• Occupied Voices

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In 2000, Pearlman, a Jewish doctoral student in Middle East politics and longtime human rights activist, spent six months living and studying in the West Bank. Her book grows out of her sojourn and "provide[s] a window into the human dimension of their struggle" by letting the Palestinians speak for themselves. Think of it as Studs Terkel goes to the Middle East-except that only one side in the conflict gets to speak. The first thing that emerges from these interviews is that the Palestinians have suffered a great deal-if someone hasn't been hurt, jailed or degraded by the Israeli occupation, they know someone who has. "The army just opens fire whenever it wants to," says Mahmoud, whose house was razed by the Israeli army. But while Pearlman says her aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some readers will come away only with despair, a sense that the conflict will never be settled. One Palestinian after another here shows an inability to see any legitimacy in the Israeli side, or to support an end to the current intifada or any attempts at peace-the moribund Oslo peace process is seen as a sellout. And when Pearlman fails to question such statements as that Israel has failed to comply with any U.N. resolution since 1948, many readers may despair regarding Pearlman as well.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
After the peace process in the Middle East broke down in 2000, the author, "a Jewish girl from Nebraska," was moved to visit Israel and speak to ordinary Palestinians living in the middle of the second Intifada (mass uprising). She spoke with doctors and educators, journalists and businessmen, homeowners and students, assembling a collage of memory and emotion. Each interview is preceded by a lengthy introduction that supplies historical and social contexts. Pearlman's own perspective, as a... read more

Book Description
When the occupied territories exploded following the collapse of the Camp David talks and Ariel Sharon's inflammatory visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Wendy Pearlman, a young Jewish woman from Nebraska, immersed herself amongst ordinary Palestinians and, a la Studs Terkel, recorded their lives. A remarkable oral narrative emerges from the school principals, professors, TV reporters, school kids, mothers, doctors, engineers, filmmakers, shop owners, victims of shellings and forced house removals that spoke to her: "The personal stories and heartfelt reflections that I encountered did not expose a hatred of Jews or a yearning to push Israelis into the sea. Rather, they painted a portrait of a people who longed for precisely that which had inspired the first Israelis: the chance to be citizens in a country of their own." Containing over thirty searing oral testimonies, this is one of the first books to tell the Palestinian story from the point of view of Palestinians living in the occupied territories.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

A remarkable and illuminating book, August 9, 2003

Thanks to Wendy Pearlman, now readers of this excellent and illuminating book can better understand the feelings and aspirations of Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation since 1967.

This book is must reading for all young and old Palestinians living outside the occupied territories, lest they forget the sufferring of their people. It is also a must reading for American citizens in the hope that they can influence, and perhaps convince, Congress and the Administration that true peace for both sides of the conflict can be achieved only by ending this inhumane occupation.