by Emily Winkelstein
Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer
by Phyllis Bennis
Olive Branch PRess, 2007
208 pages, $10.00, paperback
Here’s my confession – even though I have long identified myself as an activist for social justice, the first time I went to Palestine back in 2002, I knew nothing about what was really going on there. Sitting in a bar in New York City one night, about two months before I would be sitting in a coffee shop in Jerusalem’s Old City, listening to the stories of two friends who had just returned from the West Bank, I felt pretty ashamed.
I listened to their stories and asked some questions, but mostly played along and tried to organize the flurry of names, events and ideas that had been fed to me over the years – primarily from mainstream media (which I fortunately knew better than to trust).
Sifting through the massive, often contradictory, sea of books, articles and web sites on the “conflict”, I felt confused, ignorant and overwhelmed. It also seemed like even among groups of people who had very similar opinions on other issues, differences found their way loudly to the surface when discussing Palestine.
Phyllis Bennis’ new book, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer would have been really helpful back then. Probably too basic for many who follow the issue or have been involved with Palestine solidarity work before, the book is exactly what it claims to be – a primer, a basic introduction for people with little understanding of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Bennis has organized the book into five parts: The Crisis; The Other Players: The Role of the United States, the United Nations, Arab States and Europe; Recent History: Rising Violence; Looking Backward (1900-1991); and The Future. Although the timeline sometimes feels disjointed, overall the book is well organized and follows a meaningful trajectory. Throughout each section, she addresses key points in an easy-to-follow question and answer format that is conversational in tone. She does not get bogged down in citations and footnotes and does not write more than two or three pages on any question.
The fact that Bennis keeps things very simple is both one of the book’s greatest strengths, as well as one of its primary weaknesses. On the one hand, it keeps information very digestible and prepares readers to pull out details and talking points easily.
Bennis not only addressed the very basics like defining the Palestinians, the Oslo process and the Occupied Territories and explaining why the United States is a central player in region, she also calmly addresses more volatile accusations such as, “Isn’t Israel Just trying to fight terrorism, as the United States and the United Kingdom tried to do in Afghanistan?”, “Why are only Palestinians carrying out suicide bombings”, “Don’t the Arab countries want to destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the sea?”
Bennis solidly brings the issues back again and again to international law and historical land rights. She describes the vast imbalance of power between Israeli forces and Palestinians and the overwhelming influence of U.S. support for Israeli actions.
Summarizing the numerous diplomatic efforts over the years aimed at “solving” the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the book also draws connections to current day Middle East relations and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Touching on a broad range of historical and timely issues in only 196 small pages, she keeps the information manageable.
That said, Bennis’ failure to back up her statements with documented sources sometimes seems to weaken her efforts and make the information vulnerable to claims that it is just propaganda.
That Bennis is a well-respected scholar and analyst, certainly grounds the narrative. Yet, when one is talking about Palestine, especially in a way that is critical of Israeli occupation, it is essential to cover your bases. As an introductory text, it would seem appropriate to offer sources for exploring issues in greater depth.
Though it is somewhat staggering how much Bennis managed to cover in the short work, two areas that do seem to have been overlooked in The Primer are the function that mainstream media has played in manipulating perception of the Israeli occupation and the vital role of Palestinian grassroots movements against the occupation in shaping future direction.
Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to early activists and anyone looking to tighten up talking points as an advocate on behalf of a just peace for Palestine.
