Free Palestine - A comprehensive reading list..

Written By Hassan Hassan

This resource list is far from exhaustive, but it hopefully offers a starting point for better understanding. Below you’ll find introductory books on Palestine; deeper dives; links to other cultural resources; texts which speak to the intersections of Palestinian and other liberation struggles; plus resources for children and young people.

These resources challenge much of the zionist ideology concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel, as well as offering a clear history of the occupation, Israel's military industrial complex, and this latest explosion of violence in Gaza. 

Introductory books on Palestine

  • From the River to the Sea

    An urgent editorial intervention, published in collaboration with Haymarket Books. Download here

  • Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims by Edward Said

    An essential read in understanding how Zionism came to be experienced by Palestinian people as a European imperial and colonial project. Zionism, for Palestinians, was and is a political ideology that is predicated on “the functional absence of a native people in Palestine.”

  • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe

    For Palestinians, the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 is known as the nakba (catastrophe), in which at least 400 Palestinain villages were destroyed, many Palestinians murdered and one million Palestinians expelled or displaced from their homes.

    Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking work to recount what happened between 1947 and 1949 helps illuminate the initial injustices that remain unrepaired and continue to be replicated to this day.

  • Decolonising Israel, Liberating Palestine by Jeff Halper

    A text which debunks myths around the ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’, asking - what if our understanding of the issue has been wrong all along? The book explores the concept of settler colonialism, providing a clearer understanding of the Zionist movement's project to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, displacing the Palestinian Arab population and marginalizing its cultural presence.

  • The Hundred Years ’War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

    A book which approaches the twentieth century as a century of denial for Palestinians: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. Drawing on his family archives, Khalidi reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own terms. This text will help you understand the early context of the Zionist project; and moves through critical moments within a hundred year long war of occupation, dispossession and colonisation.

Deeper Dives

  • On Palestine by Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappe

    Written in 2015, this book is an exploration of some of the more contemporary conversations on the liberation of Palestine: BDS, the two state, one state or binational solution, and the blockade of Gaza.

  • Palestine Speaks - Narratives of Life Under Occupation, edited by Mateo Hoke & Cate Malek

    Palestinians in the West Bank have been living under occupation for 45 years. As the Israeli state continues to encroach on land within the West Bank, restrictions on the everyday freedoms of Palestinians continue to grow. This book illuminates what it is like to live under such brutal conditions of oppression, through first hand accounts.

  • Palestine by Joe Sacco

    A graphic novel account of the Palestinian experience in the West Bank and Gaza during the first intifada, 1991-2.

  • Ten Myths About Israel, Ilan Pappe

    A book exploring ‘ten myths’ that are repeated endlessly in the media, upheld by the military and accepted by the world’s governments - reinforcing the regional status quo in Palestine. Pappe explores various claims - that Palestine was empty, that Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland - and breaks down what lies behind the mythology.

Memoirs, Poetry, Literature & Culture

  • State of Siege by Mahmoud Darwish

    Written from Ramallah in 2002, this epic poem from Palestine’s poet laureate, explores the tragedy and injustice of a life of occupation.

  • Return: A Palestinian Memoir by Ghada Karmi

    Ghada Karmi, raised in Britain after her family was exiled from Palestine, revisits the now highly militarized and largely unrecognisable land she had not seen since childhood. Arriving to find her home and much of the land she once knew, occupied by strangers, she explores the possibility of return for Palestinians in exile.

  • A Letter to my Husband by Hala Alyan

    Palestinain-American account of the relationship between Hala’s Muslim faith and its rooting in Palestine. Exploring the loss of Palestine through the absence of place within faith practices. This is a podcast.

  • Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

    A novel set in Palestine in 1948, told through the eyes of a young girl as she and her family are expelled from their home in Ein Hod, to a refugee camp in Jenin, and the lives that unfold as her family are split up and attempt to rebuild their lives.

  • Inside / Outside: 6 plays from Palestine and the Diaspora by Ismail Khalidi & Naomi Wallace

    Sharing the work of theatre makers, inside Palestine and within the diaspora, who are providing critical alternatives to restrained and distorted media narratives.

Intersections

  • Freedom is a Constant Struggle; Ferguson, Palestine & the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis

    A collection of essays, interviews and speeches exploring the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression historically and in contemporary times.

  • Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy, by Sean Jacobs and Jon Soske (editor)

    18 scholars from Africa and the African diaspora explore the relations between South Africa in apartheid era, and the modern Israeli state.

For Young People / Children

Further Resources

  • The Seed Queen of Palestine by Vivien Sansour

    The story of Vivien Sansour and her work to retain, remember and revive Palestinian seeds and their stories, with the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library.

  • Painful Hope by Ali Abu Awwad TED x Jerusalem

    A bereaved Palestinian, former prisoner and a non- violence activist talking about his peace work and his activities toward finding nonviolence solution for the israeli palastinian conflict.

  • BDS Website

    Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

  • Fly The Flag by Jewish Voices for Palestine

    A short film by Jewish people encouraging people worldwide to fly the flag for Palestine.

  • Why the Irish Support Palestine by Dr Craig Considine

    Dr. Craig Considine explores the reasons why the Irish support the Palestinian cause of freedom. Considine focuses on several historical similarities between the history of Ireland and Palestine including themes like settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, dehumanization, and racial and religious institutionalized bigotry.

Hassan Hassan
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