Selected by Fred Rhodes

THE PALESTINE-ISRAELI CONFLICT:

A Beginner’s Guide

By Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El Alami published by Oneworld publications
ISBN 1 85168 261 9 price £8.99 paperback

Two peoples and two authors in conflict — one book. For the first time, a Rabbi and a Palestinian wrestle together with the issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

They offer a new perspective on two peoples who have engaged in over 50 years of conflict, why they are emotionally so involved with each other and where they feel they have lost their way.

Rabbi Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok is Professor of Judaism, and Dawoud El Alami a lecturer in Islamic Studies, both at the University of Wales. In spite of the great differences in their ideologies and experience, the authors have come together to exchange views on, and possible solutions to, the conflict and the events that have led to the present deadlock.

El Alami and Cohn-Sherbok each present a history of their own people — both have seen and interpreted the same events, historical developments and personalities, but most often with different eyes. Each then permits the other a rebuttal; their interaction is well grounded in historical fact, sometimes emotional and often places the blame on arrogance, apathy or the duplicity of allies.

Throughout this work the reader will begin to understand, not only the political reasons for the stance of each author, but the deeper historical, religious and emotional burden that each one carries as a microcosm of his people.

Dan Cohn-Sherbok’s defence of Israel’s very existence grows from a history of persecution and dispersion, from the earliest records of anti-Semitism, through the pogroms of 19th century Eastern Europe, the philosophy of Herzl and the Holocaust, to the Balfour Declaration and the vision of Ben-Gurion.

Dawoud El Alami reflects historical reasons for the existence of the Palestinians who have inhabited that part of the world for over 2000 years. The feelings of betrayal of the Arab World by the Balfour Agreement and Churchill’s White Paper and their rage at Jewish appropriation of Palestinian land in the first half of the 20th century. He points out that the older generation of Arabs may have been more accepting of the situation, but that the young are now ready take on their rightful role in their own country.

Finally, each author offers recommendations on what can be done to give Israel the security it so desperately seeks with regard to its neighbours and, at the same time, to fulfil the aspirations of the Palestinian people who also have a right of return to their land.

WOMEN IN KUWAIT

The Politics of Gender

By Haya Al Mughni published by Saqi Books

ISBN 0 86356 358 9 price £16.95 paperback

A unique portrait of Kuwaiti women, Women in Kuwait discusses a wide range of issues: the impact of the oil era; the growth of the state; the emergence of women’s organisations in a male-dominated society; the recent Islamic revival; and the future prospects for women’s participation in Kuwaiti society.

Based on first-hand research and an extensive analysis, this revised and updated edition includes a new introduction as well as two new chapters on feminist activism during and following the Gulf war, the nature of the relationship between women and the state, the role of gender in Islamism and cultural politics. The author concludes that the enfranchisement of women presents a significant challenge to Kuwait’s traditional system of politics and tribe; and that granting Kuwaiti women the vote in the present context, is paradoxically more likely to strengthen, rather than weaken, state control over domestic politics.

REEL BAD ARABS

How Hollywood Vilifies A People

By Jack G Shaheen published by Olive Branch Press

ISBN l 56656 388 7 price $25.00 paperback

A groundbreaking work, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, dissects Hollywood’s continuous and slanderous history of depicting Arabs as evil desert sheikhs, Bedouin bandits, and machine-gun toting terrorists. For nearly 100 years, Hollywood has used stereotyped Arab images to portray black-hatted (or turbaned) villains and barbarians — kidnapping, hijacking, bombing, raping, torturing, and murdering their way across the Silver Screen.

In this comprehensive study of nearly 1000 films. Award-winning film authority Jack G Shaheen documents the tendency to portray Muslim Arabs as Public Enemy Number One — brutal, heartless, uncivilised ?Others? bent on terrorising civilised westerners. Noting that only Native Americans have been more relentlessly smeared on film, Dr Shaheen painstakingly makes his case that ?Arab? has remained Hollywood’s shameless shorthand for ?bad guy,? long after the movie industry shifted its negative portrayals of other minority groups, among them, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.

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