Readings and Resources
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine has compiled a listed of readings and resources, spanning news sources to suggested fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, and more.
Last updated: July 21, 2023
To suggest additional materials for inclusion, or to report a broken link, please email librarians2palestine@gmail.com.
News Sources
- +972 Magazine
- ArabLit
- The Electronic Intifada
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- International Middle East Media Center
- Jadaliyya
- Maan News Agency (local news)
- Mondoweiss
- Palestine Monitor
- Silwan Information Center
- This Week in Palestine
- This Is Palestine podcast (Institute for Middle East Understanding)
Advocacy and Activism
In the US
- Adalah-NY – Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
- Al-Awda: The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition
- Gaza Names Project (2014)
- IfNotNow
- Jewish Voice for Peace
- Palestine Legal
- US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
In Israel/Palestine
- 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
- Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
- Addameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
- alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society
- B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
- Decolonize Palestine
- Grassroots Al-Quds/Jerusalem
- Palestinian BDS National Committee
- Zochrot
Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions:
- BDS call from Palestinian civil society (July 9, 2005)
- Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) call from Palestine (2004)
- Open letter from Palestinian Queers for BDS to queer academics, artists, and activists (2011)
- Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities, Bill V. Mullen & Ashley Dawson, editors, Ali Abunimah, forward (2015).
- Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti (2010)
Non-Fiction
- The Battle for Justice in Palestine by Ali Abunimah (2014)
- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples by Ilan Pappe (2003)
- Israel Palestine and the Queer International by Sarah Schulman (2012)
- Jerusalem Interrupted: Modernity and Colonial Transformation, 1917-Present, edited by Lena Jayyusi (2015)
- Nothing to Lose But Your Life, by Suad Amiry (2009)
- Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco (2009)
- Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, by Saree Makdisi (2008)
- Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh (2007)
- Sabra and Shatila: September 1982 by Bayan Nuwayhed Al-Hout (2004)
- The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, edited by Norma Hashim (2013)
- The Question of Palestine by Edward Said (1979)
- Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home edited by Penny Johnson and Raja Shehadeh (2012)
- The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904-1948, edited by Salim Tamari & Issam Nassar; trans. by Nada Elzeer (2013)
- Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis (2003)
- Zionism Unsettled by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network
Fiction
- Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa (2019)
- All That’s Left to You: A Novella and Short Stories by Ghassan Kanafani (1966)
- The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem (2019)
- The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction edited by Atef Abu Seif (2014)
- The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood by Jabra Ibrahim Jabran (1995)
- Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (2005)
- Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani (1963)
- Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (2006)
- The Parisian by Isabella Hammad (2019)
- Return to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani (1969)
- Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (2017)
- The Secret Life of Saeed, The Pessoptimist by Emile Habiby; translated by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Trevor LeGassick (1974)
- Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah (2012)
- Touch by Adania Shibli; translated by Paula Haydar (2010)
- Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh (1976)
Memoir and Life Writing
- The Drone Eats with Me: A Gaza Diary by Atef Abu Saif (2015)
- Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in-Between by Laila El-Haddad (2010)
- Gaza Writes Back edited by Refaat Al-Areer (2013)
- In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi (2002)
- Letter from Gaza by Ghassan Kanafani (1956)
- Sharon and My Mother-In-Law by Suad Amiry (2003)
- This Side of Peace by Hanan Ashrawi (1995)
Poetry
- Almond Blossoms and Beyond by Mahmoud Darwish; translated by Mohammad Shaheen (2003)
- For Lives Undone: Gaza Summons Its Writers to Speak (Shahadat, Spring 2012)
- Jehan Bseiso, “Gaza, from the Diaspora” (The Electronic Intifada, July 28, 2014)
- Rafeef Ziadah, “We Teach Life, Sir” (2013)
- Remi Kanazi, “Poem for Gaza”
- Suheir Hammad performs “Daddy’s Song” (2010)
- Suheir Hammad, Gaza Suite (video of Suheir Hammad reading 5 parts: Gaza, Rafah, Tel Al-Hawa, Jabalya, Zaytoun) (2010)
- We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon edited by Kamal Boullata and Kathy Engel (2007)
Children’s and Young Adult books
- The Boy and the Wall, by youth at Lajee Center at the Aida Refugee Camp (2005)
- Al Beit by Zacharia Tamer, author, and Mohieddin El Labbad, illustrator (1979)
- Ghaddar the Ghoul and Other Palestinian Stories, by Sonia Nimr (2008)
- A Little Piece of Ground, by Elizabeth Laird and Sonia Nimr (2003)
- Rest in My Shade: A Poem about Roots, by Nora Lester Murad and Danna Masad (2018)
- The Shepherd’s Daughter, by Anne Laurel Carter (2008)
- Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah (2008)
Chronologies and Bibliographies
- Community-generated popular histories/oral histories
- A Bibliography of Books on Palestine and the Palestinians (Palestinian American Resource Center)
Films and Movies
- “5 Broken Cameras” (dir. Emad Burnat, 2012)
- “500 Dunum on the Moon” (dir. Rachel Leah Jones, 2002)
- “Amreeka” (dir. Cherien Dabis, 2009)
- “Arna’s Children” (dir. Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel, 2004)
- “Divine Intervention” (dir. Elia Suleiman, 2002)
- “Jenin, Jenin” (dir. Mohammed Bakri, 2002)
- “Like Twenty Impossibles” (dir. Annemarie Jacir, 2003)
- “Native Sons: Palestinians In Exile” (dir. Tom Hayes, 1985)
- “Paradise Now” (dir. Hany Abu-Assad, 2005)
- “People and the Land” (dir. Tom Hayes, 1997)
- “Slingshot Hip Hop” (dir. Jackie Reem Salloum, 2008)
- “The Great Book Robbery” (dir. Benny Brunner, 2012)
- “The Time That Remains” (dir. Elia Suleiman, 2009)
- “Wedding in Galilee” (dir. Michel Khleifi, 1987)
- “When I Saw You” (dir. Annemarie Jacir, 2012)
Palestinian Libraries and Archives
- Report on Damage to Palestinian Libraries and Archives during the Spring of 2002 by Tom Twiss. Progressive Librarian, #21, Winter 2002.
- “Preliminary report and recommendations from an IFLA/FAIFE-mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories 13th – 21st April 2007” by Stuart Hamilton and Frode Bakken.
- “A Role for Oral History — Uncovering Palestinian Memory,” Al Majdal #32, Winter 2007 and this particular project: www.palestineremembered.com
- Papers from the International Conference on Libraries from a Human Rights Perspective, Ramallah 2008.
- “Libraries in Palestine” by Françoise Lefebvre-Danset. IFLA Journal 35, no. 4 (December 1, 2009): 322–334.
- Memorandum of Understanding at joint cooperation on Palestinian archival material stolen and currently housed in Israeli Archives.
- “Overdue Books: Returning Palestine’s ‘Abandoned Property’ of 1948” by Hannah Mermelstein. Jerusalem Quarterly, #47, 2011.
- “Occupational Hazards, Revisited: Palestinian Historiography” by Lauren Banko. The Middle East Journal, vol. 66 issue 3, September 23, 2012. p. 440-452.
- “Palestinian Libraries,” International Responsibilities Task Force, Social Responsibilities Round Table, American Library Association
- “Libraries Under Occupation: A Conversation with Palestinian Librarians Randa Kamal and Diana Sayej Naser,” Progressive Librarian, #45, Winter 2016/2017.
- “Libraries and Access to Information In Palestine: Impacts of Military Occupation” by Deanna K. Roberts. ATLA Summary of Proceedings 74, December 2020.
- “Stolen Memories: Israeli State Repression and Appropriation of Palestinian Cultural Resources” by Blair Kuntz. Journal of Radical Librarianship, vol. 7, 2021.
- “Libraries & Archives Under Occupation: Special Issue on Palestine,” Progressive Librarian, #48, Spring 2021.