Synopses & Reviews
For decades, weandrsquo;ve been shocked by images of violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But for all their power, those images leave us at a loss: from our vantage at home, itandrsquo;s hard for us to imagine the struggles of those living in the midst of the fighting. Now, American-born Israeli David Shulman takes us right into the heart of the conflict with Dark Hope, an eye-opening chronicle of his work as a member of the peace group Taandlsquo;ayush, which takes its name from the Arabic for andldquo;living together.andrdquo;
Though Shulman never denies the complexity of the issues fueling the conflictandmdash;nor the culpability of people on both sidesandmdash;he forcefully clarifies the injustices perpetrated by Israel by showing us the human dimension of the occupation. Here we meet Palestinians whose houses have been blown up by the Israeli army, shepherds whose sheep have been poisoned by settlers, farmers stripped of their land by Israelandrsquo;s dividing wall. We watch as whip-swinging police on horseback attack crowds of nonviolent demonstrators, as Israeli settlers shoot innocent Palestinians harvesting olives, and as families and communities become utterly destroyed by the unrelenting violence of the occupation.
Opposing such injustices, Shulman and his companionsandmdash;Israeli and Palestinian bothandmdash;doggedly work through checkpoints to bring aid, rebuild houses, and physically block the progress of the dividing wall. As they face off against police, soldiers, and hostile Israeli settlers, anger mixes with compassion, moments of kinship alternate with confrontation, and, throughout, Shulman wrestles with his duty to fight the cruelty enabled by andldquo;that dependable and devastating human failure to feel.andrdquo;
With Dark Hope, Shulman has written a book of deep moral searching, an attempt to discover how his beloved Israel went wrongandmdash;and how, through acts of compassionate disobedience, it might still be brought back.
Review
"During what he calls the 'unhappy years' from 2002 to 2006, David Shulman, an Israeli professor at Hebrew University, did some of the harder work of his country's peace movement: clashing with police and settlers to deliver food and medical supplies to Palestinian villages. In his excellent record of these years, Dark Hope, Shulman vividly describes the small bands of Palestinians who live in caves in the Hebron Hills."
Review
and#8220;Beautifully written and emphatic in its calm insistence on the need to take both responsibility and action, Dark Hope is notable not just for the bleak picture it paints of the nightmare that the settlers and their sponsors, the Israeli government, have brought to millions of Palestinians but also, as its title suggests, for the faith it places in a basic human decency and in the belief that there must be another way. It is essential reading for anyone who wantsand#8212;or hopes, however darklyand#8212;to grasp the lay of this punished land.and#8221;--Adina Hoffman, The Nation
Review
"During what he calls the unhappy years from 2002 to 2006, David Shulman, an Israeli professor at Hebrew University, did some of the harder work of his countrys peace movement: clashing with police and settlers to deliver food and medical supplies to Palestinian villages. In his excellent record of these years, Dark Hope,Shulman vividly describes the small bands of Palestinians who live in caves in the Hebron Hills."--Emily Bazelon, Slate Best Books of 2007(Emily Bazelon, Slate)
About the Author
David Shulman is the Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of several books, including Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine and The Hungry God: Hindu Tales of Filicide and Devotion, both published by the University of Chicago Press.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Introduction
2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jinba, Twaneh, the South Hebron Hills
3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jerusalem: Isawiyya, Mount Scopus, and#8216;Anata, Silwan
4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Samaria: Salfit, Yanun, Banu Hassan
5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Saying No
6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Wall: Maskha, Abu Dis, Ar-Ram, Biland#8216;in
7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Epilogue
Postscript Glossary Select Dramatis Personae