Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

16 reviews

bookish_afrolatina's review

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challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

5.0

This was an incredibly personal and yet measured and succinct book on Palestinian struggles since 1917. I learned so much about the creation of Israel, the failings of past Palestinian freedom movements, and the current state of affairs. 

Khalidi’s conclusion is powerful and offers ways to move towards peace. 

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mari1532's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I listened to this book through my library via Libby.

Brief Summary: A personal family story and a historical retrospective of the colonial establishment of Israel and its impact on Palestine.

Thoughts: This is a beautifully moving and important book to read. I learned a great deal about  Palestine's history. Khalidi's writing is informative and emotional. 

I would highly recommend it. 

#FreePalestine

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tashtasher's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0


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smilagros's review

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dark informative sad tense fast-paced
I listened to this on audio and I highly recommend reading it that way. I am very angry and very frustrated about how little I knew about what Israel and the United States did and is still doing to the Palestinian people. The United States has let Israel do whatever the fuck they want, no wonder they will never call for a ceasefire now. I wish that the Western media would stop trying to change the narrative about Israel and actually tell us the fucking truth instead of sugar coating everything. 

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jengoertz's review

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challenging informative tense slow-paced

4.0

An in depth analysis of the events and politics that have plagued the Palestinian people over the last 100 years. 

A bit dense to get through if you don't frequently read historical non-fiction, but worth the read. 

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library_gremlin's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

5.0


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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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informative sad slow-paced
I enjoyed the parts about the author's life and family most, but the historical context was also enlightening. A bit dense, but consequently full of information.

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bergha1998's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

This is a heavy and important book. It was hard to see how many lies I’d been told as an American and just fully believed until October of 2023. I really liked the personal stories mixed in by the author; they did an excellent job of framing it in humanity better than if the whole book was just focused on the history. 

History, Warfare and Colonialism

“The surest way to eradicate a people’s right to their land is to deny their historical connection to it.”

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Extremely informative, disheartening at times, but ultimately an essential read. I knew the US govt was a dirty greedy world-eating snake willing to sell itself for oil and control, but this book taught me just how far presidents, secretaries of state, etc. were willing to go, and how much they are willing to lie to everyone involved to get what they wanted. It’s been evident that “President of the United States” essentially translates to “untried war criminal” in many ways but… Jesus fucking Christ. 

Not a single one of those bastards deserves the pot they piss in. Dead or alive, every president since 1917 has either actively assisted in or callously funded from afar Israel’s assault on Palestinians and their land. Full stop, there is no way to extricate US presidents and their cabinets from the blood on their hands and their responsibility for the ongoing conflict. Joe Biden is just another bloodsoaked ninny in a long tradition of them. What a spineless freak 

The outright acknowledgement in direct quotes and memoirs of how Britain, the US, and Israel worked together to try & erase Palestinians from the face of the earth made me sick to my stomach. Liars, frauds, cheats, and murderers; a veritable fucking buffet of the worst people on earth 

The explanation of Palestinian movements and the battle between ego/leadership politics & the needs of the people was really interesting. as with any liberation story, the big name figures are a mixed bag of failures and successes; their best effort wasn’t always enough to help Palestinians, and sometimes directly harmed them. The author is very frank, but largely unbiased in his indictment of the PLO/PA. 

Khalidi was present for many of the events in this book, and does his best to give a full account, without being clinical. He feels, he laments, he indicts, but he gives all the facts he has access to while doing so. I prefer that to commentary devoid of emotion in the pursuit of “logic”, because why should a Palestinian man forced to sit through meetings stripping his kin of their peoplehood, having lived through expulsions, sieges, and bombardments just to be met with willful ignorance from the US and taunting from Israeli officials, be limited to cold, clinical retelling? the man is rightfully fucking frustrated & emotion doesn’t negate the sense of his arguments. his bristling frustration, disappointment, and fear of what is to come for his people teems underneath his words, and paints an even more telling picture of the state of Palestinians throughout the history he lays out. His hope shines through the conclusion of this book; as he lays out what he considers the most logical path towards resolution, you can feel him yearn for the day Palestine is free of Israel’s yoke. You cannot read this book without being moved by the emotions alongside the meticulous historical record. 

I am angry but also hungry for more information but also at a loss as to how to help from the inside of a country so deeply committed to sucking Israel off for access to the Middle East. more reading to come as I try to process this in a productive way & stop figuring out how to hit Joe with a bigger shoe

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sydapel's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced
So glad I could make this my final book of 2023. I'm not saying that you need context or history to feel strongly about what's happening in Gaza right now, but the framework of how we've arrived at this deeply tragic moment is shown in excellent detail in this book. I admit that I was lost in many chapters (there's a lot of names and places that I couldn't keep straight), but I came away from it with more of a background on Palestine, it's people and their resistance to the Israeli occupation. I also want to briefly state that the author has done a very good job of noting the missteps that Palestinian leadership has taken since 1948, both as a result of their own ignorance and of their oppression. 

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