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THE PALESTINE LIBRARY BOOK CENTER

The books listed below are currently available. Please use the add to cart buttons to submit your donation. US and International shipping costs per book are included with your donation under the corresponding column. If you would like to make a donation higher than the indicated minimum, please go to this page and follow the instructions.

Palestine Library Book Center

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Al-Awda, PRRC
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA

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United States

International

Atlas of Palestine 1917-1966
By Dr. Salman Abu Sitta

550 Atlas colour pages of all Palestine as well as 150 Pages of analysis of the Mandate, Partition Plan, Palestine borders, land ownership, population composition, the 1948 war, al Nakba, Armistice Lines, war crimes, destruction of landscape, dispossession and confiscation of Palestinian property, water and agriculture and retransformation of Palestine landscape. Minimum donation $250.00 plus $35.00 and $70 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.



Naji El-Ali's Caricatures (in Arabic)

This book represents a rare collection of martyr Naji El-Ali's outstanding political cartoons which remain poignantly relevant today. This book is a must. Minimum donation $30.00 plus $5.00 and $10.00 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Nakba
Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory
Edited by Ahmad H. Sa'di and Lila Abu-Lughod

"The catastrophic expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland in 1948 is a historic injustice that demands the attention of the entire world. Americans, Israelis, and Jews in every nation must especially give heed to this astonishing collection of masterful essays. Far from being a melancholy assemblage of anger and self-pity, this book is a major political and scholarly achievement, reflecting deeply on the traumatic roots of national identity, the role of memory and amnesia, history and mythical narrative, legal doctrine and eyewitness testimony, women's experience, men's business, and lost places found again in song, story, and film. This is essential reading for anyone who longs for a just settlement to 'the question of Palestine,' the question of the Middle East, or, indeed, the establishment of a world order of peace and justice."—W. J. T. Mitchell, The University of Chicago, and author of What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images - Minimum donation $28.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

‘‘The Return Journey:A Guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages and Holy Sites, in English, Arabic and Hebrew"
by Salman H. Abu Sitta

This exceptional guide provides users with a tool to locate and learn about Palestinian cities, towns and villages which existed in 1948 before 85% of the Arab people of Palestine were displaced, 675 of their towns and villages were depopulated while their lands and properties were confiscated by the invading European Zionists. Unlike other maps and road atlases, the guide merges the pre-1948 sites with current maps. Users can see what there was before 1948 alongside what there is today. The guide will enable visitors to learn about the modern history of Palestine. It can assist Palestinians who are able to visit the site of the towns or villages of their original homes. This guide will be a useful companion for your journey. It contains a wealth of information. Minimum donation $50.00 plus $10.00 and $20.00 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 


In Hope and Despair: Life in the Palestinian Refugee Camps
Photographs by Mia Grondahl, foreward by Hanan Ashrawi and Introduction by Peter Hansen (Amer Univ in Cairo Press; October 2003)

Sixty years after the imposition of the colonial state of Israel, more than five million Palestinian refugees are still waiting to return to their homes and lands. Most are today living under harsh conditions in overcrowded camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and nearby countries. It is a wait that has now been passed on to a fourth generation. Between 1999 and 2002, Swedish photographer Mia Grondhal visited most of the camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, documenting through a remarkable series of intimate, direct and powerfully honest images the lives of a people making the best of a "temporary" existence that has lasted over half a century, a people whose lives have been put on hold but who still have not given up hope that one day they will return. Minimum donation $35.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

Flawed Landscape
by Sharif S. ElMusa

Sharif Elmusa is a widely published poet, scholar, and translator. He co-edited, and contributed to, the anthology, Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry (Interlink Books). Elmusa is currently an associate professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. He served for four years as director of the Middle East Studies Program. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Cairo University and doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Palestinian by birth, American by citizenship. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
by Ali Abunimah

Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate, One Country proposes a radical alternative: to revive the neglected idea of one state shared by two peoples. Ali Abunimah shows how the two are by now so intertwined--geographically and economically--that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis need or the rights Palestinians must have. Taking on the objections and taboos that stand in the way of a binational solution, he demonstrates that sharing the territory will bring benefits for all. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

Mornings In Jenin
by Susan Abulhawa

Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. This is the Palestinian story, told as never before, through four generations of a single family. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

Tasting the Sky
by Ibtisam Barakat

In this powerful, gorundbreaking memoir, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage she stitches together memories: fleeing from her home and becoming seperated from her family as the Six-Day War breaks out; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; and her unexected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and his family of letter. As language becomes her refuge - a true home that can never be taken away - she begins to piece together the fragments of her splintered world. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
by Saree Makdisi

For ordinary Palestinians, everyday activities such as tending one's fields, visiting a relative, going to the hospital, require negotiating permits and passes, curfews and closures, "sterile roads" and "seam zones" — bureaucratic hurdles ultimately as deadly as outright military incursion.

In devastating detail, Saree Makdisi reveals how the "peace process" institutionalized Palestinians' loss of control over their inner and outer lives. He shows how Israel's massive concrete walls going up around Gaza and the West Bank isolate communities from their lands, their livelihoods, and each other. Through eye-opening statistics and day-by-day reports, Makdisi shows how Palestinians have seen their hopes for freedom and statehood culminate in the creation of abject "territories" comparable to open-air prisons. Minimum donation $25.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (paperback).

 


In Search of Fatima
by Ghada Karmi

Karmi, a Palestinian doctor and founding member of the British political group Palestine Action, relates her quest for cultural identity after her family leaves Jerusalem for England during the imposition of the settler state of Israel in 1948. Karmi becomes an impassioned activist, and in 1977 begins practicing medicine in a Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon. Karmi writes engagingly, weaving Palestinian history through her personal recollections. The book's straightforward tone appeals to readers looking for insight into the Palestinian exile experience. Minimum donation $30.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (paperback).

 

 

We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon
by Kamal Boullata & Kathy Engel

We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon contains poems written in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon together with new ones rising from the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. Following a great tradition of poetry throughout history, this book shows the vast conscience and lyrical spirit of resistance on the part of poets in support of the dignity, rights, and humanity of the Palestinian and Lebanese people. We Begin Here is an affirmation of the human and poetic spirit, reminding us that poetry and struggle always "begin here," always leading us back to ourselves, to each other, in community, seeking truth and beauty across all borders. Minimum donation $24.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (Paperback).

 

 

Mahmoud Darwish, Exile's Poet:
Critical Essays
edited by Hala Khamis Nassar & Kathy Engel

Mahmoud Darwish's work has long been considered seminal in shaping modern Arabic poetry. He has received wide international recognition and is regarded as a contender for the Nobel Prize. Often deemed the "Poet of the Resistance," no substantial critical study exists that addresses the complexity of Darwish's poetry in rewriting the homeland and articulating exile. His later poetry consciously marks a move away from his earlier portrayals of identity, home, and poetry, yet many critics have failed to take note of this shift. His oeuvre yokes poetry and history, the political and the poetic, probing identities in perpetual exile. This book examines the complex connections between poetry, myth, lyric, prose, and history in Darwish's poetry. The scholarly articles in this volume situate his work in relation to both modern Arabic and world poetry. In addition, the articles address issues such as the future of poetry, the role of the poet, language, cultural heritage, lyrical modes, as well as the relationship of place and identity. Minimum donation $30.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (Paperback).

 

 

Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?
by Mahmoud Darwish

At once an intimate autobiography and a collective memory of the Palestinian people, Mahmoud Darwish’s interlinked poems are collective cries, songs, and glimpses of the human condition. The collection—widely considered his chef-d’oeuvre—is a poetry of myth and history, of exile and suspended time, of an identity bound to the Arabic language and his displaced people. Darwish’s poems—specific and symbolic, simple and profound—are historical glimpses, existential queries, chants of pain and injustice of a people separated from their land. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (Paperback).

 

 

Married to Another Man: Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
by Ghada Karmi

Two rabbis, visiting Palestine in 1897, observed that the land was like a bride, "beautiful, but married to another man". By which they meant that, if a place was to be found for Israel in Palestine, where would the people of Palestine go? This is a dilemma that Israel has never been able to resolve.

Ghada Karmi explains in fascinating detail the difficulties the imposition of Israel in Palestine created for the Arab world. Ultimately, she argues for the stablushment of a democratic secular state in Palestine. Her startling conclusions seem to overturn conventional thinking - and they are hard to refute. Minimum donation $27.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (Paperback).

 


Home Land - Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians
Staughton Lynd, Sam Bahour and Alice Lynd (Editors)

This comprehensive collection of oral histories brings to life generations of Palestinians, those living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and in exile. The editors travelled throughout Palestine (present-day 'Israel', the West Bank and Gaza Strip) to find the multi-generational families living in towns, villages and refugee camps, and whose voices resonate in Homeland. These are Palestinians who lost their homes in 1948 and thereafter, who grew up as refugees in Palestine, Jordan or Lebanon, women battling for their land as well as their rights, former prisoners, farmers, workers, children and great-grandparents. Homeland poignantly links the people to the land, the attachment to which has created and sustained Palestinian national identity around the world. These are stories of loss, of exile, of remembering. Minimum donation $35.00 per copy (hardcover) plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

 

Palestinian Refugees The Right of Return
Edited by Naseer Aruri

This book features contributions from a range of leading international authors and experts including the late Edward Said, Salman Abu Sitta, Elaine Hagopian, Ilan Pappe, Alain Gersh, Jaber Suleiman and Nur Masalha. The chapters cover the historical roots of the Palestinian refugee question; the obligations of host countries to refugees under international law, Israeli perceptions of the refugees and their inalienable rights; the roles of the United States and the European Union; the Palestine Liberation Organization, among other topics. Minimum donation $25.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle
by Ramzy Baroud

Ramzy Baroud is a veteran journalist and former producer for Al-Jazeera TV. This is his comprehensive account of the momentous events of 2002-2006 that shaped the political landscape not only of Palestine but of the entire Arab East. Addressing the most controversial issues, including the alarming escalation in suicide bombings, and the construction of the Separation Wall, he reports on the huge rate of unemployment and hunger in the Occupied Territories—statistics so critical that NGOs compare their magnitude to African nations such as the Congo. From the brutality of the Israeli army to the ever-compromising nature of the Palestinian Authority, few are spared Baroud's thoughtful critique. The book is clear and concise, with one chapter dedicated to the major events of each year, and includes a comprehensive timeline. Minimum donation $25.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Sabra And Shatila September 1982
Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout

This book is perhaps the most comprehensive, authoritative account of what happened and who was responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which took place over three days in the Lebanese capital Beirut in 1982. The author, Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, was a Professor at the Lebanese University at the time. Driven by the horror of what occurred, she interviewed survivors and set up an oral history project immediately after the massacre to preserve testimonies. This book is the result of this work. It is is a courageous attempt to make sense of what happened and an important political document in its own right. --- Minimum donation $40.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 


Culture and Resistance by Edward Said

"Culture is a way of fighting against extinction and obliteration" according to the late Edward W. Said. In this book of interviews with David Barsamian, Said discussed the centrality of popular resistance to his understanding of culture, history and social change, in particular the Palestinian struggle for recognition and justice. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Conversations with Edward Said (Tariq Ali)

In one of his last interviews, Edward Said speaks with Tariq Ali about his dislocated existence, his initiation into politics, his involvement with the Palestinian cause, his approach to the study of culture, and his pervasive love of literature and music. Intimate, personal, thought-provoking, and absorbing, these conversations capture Said -- as political activist, cultural historian, professor of literature, and music aficionado -- and confirm his position as one of the most passionate and thoughtful intellectuals of our time --- Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (hardcover).

 

 

Orientalism
by Edward W. Said

"The theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and trans-mitted... Orientalism is the example Edward Said uses, and by it he means something precise. The scholar who studied the Orient (and specifically the Muslim Orient), the imaginitive writer who took it as his subject, and the institutions which have been concerned with teaching it, settling it, ruling it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being other than the Occident, mysterious, unchanging and ultimately inferior." --Albert Hourani, New York Review of Books Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 


The Case for Palestine
by John Quigley

This book brings an international law perspective to bear on the invasion of Palestine. Quigley provides an extensively documented evaluation that covers the last century, discussing the Zionist movement, the League of Nations' decision to promote a 'Jewish homeland' in Palestine, the imposition of the colonial state of Israel in the period up to 1948, followed by Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights in 1967. Quigley attributes the breakdown in 2000 to the simple fact that none of the negotiations were based on the principles of justice and law. Minimum donation $25.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Teta, Mother, and Me: Three Generations of Arab Women
by Jean Said Makdisi

In this memoir, Makdisi (sister of the late Edward Said) explores the lives of three generations of Palestinian women, deftly illuminating a tumultuous century of modern Arab history, while raising important questions about the efficacy of ideology, the process of social development and the role of memory. Opening with the author's birth during WWII, the volume grows ever more engaging as Makdisi moves into the distant past of her grandmother Munira Badr Musa (or Teta) and her mother, Hilda Musa Said. Makdisi moves between dispassionate historical report and deeply felt emotion, mining first-person accounts where available and offering extensive research to fill in the gaps. Touching on one calamitous event after the other, from the devastating post-WWI famine in the Levant through the colonization and dispossession of Palestine and up to the Lebanese civil war - and explaining how the lives of women shaped and were shaped by each - Makdisi demonstrates how discussions of tradition and modernity generally miss the mark. "Valuable in its insights, sophisticated in its execution, this book deserves to be widely read." Description adapted from Publishers Weekly (Starred Review). Minimum donation $26.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (paperback).


 

My Jerusalem:  Essays, Reminiscences, and Poems - edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Zafar Isbaq Ansari.

Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

All That's Left to You
by Ghassan Kanafani

This book presents the vivid story of twenty-four hours in the real and remembered lives of a brother and sister living in Gaza and separated from their family. The desert and time emerge as characters as Kanafani speaks through the desert, the brother, and the sister to build the powerful rhythm of the narrative. The Palestinian attachment to land and family, and the sorrow over their loss, are symbolized by the young man's unremitting anger and shame over his sister's sexual disgrace. This collection of stories provides evidence to the English-reading public of Kanafani's position within modern Arabic literature. Not only was he committed to portraying the miseries and aspirations of his people, the Palestinians, in whose cause he died, but he was also an innovator within the extensive world of Arabic fiction. Minimum donation $15.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema
Edited by Hamid Dabashi, Preface by Edward Said

Dreams of a Nation, a collection of essays and interviews in which filmmakers, critics and scholars reflect on its production and impact, is the most comprehensive book on Palestinian cinema in any language. Deeply rooted in the historic struggles for national self-determination, this cinema is the single most important artistic expression of a much-maligned people. Despite the extraordinary social and artistic significance of Palestinian film, there is no single volume in which its political and aesthetic aspects are as carefully examined. Minimum donation $25.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

 

 

Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!: A Palestinian Folktale
by Margaret Read MacDonald, Ibrahim Muhawi, Sharif Kananah, Alik Arzoumanian (Illustrator)

From School Library Journal - PreSchool-Grade 2 - "A childless woman prays to Allah for progeny and is rewarded with a mischievous little cooking pot with human attributes. Soon the little pot tires of rattling around the house (Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!) and insists on rolling off to market, where she tricks a rich man into filling her up with honey and rolls home again. The second time the pot leaves home she encounters a king who fills her with jewels. When Little Pot rolls home with this treasure, her mother realizes that she has been absconding with other people's property and tells her child that she will have to return everything. In the morning, the unrepentant pot escapes before her mother awakes, but she meets the rich man again, who takes her to the king. The men conspire to fill the pot with goat dung, which convinces her to stay home until she is old enough to have learned right from wrong. MacDonald's telling is filled with repetition to encourage children to join in. Arzoumanian's bright, acrylic illustrations of sloe-eyed humans and the sly-eyed red pot are set against backgrounds with suggestions of Arabic decorative arts, which reinforce the story nicely.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Minimum donation $18.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively (hardcover).

 


Sitti and the Cats by Sally Bahous

For School Grades 1-4. This tale reflects the Palestinian values of friendship and community. Encountering a fully dressed cat in need of assistance, old Sitti is rewarded for her kindness with bags of onion and garlic peels, which later turn into gold and silver. Upon learning of Sitti's good fortune, a selfish neighbor goes to the cats' kingdom and rudely demands the same gifts. She receives them, but the peels turn into bees and wasps that would have stung her to death if not for Sitti's quick ministrations. Bahous's introductory remarks about her Palestinian childhood lend a warm, personal touch to the book. Superb illustrations by Malick. The double-page spreads allow for story-time sharing. Minimum donation $12.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 


Classic Palestinian Cuisine
by Christiane Dabdoub Nasser

Description from SAQI Books: This cookbook features a rich variety of dishes characteristic of the eastern regions of the Mediterranean and their culinary cultures. It is a collection of over 100 recipes - salads, soups, one-dish meals, stews and desserts - which represent traditional Palestinian cooking but also expose possibilities for a wider and more eclectic cuisine. This is also a very contemporary cookery book, aware of the need for more health-oriented and less time-consuming recipes while preserving the heritage handed down through the generations. The culinary experience is enriched by the incorporation of anecdotes, excerpts and illustrations of cultural and celebratory traditions from different regions of Palestine. Minimum donation $20.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 

 

Classic Palestinian Costume
by Shelagh Weir

The traditional costumes of the Palestinian villagers and Bedouin are of exceptional beauty and diversity, especially the festive costumes of the women with their lavish silk embroidery and patchwork and their dramatic headdresses encrusted with coins.This book surveys male and female fashions from the early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, and describes the main regional styles of costume, their materials and ornamentation, against the background of Palestinian life and culture. The emphasis throughout the book is on the social and symbolic significance of costume, and the final chapters analyze in detail the language of costume in the context of the wedding.The book is based on extensive field research the author has conducted at intervals since 1967 among Palestinians in Israel, the Occupied Territories, and Jordan. The illustrations include studio photographs of magnificent garments in museum collections, archive photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and recent photographs of costumes still made and worn. Minimum donation $40.00 plus $5.00 and $10 shipping per copy in the US and overseas, respectively.

 


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