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The Palestinians between War and Peace
Publisher
:
Hachette
Parution date
:
2002
EAN
:
9782012355989
Description
A powerful account of daily life in Gaza and the West Bank from the mid-1980s to today, this work takes an intimate view of the Palestinian perspective, based on the author's encounters with a number of fanatical young members of the "generation intifada." Sami, Najy, and Bassam came of age during the first Palestinian uprising, from 1987-1994. Raised in refugee camps in squalor, poorly educated and respressed, they are typical of many Palestinians of their generation. Laetitia Bucaille met and interviewed them, their families, and acquaintances, and follows them from the first through the second uprising and up until today. Flashes from their daily lives punctuate this even depiction of daily life in Gaza and the West Bank during the past twenty years. Bucaille gets right down to street level in this account, with a glossary of terms used by the various Palestinian groups to identify one another; first-hand accounts of life in the refugee camps, prisons, homes, and barracks of Gaza and the West Bank; evidence of corruption at all levels of Palestinian society; what young Palestinians really think of Yasser Arafat; land-owner versus refugee families; and much more. A complex portrait emerges: that of a society divided along lines of class, age, politics, and ideology that somehow needs to find its own inner peace and cohesion if it is to make it over the hurdles that lie ahead.
Author
Laetitia Bucaille : Laetitia Bucaille is a professor of sociology at the University of Bordeaux-II. She is a specialist in Arab-Israeli relations and is the author of Gaza: A Violent Peace (Presses Sciences Politiques, 1998).
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