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

In Israel/Palestine

Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions:

BDS call from Palestinian civil society (July 9, 2005)
Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) call from Palestine (2004)
- Updated guidelines for academic boycott (2014)
- Updated guidelines for cultural boycott (2014)
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.