Library Guides: Israel-Palestine Library Resources: Books

About This Section

Selection Criteria

There are thousands of books in Tulane University Libraries' (TUL) collections that treat the histories, cultures, politics, and lived experiences of Israel and Palestine and varied dimensions of the ongoing conflict.

The creators of this guide opted to surface the titles below based on recommendations by:

Tulane faculty in Jewish Studies and Middle East & North African Studies,
Journalists, historians, political scientists, policy analysts, and politicians interviewed on The New York Times's Ezra Klein Show and The Daily podcasts and NPR's Throughline,
TUL Librarians and Staff.

Book Descriptions

The abstracts of the books below have been adapted and abridged from the publishers' descriptions.

A Note on Language

It is important to note that we have only included books written in or translated into English and that the lack of books in Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages limits the breadth of scholarship and perspectives included here. Given that Tulane University has not historically had a large program in Middle East Studies, Tulane Libraries have not tended to collect books in Arabic, Hebrew, and other Middle Eastern languages, with only select titles present in our collections.

Most Recommended

This box highlights books that were recommended multiple times by Tulane faculty and staff, and/or experts interviewed by The New York Times and NPR, as foundational reading:

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .S476 2015
Publication Date: 2015
In this Pulitzer-Prize winning book, American New York Times reporter David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices that exist between Jews and Arabs that have been intensified by war, terrorism, and nationalism. Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Palestine, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools. He discusses the effects of socioeconomic differences, the clashes of Israeli and Palestinian historical narratives, religious conflicts between Islam and Judaism, views of the Holocaust, and more. He also writes the stories of people: the Arab woman in love with a Jew, the retired Israeli military officer now disillusioned, the Palestinian militant devoted to violent means, the Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren who reach across the divides in search of reconciliation. Their stories, and the hundreds of others, reflect not only the reality of “wounded spirits” but also the healing inside minds necessary for eventual coexistence in the promised land.
Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East by Abdel Monem Said Aly; Shai Feldman; Khalil Shikaki
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .S3332 2013
Publication Date: 2022
This university textbook, co-authored by an Israeli, a Palestinian, and an Egyptian, provides an overview of key developments in the history of the conflict and explores attempts at resolution, then portrays the viewpoints of the important parties. It places the events of the conflict within a regional and international context, as well as a broader Arab perspective, providing insight into the opposing narratives behind the conflict.
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .K4279 2020
Publication Date: 2020
Columbia professor Rashid Khalid draws on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of his own Palestinian family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—to tell an accessible, landmark history of modern Palestine. This book challenges accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .S381877 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Israeli reporter Ari Shavit traces the events that led Israel to its state of conflict as of 2013, illuminating the importance of lesser-known historical events through stories of everyday citizens. Shavit examines the lives of individuals: the youth group leader who recognized the potential of Masada as a powerful symbol for Zionism, the young farmer who bought an orange grove from his Arab neighbor in the 1920s and helped create a booming economy in Palestine, the engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel’s nuclear program, and the religious Zionists who started the settler movement. In telling these stories, Shavit asks: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? And can Israel survive?
Orientalism by Edward W. Said
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS12 .S24 2003
Publication Date: 1978
Orientalism is a groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East that has shaped decades of scholarship and thought. In this wide-ranging, theoretically vigorous study, the late Palestinian academic and Columbia professor Edward Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East, and from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas, and because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.
The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .S333 1980
Publication Date: 1979; Revised 1992
With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential Orientalism, along with a Palestinian exile's passion, Edward Said traces the fatal collision between two peoples in the Middle East and its repercussions in the lives of both the occupier and the occupied, as well as in the conscience of the West. Said updated the 1992 edition to portray the changed status of Palestine and its people in light of such developments as the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Intifada, the Gulf War, and Middle East peace initiatives. The Question of Palestine remains a foundational work for understanding Palestinian perspectives of the conflict, as well as how European colonialist ideologies shaped and continued to impact the region.
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 by Benny Morris
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .M657 1999
Publication Date: 1999
Prominent Israeli historian Benny Morris provides a comprehensive history of the long battle between Arabs and Jews for possession of a land they both call home. Morris argues that the roots of this conflict lie in the deep religious, ethnic, and political differences between the Zionist immigrants and the native Arab population of Palestine.

Background Context

To understand the past and present of Israel and Palestine, it's important to grasp the basics of antisemitism, Zionism, Islamophobia, and the Arab world. These books offer starting points:

Antisemitism: a Very Short Introduction by Steven Beller
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS145 .B394 2015
Publication Date: 2015
Antisemitism, as hatred of Jews and Judaism, has been a central problem of Western civilization for millennia, and its history continues to invite debate. This Very Short Introduction untangles the history of the phenomenon, from ancient religious conflict to "new" antisemitism in the 21st century.
The Arabs: A History by Eugene Rogan
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS37.7 .R64 2009
Publication Date: 2009
The American historian Eugene Rogan draws on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history. The Arabs: A History balances different voices--politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown--to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries, starting in 1516 with the defeat of Arab forces and their subjugation by the Ottoman Turks.
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire by Deepa Kumar
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks BP52 .I8543
Publication Date: 2012; 2nd ed. 2021
A critically acclaimed analysis of anti-Muslim racism from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. In this incisive account, leading scholar of Islamophobia Deepa Kumar contends that Islamophobia is best understood as racism rather than as religious intolerance. An innovative analysis of anti-Muslim racism and empire, Islamophobia argues that empire creates the conditions for anti-Muslim racism, which in turn sustains empire.
Zionism: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Stanislawski
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS149 .S6585 2017
Publication Date: 2016
Zionism is the nationalist movement affirming Jewish people's right to self-determination through the establishment of a Jewish national state in its ancient homeland. It is one of the most controversial ideologies in the world. Its supporters laud its success at liberating the Jewish people after millennia of persecution and at securing the creation of Israel. But to its opponents, Zionism relies on a racist ideology culminating in Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and is one of the last manifestations of colonial oppression in the world. In this Very Short Introduction, Columbia Professor of Jewish History Michael Stanislawski presents an impartial and disinterested history of Zionist ideology from its origins to the present.

Overviews

These books examine the arc of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other aspects of Israeli history:

Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .B575 2017
Publication Date: 2017
British journalist Ian Black, a longtime correspondent and editor of The Guardian, draws on a wide range of sources--from declassified documents to oral testimonies to his own vivid on-the-ground reporting--to illuminate the Israel-Palestine conflict. Beginning with the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Black proceeds through the Arab Rebellion of the late 1930s, the Nazi Holocaust, Israel's independence and the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), the watershed of 1967, Israel's settlement project, two Intifadas, the Oslo Accords, and continued negotiations and violence up to 2017.
Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-fashioning in Israeli Society by Nadia Abu El-Haj
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS111.1 .A28 2001
Publication Date: 2002
Archaeology in Israel is truly a national obsession, a practice through which national identity–and national rights–have long been asserted. But how and why did archaeology emerge as such a pervasive force there? How can the practices of archaeology help answer those questions? In this stirring book, Nadia Abu El-Haj addresses these questions and specifies for the first time. Boldly uncovering an Israel in which science and politics are mutually constituted, this book shows the ongoing role that archaeology plays in defining the past, present, and future of Palestine and Israel.
A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Mark Tessler
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .T443
Publication Date: 1994; Updated Edition 2009
Political scientist Mark Tessler aims to provide a comprehensive and balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the earliest times to the present. Drawing from a wide array of documents and from research by Palestinians, Israelis, and others, Tessler assesses the conflict on both the Israelis' and the Palestinians' terms. Tessler is from the U.S. and has lived for extended periods as well as attended university in both the Arab world and Israel.
Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations by Avi Shlaim
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .S47624 2009
Publication Date: 2009
Avi Shlaim, an Israeli-British historian of Iraqi Jewish descent, reflects with rigor and readability on a range of key issues and personalities. From the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the failure of the Oslo peace process, from the 1948 War to the 2008 invasion of Gaza, Shlaim places current events in their proper historical perspective. He assesses the impact of key political and intellectual figures, including Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon, Edward Said, and Benny Morris. The book also re-examines the United States' influential role in the conflict and explores the many missed opportunities for peace and progress in the region.
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
Call Number: E-Book; Print Book Purchase In Process
Publication Date: 2019
Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American activist, university professor, legal scholar, and human rights attorney, offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures, from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to wars in Gaza up to 2019, Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, Erakat contends that law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, she argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.
Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Joel Peters (Editor); David Newman (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .R679 2013
Publication Date: 2012
This Handbook brings together experts from Israel, Palestine, Europe, and North America, tackling a range of topics including: the historical background to the conflict; peace efforts; domestic politics; critical issues such as displacement, Jerusalem, and settler movements; and the role of outside players such as the Arab states, the U.S. and the E.U.

1948

For many Israelis, 1948 is a year to celebrate—the year in which Israel won a War of Independence and its state was officially created. By contrast, many Palestinians regard 1948 as the Nakba, or catastrophe, a year of profound loss of life and the territorial dispossession that catalyzed an ongoing refugee crisis and resistance to colonial occupation. The books below tackle the history, memory, and ongoing impacts of 1948 from a variety of perspectives.

Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 by Anita Shapira; William Templer
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS149 .S497158 1992
Publication Date: 1992
Israeli historian Anita Shapira traces the road along which the Zionist movement discarded its early mission of peaceful settlement in Palestine, to the incorporation of the use of force as a legitimate tool for realizing the idea of Jewish national sovereignty there. Shapira argues that the emergence of a new, "Israeli" national ethos, accompanied by its particular symbols, myths, and norms--a "defensive ethos" in the early decades of the century; and an "offensive ethos" in 1940's--indicated that the barriers of ideology, moral norms, and mental restraints constructed by the founding fathers proved unequal to the impact of social and political realities of colonization.
Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory by Ahmad Sa'di (Editor); Lila Abu-Lughod (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS126.9 .N35 2007
Publication Date: 2007
By focusing on memories of the Nakba or "catastrophe" of 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed to create the state of Israel, the contributors to this volume illuminate the contemporary Palestinian experience and clarify the moral claims they make for justice and redress. The book's essays consider the ways in which Palestinians have remembered and organized themselves around the Nakba, a central trauma that continues to be refracted through Palestinian personal and collective memory. Analyzing oral histories and written narratives, poetry and cinema, personal testimony and courtroom evidence, the authors show how the continuing experience of violence, displacement, and occupation have transformed the pre-Nakba past and the land of Palestine into symbols of what has been and continues to be lost.
An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba by Nahla Abdo (Editor); Nur Masalha (Editor)
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS126.954 .O73 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Unearthing an unparalleled body of rich oral testimony, An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba tells the story of this epochal event through the voices of the Palestinians who lived it, uncovering new insights both into Palestinian experiences of the Nakba and into the wider dynamics of the ongoing conflict. Drawing together Palestinian accounts from 1948 with those of the present day, the book confronts the idea of the Nakba as an event consigned to the past, instead arguing that is is an ongoing process aimed at the erasure of Palestinian memory and history.
Palestine 1948: War, Escape, and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem by Yoav Gelber
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS126.9 .G45 2001
Publication Date: 2001
In this work, Israeli historian Yoav Gelber attempts to integrate ongoing controversies concerning the development of the Jewish-Palestinian war from December 1947 to mid-May 1948 and the consecutive Israeli-Arab war. The book stresses mainly the processes that led Palestinian society to its collapse and mass flight, and the Israeli reactions and policies that turned this temporary escape into a long-lasting refugee problem. Emphasizing the different historical and cultural perspectives of the adversaries and the context of the war's development, Gebler analyzes the refugee problem in the framework of broader issues of the war.
The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 by Eugene L. Rogan (Editor); Avi Shlaim (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS126.9 .W37
Publication Date: 2001; Updated 2007
With contributions by Israeli and Palestinian scholars including Avi Shlaim, Benny Morris, Rashid Khalidi, and Edward Said, as well as historians and political scientists of European, Arab, and Jewish descent, this book addresses historical debates surrounding the 1948 War and Nakba. The volume's contributors underscore that the impact of these debates goes well beyond academia, since there is an important link between the state of Arab-Israeli relations and popular attitudes towards the past. They contend that a more complex and fair-minded understanding of that past is essential for preserving at least the prospect of reconciliation between Arabs and Israel in the future.

1967-Present

After the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel gained control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It has occupied both Palestinian territories since. The books in this box examine the challenges and complexities of the post-1967 era.

1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East by Tom Segev
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS127 .S4413 2007
Publication Date: 2007
Israeli historian and journalist Tom Segev offers a sweeping history of 1967: the war, what led up to it, what came after, and how it changed everything. Segev challenges the view that the war was inevitable, showing that behind the bloodshed was a series of disastrous miscalculations. Going beyond a military account, Segev re-creates the climate in Israel before the war as well as the country's bravado after its victory. He explores Israel's intimacy with the White House and the political rivalries that sabotaged any chance of peace.
The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 by Gershom Gorenberg
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks HD850.5.Z63 G67 2006
Publication Date: 2007
In The Accidental Empire, American-born Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg examines the birth of the settler movement in the ten years following the Six-Day War and finds that it was as much the child of Labor Party socialism as of religious extremism. The giants of Israeli history--Dayan, Meir, Eshkol, Allon--all played major roles in this drama, as did more contemporary figures like Sharon, Rabin, and Peres. Gorenberg also shows how three American presidents turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so. Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, Gorenberg calls into question much of what we think we know about this issue that continues to haunt the Middle East.
Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks JC599.G26 F55 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Based on scores of human rights reports, American Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, presents a meticulous inquiry into the injustices of life in Gaza. Finkelstein argues that although Israel has justified its assaults on Gaza in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law. He also documents how the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the U.N. Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza.
Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .B173 2018
Publication Date: 2018
In this book, policy analyst Tareq Baconi offers the first history of Hamas on its own terms. Baconi shows that the reality of Hamas is much more complex than portrayed in the media and by politicians. Neither a democratic political party nor a terrorist group, he characterizes Hamas as a multifaceted liberation organization, one rooted in the nationalist claims of the Palestinian people. Drawing on interviews with organization leaders, as well as publications from the group, Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance. He contends that under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been neutralized by its containment in Gaza. This dynamic has perpetuated a deadlock marked by its brutality--and one that has made permissible the collective punishment of millions of Palestinian civilians.
The One State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine? by Nathan J. Brown (Editor); Marc Lynch (Editor); Shibley Telhami (Editor); Michael Barnett (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .O575 2023
Publication Date: 2023
Comprised of essays by Israeli, Palestinian, and international contributors, The One State Reality argues that a one state reality already predominates in the territories controlled by the state of Israel. The One State Reality forces a reconsideration of foundational concepts such as state, sovereignty, and nation; encourages different readings of history; shifts conversation about solutions from two states to alternatives that borrow from other political contexts; and provides context for confronting uncomfortable questions such as whether Israel/Palestine is an "apartheid state."

Personal Narrative

This box features acclaimed autobiographies, biographies, and narrative accounts that illuminate individual stories of life in Israel and Palestine:

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story by Nathan Thrall
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks; DS119.76 .T47 2023
Publication Date: 2023
Milad is five years old and excited for his school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but tragedy awaits—his bus is involved in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, rushes to the chaotic site, only to find Milad has already been taken away. Abed sets off on a journey to learn Milad's fate, navigating a maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must face as a Palestinian. Interwoven with Abed's odyssey are the stories of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and pasts unexpectedly converge—a kindergarten teacher and a mechanic who rescue children from the burning bus; an Israeli army commander and a Palestinian official who confront the aftermath at the scene of the crash; a settler paramedic; ultra-Orthodox emergency service workers; and two mothers who each hope to claim one severely injured boy. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is an immersive, detailed portrait of life in Israel and Palestine, and an illumination of the reality of one of the most contested places on earth.
A Land Without Borders: My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Nir Baram
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.7 .B3713 2017
Publication Date: 2017
Award-winning Israeli journalist Nir Baram spent a year and a half travelling around the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In this fascinating recount of that journey, Baram navigates the conflict-ridden regions and hostile terrain to speak with a wide range of people, among them Palestinian-Israeli citizens trapped behind the separation wall in Jerusalem and Jewish settlers determined to forge new lives on the West Bank. Baram also talks to children on Kibbutz Nirim who lived through the war in Gaza, and ex-prisoners from Fatah who, after spending years detained in Israeli jails, are now promoting a peace initiative. And he returns again and again to Jerusalem, city of his birth, where a hushed civil war is in full swing. A Land Without Borders is a compassionate and essential guide to understanding a complex reality; a perceptive and sensitive exploration of a labyrinthine conflict and the experiences of the people ensnared in it.
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS126.6.A2 T65 2006
Publication Date: 2006
In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly twenty years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called Dalia who invited them in. This act of faith in the face of many years of animosity is the starting point for a true story of a remarkable relationship between two families, one Arab, one Jewish, amid the fraught modern history of the region. The Lemon Tree grew out of a forty-three minute radio documentary that Sandy Tolan produced for Fresh Air.
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.76 .K543 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, Israeli commentator and award-winning author Yossi Klein Halevi directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes. In a series of letters, Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century, unraveling the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.
Out of Place: A Memoir by Edward W. Said
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks E184.P33 S25 1999
Publication Date: 1999
A fatal medical diagnosis in 1991 convinced Edward Said, author of Orientalism and The Question of Palestine, that he should leave a record of where he was born and spent his childhood. With this memoir he rediscovers the Arab landscape of his early years. Vast changes occurred as Palestine became Israel, Lebanon was transformed by twenty years of civil war, and the colonial Egypt of King Farouk disappeared forever by 1952. Said writes with great passion and wit about his family and his friends--from schools in Cairo and summers in the mountains above Beirut to college at Princeton University. Underscoring it all is the confusion of identity as Said had to come to terms with the dissonance of being an American citizen, a Christian and a Palestinian, and, ultimately, an outsider.
Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine by Raja Shehadeh
Call Number: E-Book and Print Book in Acquisition
Publication Date: 2003
Three years after his family was driven from the city of Jaffa in 1948, Raja Shehadeh was born in Ramallah. His early childhood was marked by his family's sense of loss and impermanence, vividly evoked by the glittering lights "on the other side of the hill." He witnessed the numerous arrests of his father, Aziz, who, in 1967, was the first Palestinian to advocate a peaceful, two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He predicted that if peace were not achieved, what remained of the Palestinian homeland would be taken away bit by bit. Ostracized by his fellow Arabs and disillusioned by the failure of either side to recognize his prophetic vision, Aziz retreated from politics. He was murdered in 1985. The first memoir of its kind by a Palestinian living in the occupied territories, Strangers in the House offers a moving description of daily life for those who have chosen to remain on their land.
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks PJ5054.O9 Z47313 2004
Publication Date: 2004
The international bestselling memoir from Israeli author Amos Oz is about his turbulent upbringing in the city of Jerusalem in the era of the dissolution of Mandatory Palestine and the beginning of the State of Israel. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother's suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and community to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation.
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi; Dena Takruri
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS110.W47 T35 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Ahed Tamimi is a world-renowned Palestinian activist, born and raised in the small West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, which became a center of the resistance to Israeli occupation when an illegal, Jewish-only settlement blocked off its community spring. Tamimi came of age participating in nonviolent demonstrations, and at sixteen years old, she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier who refused to leave her front yard. The video went viral and Tamimi was arrested. This moving, deeply personal memoir illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation.
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim
Call Number: E-Book and Print Book in Acquisition
ISBN: 0861544641
Publication Date: 2023
Today the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq, at one time numbering over 130,000 and tracing its history back 2,600 years, has all but vanished. Why so? One explanation speaks of the timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilizations and a Zionist mission to rescue Eastern Jews from backward nations and unceasing persecution. Avi Shlaim tears up this script. His parents had many Muslim friends in Baghdad and no interest in Zionism. As anti-Semitism surged in Iraq, the Zionist underground fanned the flames. Yet when Iraqi Jews fled to Israel, they faced an uncertain future and their history was rewritten to serve a Zionist narrative. Shlaim's memoir breathes life into an almost forgotten world. Weaving together the personal and the political, Three Worlds offers a fresh perspective on Arab Jews, caught in the crossfire of Zionism and nationalism.

U.S. Diplomacy & Relations

A Lost Peace: Great Power Politics and the Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1967-1979 by Galen Jackson
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS63.2.U5 J343 2023
Publication Date: 2023
In A Lost Peace, Williams College Political Science Professor Galen Jackson rewrites an important chapter of the history of the Cold War, focusing on US-Soviet diplomacy in the Middle East after June 1967. Challenging standard accounts of this period, Jackson argues that the United States sought to exploit the Soviet Union in the Middle East, despite repeated entreaties from USSR leaders that the superpowers cooperate to reach a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement. By leveraging the remarkable evidence now available to scholars, Jackson reveals that the United States and the Soviet Union may have missed an opportunity for Middle East peace during the 1970s.
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.76 .R68 2004
Publication Date: 2004
Dennis Ross, ambassador and chief Middle East negotiator in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, offers an assessment of the peace process from 1988 to 2004.
The Peace Puzzle: America's Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011 by Shibley Telhami; Daniel C. Kurtzer; Scott B. Lasensky; William B. Quandt; Steven L. Spiegel
Call Number: E-Book and Howard-Tilton Stacks DS119.76 .P415 2013
Publication Date: 2012
In 2006, the authors of The Peace Puzzle formed the Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, a project supported by the United States Institute of Peace, to develop a set of "best practices" for American diplomacy. The Study Group conducted in-depth interviews with more than 120 policymakers, diplomats, academics, and civil society figures and developed performance assessments of the various U.S. administrations of the post-Cold War period. This book, an account of the role of the United States in attempting to achieve a lasting Arab-Israeli peace, is informed by the authors' access to key individuals and official archives.
We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight Over Israel by Eric Alterman
Call Number: Howard-Tilton Stacks E183.8.I7 A45 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Jewish American historian Eric Alterman uncovers the roots of America's long alliance with Israel and its consequences. Fights about the fate of the state of Israel, and the Zionist movement that gave birth to it, have long been a staple of both Jewish and American political culture. We Are Not One traces these debates from their nineteenth-century origins through the creation of the state of Israel in 1948—a period of relative indifference. Alterman argues that the 1967 Six-Day War was a turning point: support for Israel became the primary component of American Jews’ collective identity. Subsequently, Jewish organizations joined forces with conservatives to fight to define Israel's image in the US media, popular culture, Congress, and college campuses. Deeply researched, Alterman’s book reveals how our consensus on Israel and Palestine emerged and why, today, it is fracturing.

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Select the Resource Type Books to filter out media and other non-book results in our catalog search:

Use the Map It button for directions on how to find the print book you want:

Tulane affiliates can also request a book for pickup at Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (uptown) or Matas Library (downtown):

See the How to Request Books and Media for Pickup Tutorial for detailed instructions.

Borrowing and Consulting Books

Tulane and non-Tulane affiliates can retrieve and read books from the open stacks of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library whenever the library is open. Only Tulane affiliates and those with a Tulane library card can check-out books from the library. See Borrowing terms here.

Where to Browse

Most books on the history of Israel-Palestine are cataloged with call numbers between DS 101 and DS 151. Books in this call number range are located on the 3rd floor of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.

Interlibrary Loan

If a book you want is checked out, or we don't own it (i.e. it isn't in our Library Catalog), use Interlibrary Loan to request it. Books typically arrive in 1-2 weeks. You will receive an email when your book is ready at the Check-Out Desk on the 1st floor of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (uptown) or at Matas Library (downtown), depending on which ILL system you use.

Suggest a Purchase

If you'd like the library to purchase a book we don't own, use the Suggest a Purchase Form.

Get Help with Books

For help searching for and accessing books, contact Scholarly Engagement Librarian for Jewish Studies and Middle East & North African Studies, Dr. Rachel Stein: rstein7@tulane.edu.