Yitzhak Laor
Yitzhak Laor is a distinguished Israeli poet, novelist and veteran political activist. A longtime editor and writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz, he now also edits an independent journal of literature and political thought, Mita'am.Blog
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Explaining the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Today is Nakba Day - the annual day of commemmoration of the Palestinian catastrophe, the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians.
A selection of Verso's books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, from explanations to considered outcomes.
These are Verso's key books to explain the situation – what others should we include?
The Conflict Explained
The Case for Sanctions Against Israel edited by Audrea Lim
Leading international voices consider all sides of the conflict including boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. With contributions from Angela Davis, John Berger, Naomi Klein, Omar Barghouti, Dalit Baum and Rebecca Vilkomerson.
The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy
The powerful narrative of Israel's invasion and control over Gaza - examining the abandonment of diplomacy in favour of raw military power, turning Gaza into an enormous open-air prison.
“Gideon Levy’s passionate and revealing account is an eloquent, even desperate, call to bring this shocking tragedy to an end, as can easily be done.”
– Noam Chomsky
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"Let two become one"—Slavoj Zizek argues for a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine
Slavoj Žižek argues in the New Statesman for a binational state in Israel & Palestine - the "simplest and most obvious solution" to the conflict.
Highlighting some disturbing instances of racism (and sexism) in Israeli society (such as the 2007 poll that showed that over half of Israeli Jews believe intermarriage is akin to "national treason"), Žižek makes the key point that:
What makes these campaigns so depressing is that they are flourishing at a time of relative calm, at least in the West Bank. Any party interested in peace should welcome the socialising of Palestinian and Jewish youth.
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The Palestine Papers—comment and historical context
Al Jazeera and the Guardian and Al Quds (Arabic) newspapers yesterday released over 1600 confidential documents laying open the last decade of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The papers go well beyond refuting the threadbare myth that the Israelis have had no 'partner for peace', and show rather how weak and incompetent officials betrayed Palestinians by offering to surrender "virtually everything except their salaries", as Tariq Ali puts it on the London Review of Books blog. As Ali notes, it is well worth revisiting Edward Said's prophetic 1994 article for the LRB in which he described the Oslo accords as a "Palestinian Versailles" in the light of these revelations.
