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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palestine Inside Out,
This review is from: Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (Hardcover)
I have been involved for some years in pro-Palestinian activism, and have read innumerable books on the subject. Nonetheless, Makdisi's book presented the stark facts of Israeli occupation with such vividness that I felt I was learning them - and raging and weeping at them - for the first time. There were times when Makdisi's sober, understated account of intolerable injustice forced me to put the book down; sometimes I didn't take it up again for days - but I always did take it up again.
Makdisi has an honourable pedigree: his uncle was the late Edward Said, for several decades not alone the leading advocate of Palestinian rights in the unfriendly environment of the USA, but also one of the world's leading intellectuals and literary critics. Makdisi is American-Lebanese-Palestinian, a mixture that renders him particularly qualified to approach his painful subject from a multitude of perspectives. As professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and an expert on the poetry of English romanticism, he can hardly be caricatured by the ill-intentioned as some wild-eyed anti-Western fanatic (although given the bloodsoaked history of Western interference in the rest of the world, of which the fate of Palestine is a particularly poignant example, it's perhaps time that more conscientious Westerners adopted such "fanaticism"). "Palestine Inside Out" isn't a history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, although it necessarily incorporates much historical reflection, but an anlysis of the "facts on the ground" created by Zionism and its US and EU backers, whereby Palestinian Arabs - Muslims and Christians - are deprived of human and political rights while simultaneously being demonised for resisting this state of affairs. Makdisi sees that Israel, the US and EU (and indeed the PLO) have jointly rendered impossible the two-state solution they all profess to support. His conclusions about a political solution will be uncomfortable for those who have pre-formed views on the matter - but his premises are supplied by the aforementioned "facts on the ground", and I believe that none but the most ingrained prejudices can withstand such a marshalling of evidence. It is on the reef of Palestine that all narratives of progress in the field of political justice come to grief, and it is Palestine that reveals most nakedly the hollowness and hypocrisy of Western rhetoric concerning democracy and the rule of international law. "Palestine Inside Out" could be subtitled "The World Inside Out". Read it, and be inspired to protest and take action against the conditions - or against your governments' support for the conditions - that make such injustice possible.
47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real eye opener!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (Hardcover)
I think one would indeed be hard pressed to find a more detailed and accurate account of the predicament faced by the Palestinians since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Six Day War(resulting then in the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank). Of course there have been other books(most recently, Jimmy Carter's account based on his trip to Israel)but this book is unique in presenting a true "microscopic" account of the effect of the occupation on the lives of Palestinians in the occupied lands. I occasionally found myself rather depressed by it, even angry that the Israelis could act with such brutality and callous disregard for the welfare of those they treat with such contempt(but of course they're not out to win any popularity contests as both this and their historical disregard of U.N. Resolutions so amply demonstrates!).
So based on the evidence presented, Makdisi presents a clear cut solid case arguing for the desirability of having a single state instead of a two state solution to resolving the long term conflict there.
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for understanding the conflict,
By
This review is from: Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (Hardcover)
I've been studying the Israel/Palestine issue for almost 18 years now and I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territories twice and I can't recall a single book that has taught me more about the conflict than this one. Instead of focusing on history, politics, and suicide bombers as most books do, this one documents the daily occupation and how it plays out in the daily lives of Palestinians. It is absolutely appalling and eye-opening. More than once, I'm sure my jaw literally dropped open when confronted with the realities of what the occupation means. This book should undoubtedly be on the reading list of every member of Congress and every American citizen.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Misdirection and outright lies.
I am amazed that someone who claims to be a scholar can be so one sided And out right dishonest. We start out with an idealistic scene of peaceful people on there land and...
Published 2 days ago by D. Davis
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
This book is terribly one-sided, even from the perspective of one who cares deeply about the rights and well-being of Palestinians.
Published 19 days ago by Sandy & Richard
1.0 out of 5 stars
Twisted history and an old proposal
The author writes a lenghty book about the history of the conflict from an extremely one-sided viewpoint and then tries to sell the good old "one state" solution...
Published 10 months ago by Thomas P. Noland
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palestine Inside Out - Insightful!
UCLA tenured English/Comp Lit Professor, Saree Makdisi, presents an incredibly well-written, well documented account of Palestinian life in the occupied territories of Israel...
Published 10 months ago by Mighty Mouse
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who thought they understood
Saree Makdisi's book is meant to be accessible. It is intended to start with mundane yet harsh realities of occupation that readers might at first ascribe to Israeli bureaucratic...
Published 19 months ago by Paul Larudee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent piece of work
Saree Makdisi has done an outstanding job in telling the whole world what is really going on in the Middle East contrary to what we normally read in the newspapers and what the...
Published 19 months ago by Isaac Perez-madrid
5.0 out of 5 stars
A factual milestone of articulate perspective from a Palestinian-American
If one has an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it can ever be resolved, that person will find once he/she starts reading this book, she/he cannot put it down...
Published 21 months ago by Ben Franklin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book on the history and current issues surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Saree Makdisi has written an outstanding, outstanding book. The book is very well written with very objective, factual data that no one can dispute.
Published 22 months ago by F. Elabed
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrorism, denial and hatred
THis isn't history....this is arabist propoganda. Most sources are from irroneous sources, and 2nd hand accounts Also there is a complete and manipulated denial...
Published on March 6, 2009 by Ben Uziel
5.0 out of 5 stars
outstanding
Makdisi has written an outstanding book in, "Palestine Inside Out". It provides subjective accounts of individuals who have been affected by the invasion and apartheid-like...
Published on March 3, 2009 by Robert W. Smith
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81% buy the item featured on this page: Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation $5.45 |
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4% buy The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction, Second Edition $14.25 |
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