Three Books to Understand the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Posted by Bijal Shah on
As we pray for peace in Palestine and Israel, and the wider Middle East, at the request of a couple of people today, if there were only 3 books I would recommend you read on this conflict these would be it:
1. A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin - the book that helped me truly understand how this conflict began and the development of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 when the British were dividing up the Middle East. An insight read, I'd say it was the godfather of all books on how the Middle East came to be following the unravelling of the Ottoman Empire.
2. Black Wave by Kim Ghattas - I devoured this book in 3 days during Covid-19. It was an eye opener into why the current MiddleEast is in the mess that it is - it doesn't necessarily focus on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict but gives us a strong understanding of the political and cultural dynamics at play in the Middle East should this stem into a bigger war in the region.
3. The Green Prince by Mosab Hassan Yousef - This one's a memoir but I originally watched the documentary at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival before I read the book and it's actually an incredible book on the interplay of Hamas, the Israeli government, the intelligence networks and so forth. I read this one before I read the two above and it was a fascinating read, especially because it resulted in a friendship of two people, one Arab, one Jewish on different sides of the story. Highly recommend.
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