christison write that, “The Palestinian—Israeli conflict has gone beyond being a mere political problem, beyond the stuff of cool debate. It is a human disaster that can no longer be treated with dispassion… The Israeli Read more [...] Comments Off on Baroud, Ramzy. THE SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: a Chronicle of a People´s Struggle. 2006. Pluto Press, London, UK.
Filed under Book Reviews, Ramzy Baroud
Barndt, Deborah, editor. Wild Fire: Art as Activism 2006. Sumach Press, Toronto, Canada.
The title of this anthology of mainly young activist women from an academic discipline intrigued me right away. I often think of art & activism, sometimes connected, sometimes separate. But Art as Activism implies a relationship of deeper integration. The twenty–one contributors have been graduate students of the editor; in this anthology they express their creativity as activism – a process that reaches out to the community to participate in social transformation. In her introduction the editor, Deborah Barndt of the Faculty of Environmental Read more [...] Comments Off on Barndt, Deborah, editor. Wild Fire: Art as Activism 2006. Sumach Press, Toronto, Canada.
Filed under Book Reviews, Deborah Barndt
Barghouti, Omar. BDS: BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA
“The BDS campaign is among the most important forms of such ´resolute struggle´ by the great majority of Palestinians, who resist the colonization of their land and minds and demand nothing less than self–determination, freedom, justice and unmitigated equality…”
Barghouti is one of the new generation Palestinian activists, grounded in the life of a people under siege and understanding the importance of social movements and global solidarity. He writes that Palestinians through social movements have surpassed their leadership and have Read more [...] Comments Off on Barghouti, Omar. BDS: BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA
Filed under Book Reviews, Omar Barghouti
Barghouti, Mourid. I Was Born There, I Was Born Here. 2011. Bloomsbury Publishing. London, UK
Silence said:/truth needs no eloquence./After the death of the horseman,/ the homeward-bound horse/says everything/ without saying anything.
The exile longs for home, longs to say, “I was born here.” Twice the exiled Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti has been able to return to his homeland and say that instead of “I was born there”. Exiles live constantly between these realities; and for Barghouti in his second volume of memoirs he is able to put ´emotions into history´; a true sense of identity is all about emotions. He can Read more [...] Comments Off on Barghouti, Mourid. I Was Born There, I Was Born Here. 2011. Bloomsbury Publishing. London, UK
Filed under Book Reviews, Mourid Barghouti
Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press, USA and UK.
If water is essential to human society and our global economy it seems that a vast labour pool of unprotected and dispensable workers is just as vital. If we think slavery went out a few centuries ago, it is time to think again. Slavery exists today in many forms from child labour in agriculture in much of the world to sex slavery, organized as a global business in Asia, but also the result of wars everywhere to brutal physical labour in resource extraction and manufacturing world wide. This is a depressing overview of humanity's inhumanity, but Read more [...]
Comments Off on Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press, USA and UK.
Filed under Book Reviews, Kevin Bales
Azoulay, Ariella. From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation. 1947-50. 2011. Pluto Press. London, UK
“This book reads them [photographs] in a manner that presents a new way to write history – history through photographs.”
When I was in London a few months ago, I had the good fortune to see an exhibition of the photos and text in this book at the Qattan Foundation in Earl´s Court. This book reproduced both the photos & text and the impact of these images and the explanatory words is just as powerful as the exhibition.
This is a graphic document of the transformation of one country into another; a transformation marked by treachery, Read more [...] Comments Off on Azoulay, Ariella. From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation. 1947-50. 2011. Pluto Press. London, UK
Filed under Ariella Azoulay, Book Reviews
Ashour, Radwa. Siraaj: An Arab Tale 2007. Austin, University of Texas, USA.
This is a slim volume and a seemingly simple story of a baker working for a despotic sultan on an island off East Africa at end of the 1800s. Amina´s husband was lost at sea so she waits anxiously for her son, Said, to return from a long voyage. He does return and is full of the history he has witnessed. He has been to Egypt, lived there with Egyptians and has witnessed the British invasion of Alexandria.
The fictitious island, set near Zanzibar, is a small lush fiefdom of a fabulously wealthy sultan with a castle full of Arabic servants and Read more [...]
Comments Off on Ashour, Radwa. Siraaj: An Arab Tale 2007. Austin, University of Texas, USA.
Filed under Book Reviews, Radwa Ashour
Ashour, Radwa. Granada. # 1 of a trilogy 2003. Syracuse University Press, USA
There is a rich body of literature in Arabic; English readers are deprived of much of it by our disinterest and our historic political antagonism both to Arabic culture and our debt to it. We rarely have access to modern Arabic fiction in translation, particularly by women, so it is an unusual treat to read two books by this contemporary Egyptian writer and academic. Her books are not dry or academic but bold novels with strong characters whose lives and actions are lovingly detailed with daily life meshed into unfolding history.
This is the Read more [...]
Comments Off on Ashour, Radwa. Granada. # 1 of a trilogy 2003. Syracuse University Press, USA
Filed under Book Reviews, Radwa Ashour
Archer, Colin. Whose Priorities? A guide for campaigners on military and social spending 2007. International Peace Bureau. Geneva, Switzerland.
“Even a small share of the military expenditure of the rich would, if appropriately attribute, make a substantial difference to the struggle against poverty …”
This report is the latest in an International Peace Bureau (IPB) series (see their website for information & ordering) that examines specific aspects of the obstacles and strategies on the road to peace making. It expands on the contents of War or Welfare? which IPB produced in 2005. All these publications provide useful information for activists who seek factual information Read more [...] Comments Off on Archer, Colin. Whose Priorities? A guide for campaigners on military and social spending 2007. International Peace Bureau. Geneva, Switzerland.
Filed under Book Reviews, Colin Archer
