Picked by Emerging Voices from the Middle East fans
Here are 4 books that Emerging Voices from the Middle East fans have personally recommended once you finish the Emerging Voices from the Middle East series.
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Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.
I loved this book because it tells the entire history of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis through the real-life relationship between one Palestinian refugee and the Israeli woman who was born in the house he was expelled from. The young adult version, based on the adult book, is packed full of details, but all told with nuance from the perspectives of the people involved.
Written by a journalist, the book is easy to follow and interesting. Like in real life, some of the differences are resolved, but most aren’t, leaving the reader interested in learning more.
In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old. On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a…
Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.
I love this book because Adam and Leila live in fictional Stone City, which is exactly like the real-life Old City of Jerusalem, Palestine. Their society is divided into the ruling class, called Permitteds, and the lower class, called Nons.
The kids enjoy their friends and school and music until their father dies suddenly, and they might lose their permit to stay in Stone City. Adam gets arrested when he and his friend Zak are falsely accused of attacking a group of Permitted teens.
Adam and Leila’s fast-paced struggle mirrors the struggle of Palestinian children in Jerusalem, and Adam and Leila’s bravery, creativity, and resolve make them heroes.
A thrilling, resonant and inspiring novel about justice, privilege and the power of the young to strive for change.
Set in a world where Adam and Leila and their friend Zak live as Nons under the Permitted ruling class. Then, when Adam and Leila's father dies unexpectedly, their mother faces losing her permit to live in the Stone City with deportation to where she was born. Before music-loving Adam can implement his plan to save Mama, Zak is arrested for a bold prank that goes wrong, with far-reaching repercussions for them all . . .
Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.
Reading this story really makes you feel what it’s like to live under Israeli occupation, and maybe that’s why this book is being banned. Twelve-year-old Karim and his family can’t leave their house during the army’s curfew, and Karim is tired of dealing with his siblings and parents when all he wants to do is play soccer.
When he’s allowed out, Karim befriends a boy from the refugee camp, and they build a soccer field in an old junkyard. But when Karim gets stuck there when the Israeli soldiers come back and impose another curfew, things get scary, and Karim has to grow up fast to stay safe.
A heartfelt and honest story, and an introduction to the Palestinian struggle for readers between nine and eleven years-old, set on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Written by Elizabeth Laird, in collaboration with Sonia Nimr, a Palestinian archaeologist, storyteller, writer and translator, who lives in Ramallah.
Twelve year-old Karim Aboudi lives with his family in Ramallah, on the West Bank of Palestine. After a terror attack takes place, they are trapped in their home, bound by a strict curfew enforced by the Israeli military. . Like any other child, Karim longs to play football with his mates - not to be…
Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.
I loved learning Ahed Tamimi’s story from her directly rather than from a news story. How often do teenagers get to learn about life in Palestine from a Palestinian age mate? Ahed was arrested when she was 16 for slapping a soldier, but her story started when she was born in the West Bank under Israeli occupation.
I found Ahed’s story informative and inspiring, and I can’t stop thinking about her!
A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.
“I cannot even begin to convey the clarity, the intensity, the power, the photographic storytelling of They Called Me a Lioness.”—Ibram X. Kendi, internationally bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Kirkus Reviews
“What would you do if you grew up seeing your home repeatedly raided? Your parents arrested? Your mother shot? Your uncle killed? Try, for just a moment, to imagine that this was…
