Children of Israel Children of Palestine - Hardcover

Holliday, Laurel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671008021 ISBN 13: 9780671008024

Publisher: Atria, 1998

Synopsis

Thirty-six men, women, and children from both Israel and Palestine tell of their coming-of-age surrounded by the turmoil of one of the world's longest and most dangerous conflicts, in the the third volume in the Children of Conflict series.

About this title

About the Author

Laurel Holliday, formerly a college teacher, editor, and psychotherapist, now writes full time in Seattle. She is the award-winning author of Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries and Children of "The Troubles": Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland. Children of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories is the third book in the Children of Conflict series. Ms. Holliday is currently at work on the next anthology in the series, Children of the Dream: Growing Up Black in America.

Reviews

While limited in scope, this anthology of childhood memories of adults shaped by the Arab-Israeli wars is often quite moving. Like her previous books Children of the Troubles: Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland (1997) and Children of the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries (not reviewed), this volume anthologizes the eloquent testimonies of adults remembering traumatic wartime incidents they witnessed as children. Holliday, a Seattle-based psychotherapist, has an eye for choosing telling details, including both the communal and dramatic (nightmarish scenes of Palestinians forced to flee their homes at night, watching as their houses are burned and leveled) and the highly personal (the recollections of a young Arab boy imprisoned by Jordanians, ``beaten up and forced to sing loudly `Long Live King Hussain' ''). The memoirs had to be written in English, somewhat limiting the range of contributors. Almost all of them express moderate views, thus offering a rather misleading portrait of Arab and Israeli societies, given the presence of violent extremists on both sides. While Holliday provides a sketchy history from the 19th century to the present, were not told the political reasons for the region's most pressing human problems, such as why houses in the Rafah refugee camp, like Ahmed Younis's, ``wereand still aremade of one level of cinder block.'' Holliday's Israelis are often condescending in their treatment of Arabs, viewing them as ``noble savages,'' illiterate, uncomplicated, easily led. Indeed, Ehud Ben-Ezer's colonialist father comes complete with a British ``pith helmet.'' A powerful if somewhat incomplete sampling of voices, important especially for giving expression to those Palestinians whose stories are rarely heard. (8 pages photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

What is it like to grow up in the war zone of the Middle East? That is the subject of this disturbing collection, which begins with memories about childhood before the 1948 war and ends with accounts of young Palestinians and Israelis growing up now. Some remember the rage for revenge ("I dreamed of killing each and every one of them"); many are overwhelmingly sad ("How painful to be a visitor in one's own country"). What connects them is a longing for peace; the question is, At what price? Holliday says in her eloquent introduction that there is no sweet upbeat solution of easy neutrality, no call "to kiss and make up," but there is hope in their agreeing to tell their stories in a book together. They are listening to each other, and they make us hear all sides. Connect this with Naomi Shihab Nye's beautiful YA anthology The Space between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East (see review on p.1131): there, also, displacement is a dominant theme. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671008021
• ISBN 13: 9780671008024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384