Further Information

 

Websites


Among Many Others the Following are Useful:

  1. Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem. Excellent, with good podcasts.

  2. Amnesty International. Extraordinarily convoluted and difficult to use.

  3. Big Campaign (BDS)

  4. BADIL. Refugee issues.

  5. Breaking the Silence. Israeli soldiers on what they saw and did.

  6. BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine).

  7. B’tselem (Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories).

  8. Electronic Intifada,

  9. Human Rights Watch: American human rights organisation.

  10. ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), Jerusalem with branches in UK and USA.

  11. Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C.

  12. IMEMC (International Middle East Media Centre).

  13. MERIP (The Middle East Research and Information Project). See their historical survey to 2000.

  14. Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Excellent, up-to-date, informative website.

  15. Jewish Voice for Peace (American organisation).

  16. Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights

  17. MEMO (Middle East Monitor)

  18. OCHA (UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Good maps.

  19. PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign). Main UK campaigning organisation with local branches.

  20. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel.

  21. Stand Up for Jerusalem. For house evictions.


Lists of Links to Useful Sites:

  1. ICHAD

  2. Israeli Occupation Archive



Bibliography

Obviously the bibliography is endless. Here are a few suggestions as to what one might start with. Topic-specific bibliography is on pages throughout this site.


Introductory Ways to Understand Issues

  1. Halper, Jeff, Obstacles to Peace: A Re-Framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.Very clear and highly readable introduction to the issues. 4th edn. available ICAHD UK office and revised 4th edn. from ICAHD US office. See also Emily Schaeffer, Jeff Halper & Jimmy Johnson, Counter-Rhetoric: Challenging ‘conventional wisdom’ & reframing the conflict; the argument of Obstacles to Peace in booklet form.

  2. Shalom, Stephen, ‘Question and Answer on Gaza’. (Jan. 2009). Specifically on Gaza but you learn much else also. Useful for thinking about Hamas.

  3. Palestine Solidarity Campaign Factsheets: on ‘Basic Facts’, Refugees, Prisoners, Gaza, Settlements, Ethnic cleansing etc.

  4. Christian Aid reports on a variety of topics.

  5. Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, ‘The European Union’s Blind Eye: How the EU ignores Israel’s failure to fulfil its obligations under EU agreements’ (Oct. 2008).

  6. CounterPunch regularly has good articles.


Good General Books By Well-Known Authors

  1. Abunimah, Ali (Palestinian living in exile) One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (NY: Metropolitan Books, 2006). Excellent readable book which gives you the ‘feel’ of the conflict by the founder of the Electronic Intifada..

  2. Finkelstein, Norman (American Jew), a lone voice in the USA, first rate researcher and fine lecturer. See his website for his publications and for podcasts of lectures. Start perhaps with Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 2003) 2nd edn. See also his lectures on u-tube.

  3. Pappé, Ilan (Israeli Jew now resident in Britain) is one of the ‘new’ Israeli historians, challenging the received version. His The Ethic Cleansing of Palestine (One World, 2006) was a landmark. A History of Modern Palestine (2nd edn. CUP, 2006) is useful for getting the history sorted out.

  4. Shlaim, Avi (Iraqi Israeli Jew with Israeli/British nationality living in the UK), historian, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, excellent detailed history; Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations, essays (Verso, 2009).


Alternative Guide Books for Visiting

  1. Mariam Shahin, Palestine: A Guide (Chastleton Travel, 2007)

  2. Palestine & Palestinians: Guidebook (Alternative Tourism Group, 2nd edn 2008)


E-mail Lists Worth Joining

  1. MEMO (Middle East Monitor). Good articles and editorial on a range of Middle East countries.

  2. CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding). Daily e-mail of articles in a range of British Newspapers which you can simply click on to read the article. Very good way to keep on top of things.

  3. PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign). Weekly e-mail of up-coming events, appeals etc. to members.


British Organisations to Join

  1. Palestinian Solidarity Campaign: campaigning organisation local branches.

  2. War on Want Palestine Campaign

  3. ICHAD UK: works to stop house demolitions but also has wider concerns

  4. Jews for Justice for Palestinians

  5. Oxford Ramallah Association: twinning organisation between these two cities

  6. BRICUP: academics working for boycott of Israeli further educational institutions.

  7. For further professional organisations see BDS.


Teach-Ins in Britain

  1. Palestine Solidarity Campaign has day conferences.

  2. MEMO (Middle East Monitor) has regular events and evening lectures.

  3. The Palestine Society at SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies, London University) runs an  excellent, inexpensive, annual conference over a weekend in early March each year.

  4. Christ Church, Oxford runs an extraordinarily expensive annual Middle East conference for profit.

  5. Universities may have Middle East Centres; e.g. Oxford, Exeter, SOAS are good.


Visiting

  1. PSC lists a variety of organisations and possibilities.

  2. Experience Travel Tours runs two general study tours and specialist tours e.g. for medics each year, visiting a range of institutions and groups.

  3. ICAHD (or ICAHD UK, ICAHD-USA) has an international house-rebuilding camp each summer.

  4. Breaking the Silence, organises tours to Hebron

Susan Barry