Reading list

History did not begin on October 7th | Reading List

On the anniversary of October 7th, we present our Free Palestine reading list.

Verso Books 6 October 2026

History did not begin on October 7th | Reading List

Central to Israel's effort in justifying its genocide is the suggestion that the events of October 7, 2023, interrupted peace in the region and took place without provocation. History tells a different story.

For readers that refuse to settle for such fictions, we present our Free Palestine reading list.

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The Violence of the Israeli Occupation

“What we are witnessing being done to Gaza has dangerous implications for the entire world.”— Omar Barghouti

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Palestinian Artists, Novelists, and Poets

“Art has always been a way for me to survive. In Gaza … creativity becomes not just an expression but a necessity.” — Shareef Sarhan

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The Verso Palestine Pamphlets

Through these pamphlets, the series seeks to help deepen our understanding of Palestine’s long struggle for liberation.

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Dismantling Zionist Ideology

“Zionism is a self-contained system of truth, with an origin story inspired by divine right, a bridge over its wretched beginnings.” — Mary Turfah

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International Palestine Solidarity and Its Repression

“The last year of repression shows how much violence they are willing to inflict on us in order to protect the interests of capital and empire. Our commitment to humanity is on trial.” — Maryam Iqbal

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A Historical Perspective: From the Balfour Declaration to Today

"Palestinian resistance against Israeli apartheid, armed and otherwise, will persist as long as apartheid persists.” — Tareq Baconi

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From the River to the Sea

This free ebook provides important grounding for the urgent discussions taking place across the Palestine solidarity movement — published in collaboration with Haymarket Books.

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  • Men in the Sun

    Men in the Sun

    Three Palestinian men embark on a brutal and treacherous odyssey across the Iraqi desert to Kuwait, not for liberation but material betterment. Under the indifferent brutality of border bureaucracy...
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  • The Killing of Gaza

    The Killing of Gaza

    Gideon Levy is one of the most respected critics of Israel's apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. He is the outspoken award-winning journalist who has been writing on the conflict for...
  • An Army Like No Other
    The Israeli army, officially named the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), was established in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, who believed that ‘the whole nation is the army’. In ...
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  • Palestine Speaks
    For more than six decades, Israel and Palestine have been the center of one of the world’s most widely reported yet least understood human rights crises. In Palestine Speaks men and women from the ...
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  • Hyper-Zionism

    Hyper-Zionism

    Germany remains unmatched across Europe in its unconditional support for the Israeli state. Since October 7, 2023, the German state has particularly distinguished itself in its brutal repression of...
  • The Case for Sanctions Against Israel

    The Case for Sanctions Against Israel

    In July 2011, Israel passed legislation outlawing the public support of boycott activities against the state, corporations, and settlements, adding a crackdown on free speech to its continuing bloc...
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  • Letters to Palestine
    Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s seven-week bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza in the summer of 2014, resulted in half a million displaced Gazans, tens of thousands of destroyed home...
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  • Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
    First published in 1995, this acclaimed study challenges generally accepted truths of the Israel-Palestine conflict as well as much of the revisionist literature. This new edition critically reexam...
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  • Israel and Palestine
    With characteristic rigor and readability, Avi Shlaim reflects on a range of key issues, transformations and personalities in the Israel–Palestine conflict. From the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the...
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  • The Punishment of Gaza
    Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza was an act of aggression that killed over a thousand Palestinians and devastated the infrastructure of an already impoverished enclave. The Punishment of Gaza shows h...
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