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A review by aeudaimonia
On Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Very complicated feelings about this book, and it's a little gutting to post a lukewarm review for it when I care so deeply about the issue. Overall it's still a good read (if anyone wants to read it, consider ordering from shoppalestine.org; it's run by the Middle East Children's Alliance and they're doing really important work for children in Palestine and elsewhere).
Unlike several other reviewers, I really enjoyed the conversation format and found it enlightening in a way straight prose wouldn't manage to be. The book assumes you have a good working knowledge of the situation (and also broadly pro-Palestinian leanings). With the basics out of the way, it's fascinating to see where Chomsky and Pappé agree and disagree, usually on finer points such as the essence of Zionism and the advantages/disadvantages of a single- or two-state solution. (Here I found Pappé slightly more compelling, but Chomsky always gave me a lot to think about).
Once again, the biggest problem with this book is the editing. I'm sure, given Chomsky's schedule, that he wasn't the one who stitched his "chapters" together (the chapters being simple reconfigurations of his previous essays; occasionally the same sentences appeared almost verbatim across two or three chapters). The result is a repetitive jumble, Frankenstein meets Groundhog Day, of information that manages to be both vague and hyper-specific to the early 2010s. Tldr; the editing did Chomsky very dirty here, and for a book that presupposes its reader's familiarity with the topic there's no excuse for such vapid repetition in the whole last third.
My other bone to pick is the lack of meaningful Palestinian representation. Chomsky and Pappé are American Jewish and Israeli Jewish respectively, and their cultural backgrounds provide crucial insight into both American and Israeli domestic/foreign policy and culture. At multiple points, however, they allude to "what the Palestinians will decide" and "how the Palestinians will react." Not, of course, that Palestinians will all feel the same way, but could you maybe ask one??? Phone a friend? There are so many great Palestinian academics out there, and their absence is notable throughout the whole of the book.
I got a lot out of On Palestine, but would have preferred that Barat, with Pappé's and Chomsky's permission, had just made these recorded conversations publicly available. The book is at its best when they're free to argue with and elaborate on each other's positions.
Unlike several other reviewers, I really enjoyed the conversation format and found it enlightening in a way straight prose wouldn't manage to be. The book assumes you have a good working knowledge of the situation (and also broadly pro-Palestinian leanings). With the basics out of the way, it's fascinating to see where Chomsky and Pappé agree and disagree, usually on finer points such as the essence of Zionism and the advantages/disadvantages of a single- or two-state solution. (Here I found Pappé slightly more compelling, but Chomsky always gave me a lot to think about).
Once again, the biggest problem with this book is the editing. I'm sure, given Chomsky's schedule, that he wasn't the one who stitched his "chapters" together (the chapters being simple reconfigurations of his previous essays; occasionally the same sentences appeared almost verbatim across two or three chapters). The result is a repetitive jumble, Frankenstein meets Groundhog Day, of information that manages to be both vague and hyper-specific to the early 2010s. Tldr; the editing did Chomsky very dirty here, and for a book that presupposes its reader's familiarity with the topic there's no excuse for such vapid repetition in the whole last third.
My other bone to pick is the lack of meaningful Palestinian representation. Chomsky and Pappé are American Jewish and Israeli Jewish respectively, and their cultural backgrounds provide crucial insight into both American and Israeli domestic/foreign policy and culture. At multiple points, however, they allude to "what the Palestinians will decide" and "how the Palestinians will react." Not, of course, that Palestinians will all feel the same way, but could you maybe ask one??? Phone a friend? There are so many great Palestinian academics out there, and their absence is notable throughout the whole of the book.
I got a lot out of On Palestine, but would have preferred that Barat, with Pappé's and Chomsky's permission, had just made these recorded conversations publicly available. The book is at its best when they're free to argue with and elaborate on each other's positions.