Notes on the Occupation: Palestinian Lives

by Eric Hazan, George Holoch (Translator)

Overview

Almost forty years after the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, scenes from everyday life in the West Bank remain rare and fragmented in the West. Despite its prominence in world news, surprisingly little is known about daily life in this troubled land. Yet with the publication of former President Jimmy Carter's controversial new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, it has become clear that an unvarnished view of Palestinian life is an essential prerequisite to peace. In Notes on the Occupation, critic and intellectual Eric Hazan provides crucial insight into life in the occupied state.

The result of a monthlong visit to the region during the summer of 2006, including visits to Nablus, Qalqilyah, and Hebron, Hazan's eloquent account reveals the complex and devastating impact of the occupation.

With an introduction by celebrated Middle East scholar Rashid Khalidi and an epilogue by activist Michel Warschawski, Notes on the Occupation is a rare portrait of a population living with the reality of war and the dream of peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595582027
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	11/30/2007
Pages:	113
Product dimensions:	4.80(w) x 7.30(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eric Hazan is an editor, translator, and founder of the publishing house La Fabrique. He lives in Paris, France.

Editorial Reviews

"Eric Hazan is one of those rare free minds, one who provokes with eloquence. One might say that for us he is eminently precious." —Christophe Kantcheff, Politis

"This man has never settled down, never adapted to the world in which he lives, never resolved to lose his illusions nor one ounce of his freedom." —Jérôme Garcin, Le Nouvel Observateur

From the Publisher

Hazan, a French editor and publisher, visited three West Bank towns in the summer of 2006 to observe the human cost of the Israeli occupation, which has lasted almost 40 years. He writes simply of the Palestinians he meets-mayors, mothers, militants, farmers, and others-surviving the ongoing economic, social, and political repression and daily humiliations. Hazan presents the human tragedy endured by the Palestinians without an analytic frame and concludes with his amazement that they can remain optimistic about the future. His perspective is important for library collections.

—Elizabeth R. Hayford

Library Journal

Ordinary citizens in three Palestinian cities on the West Bank come under scrutiny in this short, stimulating study. During a two-month period in 2006, French writer/publisher Hazan traveled to Nablus, Qalqilya and Hebron, all under Israeli occupation, in an attempt to document the lives of a diverse array of people. In the foreword, Rashid Khalidi (Arab Studies/Columbia Univ.) summarizes the book as "deceptively simple," a fitting description of the three chapters (one on each city) that follow. The interviews were conducted during a relatively quiet period on the West Bank, and Hazan takes a nonjudgmental tone throughout, allowing his subjects (many identified only by an initial) to speak directly to the reader. The stories they told set a disquieting and fearful tone. A group of poorly treated teachers in Nablus hadn't been paid in three months, since the boycott of the Hamas government began, and were forced to work second jobs. Their main concern, however, was the "lies" they were teaching in their classes-"None of that's true!" students said scornfully when told about the Declaration of Human Rights. "Why can't anybody in the world stop the Israelis?" Near Qalqilya, Hazan stayed with two brothers who sold and repaired cell phones. Their customers in this farming village could no longer pay them because produce could not be sold outside the village and government paychecks had dried up with the boycott. "If they keep strangling us, there will be terrorism in Israel," the brothers warned. In Hebron, the secretary of a women's-rights group noted that many wives were forced into the labor market because their men were either in jail or unemployed. These accounts, and the many othersincluded, make for deeply unsettling reading. An epilogue by Jerusalem-based peace activist Michel Warschawski does not noticeably brighten the picture. Offers a much-needed perspective on events in this turbulent, and often terrifying, region of the world.

Kirkus Reviews