Reviews

One of the stickiest problems for individuals and organisations trying to engage with the horror that is the conflict between Israel and Palestine is the issue of antiSemitism. It lurks as a spectre of guilt for those coming to the topic without a “legitimate” interest, ie being Jewish or Palestinian. And it is hurled at anyone who dares to criticise the state of Israel by those who support any of that state's actions, however bloody.

This little book - hardly more than a pamphlet - is a collection of articles and essays by writers…

In his introduction to this beautiful memoir, the late Edward Said says: what gives this book an unmistakeable stamp of profound authenticity is its life-affirming poetic texture. This is no surprise as Barghouti is indeed a poet of great sensitivity, he is the author of nine books of poetry; few of his poems are translated into English. For us in the English-speaking minority world, the idea that there is a body of Palestinian literature is probably as remote and unbelievable as the idea that there is a land and history of a…

The blurb on the back of this book augurs well. “In the aftermath of 9/11, America has been haunted by one question: Why do they hate us?” Perhaps, one thinks, some intelligent discussion by a leading US commentator (Pintak is a veteran journalist who has reported on the Middle East for many of the big names of the international English-language media) of why the USA has become such a symbol of oppression for so many. Progression to the next few sentences reveals that such hopes may be premature.

This book - a kind of memoir of the…

Did 9/11 force us to redefine our understanding of “war zones”, and acknowledge that the continuum of war and violence has no temporal or spatial boundaries?

As the editors of Terror, Counter-Terror argue, feminists have long been involved in identifying and challenging the continuum of violence experienced by women, and are in a unique position to address the issues of militarism and terrorism, gender and nationalism, globalisation and discrimination that were thrown into sharp focus one sunny day in September.

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This book is a collection of interviews with Israeli soldiers who at some stage decided to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories.

Some of these soldiers are familiar to readers of WRI's co-alert email lists, as their imprisonment was reported to generate support. Others were lucky and didn't spent time behind bars (so far). None of the soldiers interviewed in this book is a pacifist. All of them continue to serve in the IDF. Still, this book gives some insights into their moral reasoning. How to be true to one's values - even…

There was a time when anyone caught talking about “US imperialism” was instantly branded a mad Leninist. No longer. Today, aided and abetted by the ever-more brazen antics of the Bush administration, talk of American “empire” and “imperialism” can be found across the political spectrum.

Sidney Lens's excellent historical overview of US imperialism first appeared in 1971 and its reissue now, with a new introduction by Howard Zinn, is extremely timely. For one thing Lens's survey helps to remind us of the deep roots of our current…

This document is described by its author as a, “response to the conviction that protest alone will not make a sufficient impact on the status quo”.

Carey begins by setting out the major threats facing the world today, both in his own words and through extensive quotations from other writers. Much of what appears in the opening section, titled “Prognosis”, will be familiar to PN readers.

This first section is followed by an excellent critique of the environmental, social and cultural impact of the unfettered advance of modern…

This is a book which has three separate - but related - parts to it. It starts with an essay by Micah Ian Wright entitled “Moment of Clarity”, in which he writes about his experiences in the US military during the invasion of Panama in 1989 - something which made him question the aims of US foreign policy, and which eventually led him to his remixed poster project.

The most striking part of this work is the remixed (mainly) US military propaganda posters taken from WW1 and WW2 and the early Cold War years. These have been redesigned…

During the 1948 war that resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel, some 750,000 Palestinians fled their homes and became refugees. Following the 1967 war in which Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip many more Palestinians were displaced. There are now somewhere between four and six million - two thirds of the Palestinian people - living outside the borders of historic Palestine.

In many ways I think of my friend Hassan as a typical Palestinian refugee. His family is from what is now northern Israel. He was…

Empire has never completely gone out of style, but now in the early 21st Century it has very become popular for describing the current international system. In particular, there is a growing recognition that the United States is an empire. 1 Of course, most of the world saw the US this way already, but it comes as a bit of a shock to the “homeland.”

Accepting the “new” US Empire is usually linked to the claim that the US is the only remaining superpower and that it will continue the civilising missions of the…

For all its failings, it's sometimes worth reminding oneself that some of the best journalists (as well as some of the worst!) work for the corporate media. Amira Hass is one such reporter.

The daughter of survivors of the Nazi holocaust, Hass was, until September 2002, the chief West Bank and Gaza correspondent for Ha'aretz, Israel's leading liberal daily. Between 1993 and 1997 she lived in Gaza - the only Jewish Israeli journalist to have done so - covering the Oslo “peace” process from the inside, a period eloquently described in…

As a follow up to the highly successful UK version, PNW people have teamed up with Mordam Records in the dis-United States to release this new Peace not War 2-CD compilation.

With 32 tracks, ranging from Crass, Midnight Oil and Chumbawamba to Ani Di Franco, Seize the Day and Ms Dynamite, they have produced an amazingly strong message to Bush, Blair and their buddies: that any future invasion of an oil rich state is not going to be allowed to happen. This is music that reawakens energy - it's a compilation that calls for party,…

This, eighth in the series of SchNEWS annuals, follows a predictable formula laid down in its predecessors, and is predictably fantastic.

The standard compilation (of approximately 50 issues of the weekly Brighton-based SchNEWS newsletter, alongside longer features, interviews, cartoons, photos, and material from around the world largely ignored by the mainstream media) covering April 2002 to April 2003 is distinct from previous annuals in the coverage it gives to the anti-war movement. And inevitably so - as the annual's foreword…

Tariq Ali has delved deep into the scholarship on 20th century Iraq to produce his provocative and timely book Bush in Babylon, which takes as its focus the history of Iraqi resistance to the British empire and what this suggests for the future.

Whilst polemical in tone the book is never less than engaging - though the reader should be warned that Ali often asserts interesting claims without providing his sources. Hopefully Bush in Babylon will inspire Ali's readers to delve further into Iraq's recent history for themselves…

Had they not become leaders in the field of exposing government spin doctoring and propaganda, you suspect that Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber would make pretty effective PR consultants themselves.

I recently spotted Weapons of Mass Deception riding high in the best-seller lists in a mainstream British bookstore. How many of those buying it were seduced by the snappy title and the Saddam/Bin Laden comic-strip on the cover? Those expecting the Michael Moore approach to US politics might find this a little sober by…