The Olive Branch From Palestine

The Olive Branch from Palestine provides a new narrative of the Palestinian effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and offers a bold plan for ending this conflict today, a proposal that focuses on Palestinian agency and the power of the Palestinians to bring about the two-state solution, even in the absence of a fully committed Israeli partner. In part 1, Jerome Segal provides an analytical and historical study of the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, a remarkable act of unilateral peacemaking through which the PLO accepted the legitimacy of the 1947 Partition Resolution and thereby redefined Palestinian nationalism. In part 2, he proposes a new strategy in which, outside of negotiations, the Palestinians would advance, in full detail, the end-of-claims/end-of-conflict peace plan they are prepared to sign, one that powerfully addresses the Palestinian refugee question and is supported by the refugees themselves yet does not undermine Israel as a Jewish-majority state.

More than a decade before Israel's New Historians revolutionized the study of Israeli history, English journalist David Hirst wrote The Gun and the Olive Branch, a classic, myth-breaking general history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hirst, former Middle East correspondent of the Guardian, traces the origins of the terrible conflict back to the 1880s to show how Arab violence, although often cruel and fanatical, is a response to the challenge of repeated aggression. The Gun and the Olive Branch is an absorbing, potentially controversial, history of the Middle Eastern conflict that is indispensable to anyone with an interest in world politics and by partisans of both sides. This classic and controversial account of the origins of the Middle East conflict returns to print updated with a lengthy introduction that reflects on the course of recent Middle Eastern history—especially the abortive Israeli-Palestinian peace process and 9/11.

When UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) was established in 1949, it was not designed as a permanent organization. Its founders hoped for an early solution to the problem of the Palestinian refugees, but that did not come about. This volume updates Viorst's 1984 study. No bibliography. Acidic paper. Paper edition (unseen), $8.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Israeli settlements are proliferating in Palestinian territory, and if they are annexed, the possibility of a future Palestinian state is virtually impossible. Could it have been otherwise? Can it still be? These are the questions Jerome M. Segal poses in The Olive Branch from Palestine. Carefully argued and highly informative, this book is centered on an original strategy that Segal devised—a strategy adopted but only partially implemented by Palestinian leadership, leaving its feasibility untested. The first step of this strategy was the issuance in November 1988 of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. That document, authored by Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish and modeled on Israel's own Declaration, called for a Palestinian state that would live in peace with Israel. In The Olive Branch from Palestine, Segal provides in the first part an analytical and historical study of the 1988 Declaration, a remarkable act of unilateral peacemaking through which the PLO accepted the legitimacy of the 1947 Partition Resolution and thereby redefined Palestinian nationalism. In the second part, he proposes a new strategy based on solutions to the two core issues of 1948: the preservation of a Jewish state, and the rights and circumstances of Palestinian refugees. With The Olive Branch from Palestine, Jerome Segal offers a new narrative of the peace process and details a Palestinian-led strategy that could end the conflict.

P is for Palestine is the world's first English-language ABC story book about Palestine, told in simple rhythmic rhyme with stunning illustrations to act as an educational, colorful, empowering reference for children, showcasing the geography, the beauty and strength of Palestinian culture. Anyone who has ever been to Palestine or who has Palestinian friends, colleagues, or neighbors knows that this proud nation is home to the sweetest oranges, most intricate embroideries, great dance moves (Dabkeh), fertile olive groves, and the sunniest people! This revised edition includes an appendix explaining some of the terms and Arabic words, written in their original language with simplified English pronunciation. Inspired by Palestinian people's own rich history in the literary and visual arts P is for Palestine is a book for children of all ages!

The Palestinians: People of the Olive Tree presents an eloquent and moving collection of vignettes depicting the human face of the Palestinian tragedy - an aspect too often ignored by those around the world who consider only the political dimensions of the "Palestine question." The Palestinians as a people are still frequently stereotyped by the international mass media as a nation of terrorists and radicals. The personal accounts collected in this remarkable book go some way to redressing the balance by revealing the human dimension of a suffering nation: the lives of a people in exile or in camps, preoccupied with struggle and survival in a hostile world. But this is by no means an entirely bleak account: the ordinary Palestinians featured in these vignettes (based on an extensive series of personal interviews by Professor Kamel S. Abu Jaber) describe their everyday existence both simply and poignantly and the eloquence of their tales reveals lives filled with hope, despair, tenderness, love and dreams of success, happiness and - above all else - peace.