The Unlikely Settler - Hardcover

Pelham, Lipika

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590516834 ISBN 13: 9781590516836

Publisher: Other Press, 2014

Synopsis

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen by an outsider who craves to make sense of herself, her marriage, and the city she lives in

The Unlikely Settler is none other than a young Bengali journalist who moves to Jerusalem with her English-Jewish husband and two children. He speaks Arabic and is an arch believer in the peace process; she leaves her career behind to follow his dream. Jerusalem propels Pelham into a world where freedom from tribal allegiance is a challenging prospect. From the school you choose for your children to the wine you buy, you take sides at every turn.

Pelham’s complicated relationship with her husband, Leo, is as emotive as the city she lives in, as full of energy, pain, and contradictions. As she tries to navigate the complexities and absurdities of daily life in Jerusalem, often with hilarious results, Pelham achieves deep insights into the respective woes and guilt of her Palestinian and Israeli friends. Her intelligent analysis suggests a very different approach to a potential resolution of the conflict.

About this title

About the Author

Lipika Pelham was born and raised on the border between Bangladesh and India, and in the past twenty years has lived in England, Morocco, Jordan, and Israel. In her early twenties she joined the BBC World Service and reported from India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Morocco, and Israel. In 2005 Lipika moved with her family to Jerusalem, where she became a documentary filmmaker, winning among other prizes the prestigious Centre Méditerranéen de la Communication Audiovisuelle Prix Spécial du Jury in 2010.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

During our fifth year in Jerusalem, I was faced with a dilemma: where to give birth to our third child. In London, where my two older children were born and where my husband wanted me to go? In Bethlehem, because my friends recommended the Holy Family Hospital there? Or in Jerusalem, where I had met a Jewish orthodox obstetrician I really liked?

I tried not to rule out Bethlehem. Many of our expatriate friends—journalists and diplomats—went to Palestinian cities to deliver their babies to avoid probable future difficulties for their work life in the Middle East. I went to see the hospital in Bethlehem. It had a beautiful setting, amid lovely gardens, and a state-of-the-art neonatal unit. The delivery rooms were spacious and airy with a view of the primordial hills. But it sounded so clichéd. Born in Bethlehem. Implicated in too much compassion and sacrifice. A birth loaded with expectations.
Given that Bethlehem had one of the highest birth rates in Palestine, the land should have been inundated by now with hundreds of thousands of compassionate Apostles. If only forgiveness had been the core value of this place, peace would have flourished in the hills around Jesus’s birthplace, rather than outposts of hate. I could not help my eye being drawn to the ugly architecture of the Israeli settlements that dotted the landscape around Bethlehem. It was too ominous a place to give birth.

I carried on seeing my doctor, who traveled from his home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank to his practice in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

“How can you compromise your politics by seeing a settler doctor?
Don’t you think you are implicitly supporting the Israeli occupation?” said Leo, my husband, an expert on Middle East affairs.

“It’s up to the mother of the baby to decide where she feels comfortable to give birth,” I replied.

About this edition

• Publisher: Other Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1590516834
• ISBN 13: 9781590516836
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416