Resource List for Palestine and Israel Film Series Feb. 12 – March 19, 2018 Series hosted by Montpelier Senior Activity Center Films and Resources Selected by Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
BOOKS
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation by Saree Makdisi, 2008. Powerfully written, well documented, and integrates the present with historical context, including the Nakba (known as the War of Independence in 1948). 298 pages.
Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe; published in 2017 explores claims that are repeated over and over, among them that Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration, , whether Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, whether June 1967 was a war of “no choice,” and the myths surrounding the failures of the Camp David Accords. 167 pages.
Sleeping on a Wire, Conversations with Palestinians by David Grossman, 1993. Written by Israel’s best known novelist, this is a book of insightful interviews that illuminate the contradictions of Zionism, behind which Grossman remains standing. 346 pages.
The Battle for Justice in Palestine, Ali Abunimah, 2014. Well-written, accessible exploration of the fallacy of a neoliberal Palestine, Israel’s fight against BDS, and the potential benefit to Israelis and Palestinians of a one-state solution. 292 pages.
The Myths of Liberal Zionism, Yitzhak Laor, 2009. A fascinating exploration of Israel’s writers and Zionism by an Israeli poet and dissident, illustrating the inherent conflict between Zionism and democracy. 160 pages.
Goliath, Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, Max Blumenthal, 2013. Beginning with the national elections carried out in 2008-09, during Israel’s war on Gaza, this hard-hitting book by a prominent American-Jewish reporter examines the rise of far-right to power in Israel and its consequences for Jews and Palestinians, both in Israel and in the occupied territory. 410 pages.
Lords of the Land, The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar. One of the finest accounts of the Zionist-Jewish settler movement and the involvement of the Israeli state in the occupied Palestinian territory by one of Israel’s leading historians and one of its best-known journalists. 451 pages.
WEBSITES http://zochrot.org/ Zochrot means remembering in Hebrew. An Israeli website that documents disappeared villages, houses, and books, and has an interactive map that locates the more than 400 Palestinian villages depopulated and destroyed by Israel in 1947-48. http://ifamericaknew.org/ Presents well-referenced statistics, articles, maps, and facts on Israel- Palestine not known by most Americans on Israel/Palestine. https://uscpr.org/ US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a coalition of hundreds of U.S. groups that supports a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis based on human rights, international law, equality, and relevant UN resolutions. Articles, actions, networks. https://972mag.com/ Israeli, blog-based web magazine owned by a group of journalists, bloggers and photographers whose goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and analysis of events in Israel and Palestine. http://mondoweiss.net/ Independent, US-based news site on Israel/Palestine and the U.S. Arguably the best blog of its kind in the country. https://www.ochaopt.org/ Office of UN Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Provides up-to-date statistics on home and village demolitions, roadblocks, checkpoints, violence against Palestinians and Israelis, arrests and maps of closures and access. http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/ Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. https://icahd.org/ The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is a non-violent, direct- action group dedicated to ending the Israeli Occupation and achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, with a focus on Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes (close to 50,000 in the OPT since 1967). https://www.taayush.org/ Taayush (Arabic for “living together”) is a grassroots movement of Arabs and Jews working to break down the walls of racism and segregation by constructing a true Arab-Jewish partnership build a future of equality, justice and peace through concrete, daily, non-violent actions of solidarity to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and to achieve full civil equality for all. http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/ David Sheen is an Israeli-Jewish citizen and activist who writes articles, produces videos, and speaks internationally about the pervasive racism and racist violence in Israel against non-Jewish, African refugees and Palestinians.