Learning about Palestine

From movies and literature to blogs and informative news sources, there is a lot of information out there about Palestine and the current situation. We have put together a short list of some of our favorites. Whether you’re just getting started or have worked in Palestine for years, we hope there’s something for you in this list to inspire you to learn and explore further.

News Outlets

• Friends for Middle East Peace webinars
• Institute for Middle East Understanding
• Middle East Eye
• Mondoweiss
• Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
• We Are Not Numbers

Movies

Savoir Flare has put together a great list called “20 Must-See Documentaries and Films about Palestine.” Check it out!

التغريبة الفلسطينية‎ (The Palestinian Alienation)
A television series – first aired in 2004 – that tells the story of a poor Palestinian family struggling for survival under the British Mandate, through the Great Palestinian Revolution, and finally in refugee tents after the Nakba.

Books

Non-fiction

Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump
by Khaled Elgindy
A political history of American foreign policy on Palestine.

Justice for Some
by Noura Erakat
A history and discussion of political and legal repressions imposed on Palestinians, failure of legal systems in protecting Palestinians.

Peace And Its Discontents: Essays On Palestine In The Middle East Peace Process
by Edward Said
A collection of essays challenging the official account of the Middle East “peace process.”

100 Years’ War on Palestine; Palestinian Identity
by Rashid Khalidi
A history of 100 of war against the Palestinians, told through pivotal events and family history.

Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color
by Michael Fischbach
An exploration of the early role of the U.S. black freedom struggle of the 1960s and 1970s in popularizing pro-Palestinian sentiments.

Memoirs

Three Mothers Three Daughters
by Michael Gorkin, Rafiqa Othman
A collection of oral histories from six Palestinian women that gives a view into the daily lives of women who have lived, and continue to live, through a turbulent and rapidly changing era.

Children of Bethany
by Said K. Aburish
Aburish presents the history of his own family, starting from the dislocating events which began in Palestine and the Arab world in 1917. He really makes the history of his village come alive.

In Search of Fatima
by Ghada Karmi
A memoir follows personal experiences of Palestinian displacement and loss against a backdrop of the major political events which have shaped conflict in the Middle East.

I Was Born There, I Was Born Here
by Mourid Barghouti
The acclaimed memoir that told of returning in 1996 to his Palestinian home for the first time since
exile following the Six-Day War in 1967.

I Saw Ramallah
by Mourid Barghouti
As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth.

The Lemon Tree
by Sandy Tolan
An Israeli woman and a Palestinian man find lifelong friendship in a search for understanding. Tolan ties a story of two families and the house that connected them, to the history of the Mideast conflict.

Fiction

Mornings in Jenin
by Susan Abulhawa
This is a beautifully written novel that takes the reader through a journey of a Palestinian family – the Abulhejas – from before the creation of Israel to the early 2000s.

The Blue Between Sky and Water
by Susan Abulhawa
The story of flawed yet profoundly courageous women, of separation and heartache, endurance and renewal in the small Palestinian farming village of Beit Daras.

Men in the Sun
by Ghassan Kanafi
Short story about the beginning of the Nakba from the perspective of a truck driver smuggling refugees from Palestine to Kuwait, a metaphor for vocal Palestinian resistance met with silence.

Salt Houses
by Hala Alyan
Intergenerational displacement, how Palestinians ended up in Jordan, Lebanon, France, the US, told through women’s stories.

Three Daughters: A Novel
by Consuelo Saah Baehr 
A historical chronicle of the lives, loves, and secrets of three generations of Palestinian Christian women, that takes the reader from rural Palestine at the dawn of the twentieth century to America, as each woman experiences a world in transition through war and social change.

The Woman from Tantoura
by Radwa Ashour
A powerful human story, following the life of a young girl from her days in the village of al-Tantoura in Palestine up to the dawn of the new century.

Some resources for advocacy

What Anera does as a non-political, non-sectarian humanitarian organization happens in parallel with what other worthy organizations are doing. We therefore share this short list of some nonprofits that are engaged in other aspects of work in and for Palestine.

• B’Tselem
  B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, works to document, research and publish statistics, testimonies, video footage, position papers, and reports on human rights violations committed by Israel in the Occupied Territories.
• Institute for Middle East Understanding
  IMEU provides journalists with quick access to information and expert sources in the U.S. and in the Middle East to increase the public’s understanding about the socio-economic, political, and cultural aspects of Palestine, Palestinians, and Palestinian Americans. They believe that only through increased understanding of the peoples of the Middle East can a just and lasting peace be achieved, which is in the interest of all Americans.
• Churches for Middle East Peace
  CMEP is a coalition of more than 30 U.S. Church communions and organizations working to encourage U.S. policies that actively promote just, lasting, and comprehensive resolutions to conflicts in the Middle East, through education, the elevation of diverse voices, and advocacy.
• Foundation for Middle East Peace
  FMEP works to ensure a just, secure, and peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis. FMEP advances this goal through its grants program, public programming, and research. FMEP resources include a weekly summary of news and analysis, a weekly report of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, and a legislative roundup of Middle East-related activity in the U.S. Congress.
• Human Rights Watch
  Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening all around the world, and directs advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices.
• Jewish Voice For Peace
  Jewish Voice for Peace is a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all people. They amplify the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions of Israel.
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
  USCPR provides resources and strategic support to the U.S. based Palestine solidarity movement, working with local organizers and activists, policymakers, movement leaders, media, and advocacy organizations to advance a rights-based, accountability and justice-oriented framework from the U.S. to Palestine.
• Visualizing Palestine
  Visualizing Palestine is dedicated to using data and research to visually communicate Palestinian experiences to provoke narrative change. VP envisions a liberated future for Palestinians in a world free from oppression.