What do you think?
Rate this book
Losing Israel
During a phone call to her mother Jasmine Donahaye stumbled upon the collusion of her kibbutz family in the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and earlier, in the 1930s. She set out to learn the facts behind this revelation, and her discoveries challenged everything she thought she knew about the country and her family, transforming her understanding of Israel, and of herself.
In a moving and honest account that spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir, Losing Israel explores the powerful attachments people have to place and to contested national stories. Moving between Wales and Israel, and attempting to reconcile her conflicted feelings rooted in difficult family history and a love of Israel's birds, the author asks challenging questions about homeland and belonging, and the power of stories to shape a landscape.
In a moving and honest account that spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir, Losing Israel explores the powerful attachments people have to place and to contested national stories. Moving between Wales and Israel, and attempting to reconcile her conflicted feelings rooted in difficult family history and a love of Israel's birds, the author asks challenging questions about homeland and belonging, and the power of stories to shape a landscape.
206 pages, Hardcover
First published June 3, 2015
3 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Jasmine Donahaye
14 books6 followersJasmine Donahaye holds a BA in Celtic Studies from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in English from Swansea University. She worked for many years in the publishing sector and at the Welsh Books Council, and now lectures in Creative Writing at Swansea University. Her publications include poetry, cultural criticism, fiction and creative non-fiction. Her poetry collection, Misappropriations was shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh first collection prize, and Self-Portrait as Ruth was longlisted for Wales Book of the Year. Her monograph Whose People? Wales, Israel, Palestine was published in 2012 by the UWP.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 10, 2015
Home is where the heart breaks...
In this beautifully written and thoughtful book, the author, a British-born Jew, muses on her troubled relationship with the place she thinks of as ‘home’ – Israel. Her parents were kibbutzniks there, but emigrated to Britain before Donahaye’s birth. Donahaye made the first of her many visits to Israel at the age of ten, a visit that had a profound effect on her when she saw her mother blossom amongst the places and language of her youth, becoming someone other than the person Donahaye knew. This not altogether positive experience was followed by other trips during which Donahaye came to love and admire her mother’s country deeply, absorbing from her extended family the Zionist version of the history of the State of Israel as it has become mythologised by those who have lived, fought and died there since its foundation. For many years, Donahaye didn’t question this version of events.
However at the age of forty, on discovering that her grandfather had been involved in the driving out of the Arabs from their villages in 1947, Donahaye started a journey that led her to learn the other history of Israel – the one that talks about ethnic cleansing of the Arabs, that explains the refugee camps, that suggests that the Palestinian Arabs saw this land as home as much as the Jews, either of Palestine or from the diaspora, ever did, and had as much right to it. This book is the story of that journey, as Donahaye takes the reader through her gradual awakening to the full complexities of the history of this troubled region and her agonised process of reassessment of the country she still loves and feels inextricably drawn towards.
I’ll get my criticisms out of the way first because, though not unflawed, it is in many ways an exceptional read, whichever side of the Zionist debate the reader might tend towards. The book is short, but in truth I felt it was also a little too long for its subject matter. The tone is unbrokenly melancholic and this made it quite a monotone read. There are too many divergences to describe bird-watching experiences, although these passages are often beautifully written and she frequently uses them as metaphors for the migrations of both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
I also felt Donahaye must have been remarkably unaware of politics if she had managed to live for forty years without being conscious of the other side of the Palestinian question. I could perhaps have understood that more had she lived in Israel, where the atmosphere of constant threat from outside might encourage a national blindness to other viewpoints. But living in the UK where there are at least as many critics of Israel’s stance towards the Palestinian Arabs as supporters of it, then one would have to have no interest in the subject at all to remain ignorant of at least some of the arguments. While her investigations did uncover some small facts that are not generally known, the big picture that seemed to shock her so much is one that has been debated and argued over for decades. As such, I didn’t find that the book really added much to the debate – though perhaps it would in Israel, if it is an accurate picture Donahaye paints of it as almost a police state where anyone who tries to find out about its history is immediately suspect and subjected to state surveillance.
Bearing that in mind then, for me the chief interest in the book was in seeing how her discoveries affected her emotionally, as she gradually changed her mind about the unarguable rightness of the Israeli position. Torn between her love for the nation and her horror at finding out how the Palestinian Arabs had been treated by it, she describes her struggles eloquently, using some beautiful, almost poetic language, even if just occasionally I found that in her new-found awareness she was veering perhaps a little too far towards the maudlin end of liberal political correctness. She talks not just of the politics and history of Israel, but of the land itself – its beauty, its wildlife and the lack of water which, she suggests perceptively, may in the end be a crucial factor in determining how the future pans out. When she speaks of her family in Israel, we see how the fear and anxiety they live with daily affects their opinions and attitudes. She writes emotively of how her researches upset the elder members of her family, challenging the foundations of their loyalty to their nation.
The book is at its most profound, I feel, when she discusses the ways histories are made by those with a vested interest in ensuring their version is accepted. Renaming of Arab villages after they had been cleared of their occupants, to give them Hebrew names and to, in some cases, suggest links back to the Biblical era, is shown as a means both of legitimising the Israeli State and of obliterating the long history between that earlier time and the present and, with it, obliterating the suggestion of any other occupants having legitimate claims to the land. Donahaye describes how the older members of her family still tend to use the old Arab names that were current in their childhood, while young people are forgetting not only the old names, but the very fact that they ever existed. And, in parallel with this, she shows how easy, and perhaps necessary, it can be for the people on one side of a conflict to dehumanise those on the other.
An emotional exploration of one woman’s journey, this might not change the terms of the debate, but it certainly casts light on it. And is an eloquent testimony to the heart-rending that can be caused when the nation one loves acts in ways one finds hard to bear.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Seren.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
In this beautifully written and thoughtful book, the author, a British-born Jew, muses on her troubled relationship with the place she thinks of as ‘home’ – Israel. Her parents were kibbutzniks there, but emigrated to Britain before Donahaye’s birth. Donahaye made the first of her many visits to Israel at the age of ten, a visit that had a profound effect on her when she saw her mother blossom amongst the places and language of her youth, becoming someone other than the person Donahaye knew. This not altogether positive experience was followed by other trips during which Donahaye came to love and admire her mother’s country deeply, absorbing from her extended family the Zionist version of the history of the State of Israel as it has become mythologised by those who have lived, fought and died there since its foundation. For many years, Donahaye didn’t question this version of events.
However at the age of forty, on discovering that her grandfather had been involved in the driving out of the Arabs from their villages in 1947, Donahaye started a journey that led her to learn the other history of Israel – the one that talks about ethnic cleansing of the Arabs, that explains the refugee camps, that suggests that the Palestinian Arabs saw this land as home as much as the Jews, either of Palestine or from the diaspora, ever did, and had as much right to it. This book is the story of that journey, as Donahaye takes the reader through her gradual awakening to the full complexities of the history of this troubled region and her agonised process of reassessment of the country she still loves and feels inextricably drawn towards.
I’ll get my criticisms out of the way first because, though not unflawed, it is in many ways an exceptional read, whichever side of the Zionist debate the reader might tend towards. The book is short, but in truth I felt it was also a little too long for its subject matter. The tone is unbrokenly melancholic and this made it quite a monotone read. There are too many divergences to describe bird-watching experiences, although these passages are often beautifully written and she frequently uses them as metaphors for the migrations of both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
I also felt Donahaye must have been remarkably unaware of politics if she had managed to live for forty years without being conscious of the other side of the Palestinian question. I could perhaps have understood that more had she lived in Israel, where the atmosphere of constant threat from outside might encourage a national blindness to other viewpoints. But living in the UK where there are at least as many critics of Israel’s stance towards the Palestinian Arabs as supporters of it, then one would have to have no interest in the subject at all to remain ignorant of at least some of the arguments. While her investigations did uncover some small facts that are not generally known, the big picture that seemed to shock her so much is one that has been debated and argued over for decades. As such, I didn’t find that the book really added much to the debate – though perhaps it would in Israel, if it is an accurate picture Donahaye paints of it as almost a police state where anyone who tries to find out about its history is immediately suspect and subjected to state surveillance.
Bearing that in mind then, for me the chief interest in the book was in seeing how her discoveries affected her emotionally, as she gradually changed her mind about the unarguable rightness of the Israeli position. Torn between her love for the nation and her horror at finding out how the Palestinian Arabs had been treated by it, she describes her struggles eloquently, using some beautiful, almost poetic language, even if just occasionally I found that in her new-found awareness she was veering perhaps a little too far towards the maudlin end of liberal political correctness. She talks not just of the politics and history of Israel, but of the land itself – its beauty, its wildlife and the lack of water which, she suggests perceptively, may in the end be a crucial factor in determining how the future pans out. When she speaks of her family in Israel, we see how the fear and anxiety they live with daily affects their opinions and attitudes. She writes emotively of how her researches upset the elder members of her family, challenging the foundations of their loyalty to their nation.
The book is at its most profound, I feel, when she discusses the ways histories are made by those with a vested interest in ensuring their version is accepted. Renaming of Arab villages after they had been cleared of their occupants, to give them Hebrew names and to, in some cases, suggest links back to the Biblical era, is shown as a means both of legitimising the Israeli State and of obliterating the long history between that earlier time and the present and, with it, obliterating the suggestion of any other occupants having legitimate claims to the land. Donahaye describes how the older members of her family still tend to use the old Arab names that were current in their childhood, while young people are forgetting not only the old names, but the very fact that they ever existed. And, in parallel with this, she shows how easy, and perhaps necessary, it can be for the people on one side of a conflict to dehumanise those on the other.
An emotional exploration of one woman’s journey, this might not change the terms of the debate, but it certainly casts light on it. And is an eloquent testimony to the heart-rending that can be caused when the nation one loves acts in ways one finds hard to bear.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Seren.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
May 4, 2023
Donahaye has a far deeper connection to this troubled part of the world than I have, yet we both encountered similar treatment (harassment?) by El Al.
There was a lot of fascinating information in this book, truths shown not to be truths and questionable inherited information about "abandoned" villages. She travels on this occasion to discover the other stories, not unlike a recent BBC programme The Holy Land & US with Rob Rinder, of Jewish heritage and Sarah Agha of Muslim Palestinian descent on the varying histories of the region coloured (like all history) by who tells it.
Donahaye’s mother was born in Palestine and brought up on the Beit Hashita kibbutz. She left with her husband in 1963, and did not return for fifteen years, all the while suffering homesickness. Donahaye was ten when the family made their first visit to Israel in 1978 and she, too, feels uncomfortable in Israel and uncomfortable when not there.
This is a duality inheritent in many of the diaspora and familiar to me. I find Donahaye a great writer and so adept at raising the most challenging issues in the politics of the middle-east and the realities as she sees them.
There was a lot of fascinating information in this book, truths shown not to be truths and questionable inherited information about "abandoned" villages. She travels on this occasion to discover the other stories, not unlike a recent BBC programme The Holy Land & US with Rob Rinder, of Jewish heritage and Sarah Agha of Muslim Palestinian descent on the varying histories of the region coloured (like all history) by who tells it.
Donahaye’s mother was born in Palestine and brought up on the Beit Hashita kibbutz. She left with her husband in 1963, and did not return for fifteen years, all the while suffering homesickness. Donahaye was ten when the family made their first visit to Israel in 1978 and she, too, feels uncomfortable in Israel and uncomfortable when not there.
This is a duality inheritent in many of the diaspora and familiar to me. I find Donahaye a great writer and so adept at raising the most challenging issues in the politics of the middle-east and the realities as she sees them.
August 30, 2017
I was fortunate enough to be on a life writing course where Jasmine Donahaye was a guest speaker. Having recently travelled to Jenin in Palestine myself, the title of the book and its subject matter was of great interest to me. First, it is a beautifully written book, second it is a book written with honesty and truth-seeking. Jasmine is the daughter of a Jewish Israeli and although brought up in England speaking English, has learned not only Hebrew but the language of her adopted country, Wales. Her ear for language is keen, whether in describing landscape or her great love - the birds of Israel, or in exploring her own emotional journey as she unpicks the country that lifts her up with hope and dashes her down with disappointment. I am not particularly interested in birds, but those who are would certainly be drawn to this book even if the historical and life writing aspect did not appeal. The birds become important characters in this book which only the ornithologist could properly appreciate. What all readers could empathise with however is the longing for home that threads its way through this melancholy book, whether the longing is felt by the Jewish people, the Palestinian dispossessed, Jasmine's mother or Jasmine herself. As a secular Jew she bravely debunks the Zionist romantic narrative of a linear path from the Jewish past to the Israeli present as if the "non-Jews who shaped the land between biblical times and 20thC Jewish settlement are invisible". Her own sense of moral outrage at the wrongs done to Palestinians leads to an unpicking of the imagined stories of both Jews and Palestinians. She tracks land ownership and land-use rights and its complexities from 1850 Ottoman rule to today. She documents the long-standing conflict between new Jewish settlements and Arab villages since the 1920s, long before the state of Israel was created. Drawing on Sitta's "Atlas of Palestine" she names villages that were depopulated in 1948, replaced with Jewish settlements and kibbutzim. She explains how naming the landscape is an act of storytelling, an act of dominion and ownership, that reshapes and erases the past in order to determine the future. This resonates with the recovering of Welsh place names in Wales from their English overlords. The imagery she conjures with the map that writes over Palestinian place names with one word: harum - destroyed. Village after Arab village was occupied, depopulated and destroyed by Jewish forces - where nothing is left. And then a "deliberate and systematic eradication of the physical past and the rewriting of the landscape under a new name". When I was in Palestine I heard the stories of these places that persist in the memories of the descendants of the dispossessed. I saw the keys on the walls of refugee houses and heard the stories of place that have taken the place of place when place has been destroyed. Her linguistic skills meant she could pick up details from bi-lingual signs that don't actually give the name of a place in Arabic and Hebrew, but Hebrew and the translation of Hebrew into Arabic. She reminds us the naming things matters. Language matters. Changing names creates new truths and wipes the past from the memory of the next generation. She brings her powers of description so we can see the stark image of Jewish settlement buildings that cluster on the crests of hills and the newcomers, the settlers who throw their garbage on the Palestinians below. The 5 million of the Palestinian diaspora hold the memories of the places in their stories that are told to the young. The UN with its 'right to return' narratives shores up the stories of places that Palestinians were driven out of or fled in fear leaving everything behind. She seeks the truth in the competing narratives, the confusions of stories and the reality of the changing landscape. The difficulty of determining exactly what is Palestine, especially in the face of the dominant Zionist narrative and the impossibility of reconciling these different stories, stories that want to shape the contested landscape of Israel and the occupied territories. 'Losing Israel' is the perfect title for this memoir. I loved it. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me is that I don't quite buy the naivety of the author in not knowing about the competing narratives when both are easily available to the politically aware to access and because I wanted some hope for the future of the dispossessed Palestinians and for Israel as world opinion begins to turn against her.
December 24, 2021
The book deals with a weighty subject. How do you reconcile your heritage and the history you have known in the face of contradictory evidence? Donahaye examines the events and tensions of the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. There is compelling evidence that the assumed "good guys" were aggressors. The entire conflict is riddled with sadness.
March 2, 2018
Very well written, describes the author's feelings and internal debates towards Israel, the homeland of her mother. Interesting journey with colourfull descriptions of people, landscapes, history and birds.
May 17, 2021
Very well written. More solid and reference-checkable information on its extremely difficult topic, than I have found anywhere else. And yet very readable. There is much personal experience, but also much hard history too. Extremely worthwhile.
September 27, 2021
I struggled to get to grips with this book. I tried more than once but I just couldn’t finish it., I’m not sure why but it wasn’t for me
February 8, 2023
A moving and beautifully written account of the writer's journey in finding out the truth about her family, and which led to her, as the name of the book tells us, losing the country she felt loyal to.
It takes a great amount of courage and absolute commitment to truth and justice to uncover the dark side of one’s family and face up to it.
It takes a great amount of courage and absolute commitment to truth and justice to uncover the dark side of one’s family and face up to it.
August 15, 2015
I am grateful to both Seren Books and to Jasmine Donahaye for a review copy of Losing Israel. What we are presented here by the author is beautifully written an open and deeply honest account of a troubled landscape and the search for the truth. This is also a riveting travelogue and also an account of Donahayes lifelong passion for Ornithology.
British born Donahaye reflects on her memories of past visits to her parent’s homeland, they left Israel before the author was born but paid many visits to Israel with the first one at the age of ten. Visiting had an effect on Donahaye. Visiting for the first time and seeing how her parents interacted with the locals especially her mother had the desired affect and it became a land she also came to love, many more visits where made and with it the chance to explore the land and discover the birdlife of Israel, which is a major part of Losing Israel.
It was many years later that Donahaye discovered that in 1948 her grandfather was involved in driving out Palestinian’s from their homes and villages which were also destroyed, this became a catalyst for the author to search the history of this troubled land a land she still feels affection for to this day.
The truth sometimes is disturbing and also can hurt, this is where Donahaye excels in the style she writes through this book, and it is an open and deeply honest and passionate account. Some readers may find the tone of the book a little melancholy as she reflects on the past and searching for the truth not only in her family’s history but also the social history of Israel. The reader is will sympathise in the way she tells the story of her search for the truth and the way the Palestinian’s were treated and still are to this day.
As a review I was drawn to the way Donahaye weaved the story from one of searching the history of this land to one of a travelogue and describing the rich diverse birdlife of Israel. Home is now West Wales where the wet landscape surrounding the authors home is also explored, there is an affinity between the two lands and the rich wildlife contained within.
This is a book that may not add to the ongoing debate of this troubled part of the World but it is one woman’s emotional journey so eloquently written which makes Losing Israel a book that deserves to be read.
British born Donahaye reflects on her memories of past visits to her parent’s homeland, they left Israel before the author was born but paid many visits to Israel with the first one at the age of ten. Visiting had an effect on Donahaye. Visiting for the first time and seeing how her parents interacted with the locals especially her mother had the desired affect and it became a land she also came to love, many more visits where made and with it the chance to explore the land and discover the birdlife of Israel, which is a major part of Losing Israel.
It was many years later that Donahaye discovered that in 1948 her grandfather was involved in driving out Palestinian’s from their homes and villages which were also destroyed, this became a catalyst for the author to search the history of this troubled land a land she still feels affection for to this day.
The truth sometimes is disturbing and also can hurt, this is where Donahaye excels in the style she writes through this book, and it is an open and deeply honest and passionate account. Some readers may find the tone of the book a little melancholy as she reflects on the past and searching for the truth not only in her family’s history but also the social history of Israel. The reader is will sympathise in the way she tells the story of her search for the truth and the way the Palestinian’s were treated and still are to this day.
As a review I was drawn to the way Donahaye weaved the story from one of searching the history of this land to one of a travelogue and describing the rich diverse birdlife of Israel. Home is now West Wales where the wet landscape surrounding the authors home is also explored, there is an affinity between the two lands and the rich wildlife contained within.
This is a book that may not add to the ongoing debate of this troubled part of the World but it is one woman’s emotional journey so eloquently written which makes Losing Israel a book that deserves to be read.
August 15, 2015
I am grateful to both Seren Books and to Jasmine Donahaye for a review copy of Losing Israel. What we are presented here by the author is beautifully written an open and deeply honest account of a troubled landscape and the search for the truth. This is also a riveting travelogue and also an account of Donahayes lifelong passion for Ornithology.
British born Donahaye reflects on her memories of past visits to her parent’s homeland, they left Israel before the author was born but paid many visits to Israel with the first one at the age of ten. Visiting had an effect on Donahaye. Visiting for the first time and seeing how her parents interacted with the locals especially her mother had the desired affect and it became a land she also came to love, many more visits where made and with it the chance to explore the land and discover the birdlife of Israel, which is a major part of Losing Israel.
It was many years later that Donahaye discovered that in 1948 her grandfather was involved in driving out Palestinian’s from their homes and villages which were also destroyed, this became a catalyst for the author to search the history of this troubled land a land she still feels affection for to this day.
The truth sometimes is disturbing and also can hurt, this is where Donahaye excels in the style she writes through this book, and it is an open and deeply honest and passionate account. Some readers may find the tone of the book a little melancholy as she reflects on the past and searching for the truth not only in her family’s history but also the social history of Israel. The reader is will sympathise in the way she tells the story of her search for the truth and the way the Palestinian’s were treated and still are to this day.
As a review I was drawn to the way Donahaye weaved the story from one of searching the history of this land to one of a travelogue and describing the rich diverse birdlife of Israel. Home is now West Wales where the wet landscape surrounding the authors home is also explored, there is an affinity between the two lands and the rich wildlife contained within.
This is a book that may not add to the ongoing debate of this troubled part of the World but it is one woman’s emotional journey so eloquently written which makes Losing Israel a book that deserves to be read.
British born Donahaye reflects on her memories of past visits to her parent’s homeland, they left Israel before the author was born but paid many visits to Israel with the first one at the age of ten. Visiting had an effect on Donahaye. Visiting for the first time and seeing how her parents interacted with the locals especially her mother had the desired affect and it became a land she also came to love, many more visits where made and with it the chance to explore the land and discover the birdlife of Israel, which is a major part of Losing Israel.
It was many years later that Donahaye discovered that in 1948 her grandfather was involved in driving out Palestinian’s from their homes and villages which were also destroyed, this became a catalyst for the author to search the history of this troubled land a land she still feels affection for to this day.
The truth sometimes is disturbing and also can hurt, this is where Donahaye excels in the style she writes through this book, and it is an open and deeply honest and passionate account. Some readers may find the tone of the book a little melancholy as she reflects on the past and searching for the truth not only in her family’s history but also the social history of Israel. The reader is will sympathise in the way she tells the story of her search for the truth and the way the Palestinian’s were treated and still are to this day.
As a review I was drawn to the way Donahaye weaved the story from one of searching the history of this land to one of a travelogue and describing the rich diverse birdlife of Israel. Home is now West Wales where the wet landscape surrounding the authors home is also explored, there is an affinity between the two lands and the rich wildlife contained within.
This is a book that may not add to the ongoing debate of this troubled part of the World but it is one woman’s emotional journey so eloquently written which makes Losing Israel a book that deserves to be read.
June 5, 2016
You can find a longer, more detailed review and discussion of Losing Israel on my book blog.
A few weeks ago, the shortlist for the Wales Book of the Year Award was announced, alongside the public vote for the 'People's Choice Award'. Among the shortlisted books, the title Losing Israel grabbed my attention. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, so naturally I take an interest when a book about Israel is in with a shot at a literary award in my own backyard.
I found Losing Israel very slow and quite meandering to begin with. The first quarter of the book is not very engrossing, which does not bode well for its chances at finding a large audience.
Once I got used to the nonlinear literary rambles, the book did become interesting. It never really moves beyond the back cover summary in terms of events, so whether you find it absorbing will rely heavily on how interested you are in getting a glimpse of another person's life and views. I would recommend the book to other people who have never themselves been to Israel or the Palestinian territories, but who want to understand the issues that cause the conflict in that area, and to readers wishing to glimpse the conflict through the eyes of a liberal Jewish Israeli Expat.
The book also stands out because it isn't biased and one-sided, unlike most things written about Israel and Palestine. Jasmine Donahaye interrogates the history of Israel through the microscopic perspective of her own family history, and then maps that onto the larger history. She goes out of her way to find truth and reality, and wrote as truthful a book as she could.
However, it is very much a book about the past, with comparatively little interest in the present, and virtually no interest at all in the future. It's good background reading about 1948, but won't help anyone trying to imagine a different future for Israel or the Palestinians, and to me, that was a little disappointing.
Rating: 3.5/5
A few weeks ago, the shortlist for the Wales Book of the Year Award was announced, alongside the public vote for the 'People's Choice Award'. Among the shortlisted books, the title Losing Israel grabbed my attention. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, so naturally I take an interest when a book about Israel is in with a shot at a literary award in my own backyard.
I found Losing Israel very slow and quite meandering to begin with. The first quarter of the book is not very engrossing, which does not bode well for its chances at finding a large audience.
Once I got used to the nonlinear literary rambles, the book did become interesting. It never really moves beyond the back cover summary in terms of events, so whether you find it absorbing will rely heavily on how interested you are in getting a glimpse of another person's life and views. I would recommend the book to other people who have never themselves been to Israel or the Palestinian territories, but who want to understand the issues that cause the conflict in that area, and to readers wishing to glimpse the conflict through the eyes of a liberal Jewish Israeli Expat.
The book also stands out because it isn't biased and one-sided, unlike most things written about Israel and Palestine. Jasmine Donahaye interrogates the history of Israel through the microscopic perspective of her own family history, and then maps that onto the larger history. She goes out of her way to find truth and reality, and wrote as truthful a book as she could.
However, it is very much a book about the past, with comparatively little interest in the present, and virtually no interest at all in the future. It's good background reading about 1948, but won't help anyone trying to imagine a different future for Israel or the Palestinians, and to me, that was a little disappointing.
Rating: 3.5/5
Read
July 29, 2016956.9404 D6745 2015
December 31, 2023
A beautiful and a brave book!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews