** Six books recommended on the the Palestine issue

Ezra Klein

And then always our final question, what are three books you’d recommend to the audience? And Spencer, why don’t I start with you?

Spencer Ackerman

Sure. So three books, and I appreciate the question, Ezra. 

First, I would recommend reading “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine,” by the historian Rashid Khalidi. That is a Palestinian — a very accessible Palestinian history as precis to the conflict beginning of the 20th century to the early 21st.

A shattering book that people really ought to read is “An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba.” That’s edited by Nahla Abdo and Nur Masalha. Reading the history from the people who experienced the Nakba around 1948 and periods both before and after is, for those who know Jewish history, shattering in its familiarity. And reading, as well, the accounts of people who survived the Nakba, who talk about how these were their neighbors, people that they loved, their children played with, who they had all sorts of social relationships with for a long period of time, turn on them and force them away is a shattering thing to remember and to hear.

And then finally, I would recommend Benny Morris and my former Guardian colleague Ian Black’s book, “Israel’s Secret Wars,” which is a history of the rise of the Israeli intelligence services and their role in statecraft in Israel. Also has some simply incredible stories that are amazing to believe are true.

Ezra Klein

Peter?

Peter Beinart

Because this has been a conversation among Jews and I know you’re going to have Palestinian guests, I’m going to mention three books by Palestinians, not because there are not so many books by Israeli Jews that I love, but just because since Palestinians have often had, as Edward Said said this, not had this permission to narrate, I think it’s really important in this moment that their voices be elevated.

The first is Edward Said’s classic book, “The Question of Palestine,” in 1979, which really lays out the Palestinian experience. And what I love about that book and find so moving about it is it’s a very, very profound critique of Zionism. And yet, Said is such a humanist that he’s also able to describe in that book to understand why Zionism was so appealing to so many Jews and why many Jews found it liberating even as he found it to be oppressive, and Palestinians did.

The second is Raja Shehadeh’s memoir, “Strangers in the House.” Spencer mentioned the Nakba. This is the story of growing up in a family of people who were expelled. And it gives you an intimate glimpse into that refugee experience, which is so central to the Palestinian experience, and yet I feel like so often is missing from the American discourse about Israel-Palestine.

And the third is — we’ve mentioned Tareq Baconi before — Tareq Baconi’s book, “Hamas Contained.” It’s a book about Hamas, which has no illusions, which is very, very critical in parts, but describes the history of Hamas as a political organization that one can understand certain decisions it’s made in response to certain incentives. And if there is to be a better future for Israelis and Palestinians than the one that Hamas envisions, part of that will require understanding Hamas better so that Jews and Palestinians together can create better alternatives.