Review of 'The battle for justice in Palestine' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Great book examining current issues in the Israel/Palestine debate. A lot of Palestine solidarity activists would be skeptical of the optimistic declaration Abunimah opens the book with: "The Palestinians are winning"; but he makes the case for hope persuasively without losing sight of the challenges faced by both Palestinians asserting their human rights and their supporters in the US under threat from Zionist activists. The latter group includes people like the "Irvine 11", a group of college students who were criminally prosecuted (eventually sentenced to probation) after disrupting a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. Abunimah also details the struggles of people across the country campaigning for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), who are seeing surprising success despite the vicious opposition of pro-Israel groups, as well as the increasing use of fallacious conceptions of "civility" to control the spectrum of acceptable opinion (a tactic which claimed its most prominent victim, β¦
Great book examining current issues in the Israel/Palestine debate. A lot of Palestine solidarity activists would be skeptical of the optimistic declaration Abunimah opens the book with: "The Palestinians are winning"; but he makes the case for hope persuasively without losing sight of the challenges faced by both Palestinians asserting their human rights and their supporters in the US under threat from Zionist activists. The latter group includes people like the "Irvine 11", a group of college students who were criminally prosecuted (eventually sentenced to probation) after disrupting a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. Abunimah also details the struggles of people across the country campaigning for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), who are seeing surprising success despite the vicious opposition of pro-Israel groups, as well as the increasing use of fallacious conceptions of "civility" to control the spectrum of acceptable opinion (a tactic which claimed its most prominent victim, fired UIUC professor Steven Salaita, after the book went to press). In spite of these events, however, Abunimah notes that "after 6 and a half decades, Israel is no closer to quieting the challenges to its legitimacy, nor could an agreement with an unrepresentative Palestinian leadership ever do so."
