[Partially updated 2021]

Time and time again friends ask me for recommendations when they are planning a trip to the [un]Holy Land.I find that I have some sense of social and political obligation that their trips are memorable, dissonant, and transformative.

So, here is my compiled list of recommendations: what to read, watch, listen to, eat, see, and drink before, during and after visiting Israel and Palestine.

Comment below if there is something I missed!

Map created by Julien BousacThe map above shows what Palestine’s West Bank would look like if all non-Palestinian land suddenly turned into water. — *Map created by Julien Bousac*
The map above shows what Palestine’s West Bank would look like if all non-Palestinian land suddenly turned into water.

Hi friends!

If you have received this it is because you asked for somewhere to start when reading about Israel and Palestine and/or you are visiting!

I have one request: if you are visiting, leave on a question. If you are leaving and feel like you know the answer, then you missed something. Interrogate your conclusions, question your biases, and find a book to read that addresses that. If you are reading, read with an open mind. And most of all, find words by people who are living there. Let people speak for themselves.

Books:

Novels

Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation- edited by Ayelet Waldman and Michael

START HERE! It is the best thing I have ever read when it comes to capturing the essense of the conflict(s) and what it is like on the ground. Award-winning authors came to I-P and visited with the sole intention of writing an essay afterwards trying to put into words what they saw. Includes pieces by Dave Eggers, Geraldine Brooks, Collum McCann and more.

In This Place Together (2021): a memoir/autobiography written by Sulaiman Khatib (founder of Combatants for Peace) co-authored with Penina Eilberg-Schwartz. Truly captures the texture and nuance and personal journey of a Palestinian freedom-fighter turned nonviolent activist.

Sadness is a White Bird- (2018) by Moriel Zecher-Rothman: written by a dear friend and activist who tells the story about an American-Jew who immigrates to Israel to join the IDF and then befriends two Palestinians.

Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua

Academic-y books:

White City, Black City: Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Sharon Rotbard

Hollow Land by Eyal Weizmann (spatial theory! love this perspective. i find i think about it constantly when traveling through the land)

Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: A Palestinian Case-Study by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2009)

The Iron Cage by Rashid Khalidi

Ethnocracy by Oren Yiftachel

Gender and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict by Simona Sharoni (1995)

Anything by Arielle Azoulay: focuses on photography and collective witnessing

Shattered dreams: peace movements in Israel by Tamar Herrman (2009)

Histories: very important revision of narratives

Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: 1929 by Hillel Cohen

Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949 by Benny Morris

1948 by Benny Morris

Righteous Victims by Benny Morris

A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel by Gudrun Krämer

Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar (a novel from the perspective of an Israeli soldier on the expulsions in 1948).

All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated in 1948 Edited by Walid Khalidi (An Encyclopedia of villages)

Justice for Some (2020) Noura Erakat

News articles (outdated, but still well written and relevant)

“Tell me a story with a happy ending”: Correspondence between Etgar Keret and Sayed Kashua in The New Yorker during the Gaza war of 2014

The One State Reality by David Remnick, November 17, 2014. The New Yorker [Profile on President Reuven Rivlin]

The Broken Silence by David Shulman, April 7, 2016. New York Review of Books [An analysis on the politics surrounding left-wing activism in Israel].

Is This Where the Third Intifada Will Start? By Ben Ehrenreich, March 15, 2013. The New York Times [The New York Times Magazine cover story on grassroots civil disobedience in Nabi Saleh].

Anything by Israeli journalists Anshel Pfeffer or Amira Haas (often in Ha’aretz, sometimes in +972)

News sources:

This Week in Palestine

Military Court Watch’s monthly newsletter

Art:

Nira Pereg: see her art work (mainly video) online. She captures sacred and profane of everyday life in Israel and the Occupied territories. (Watch Sabbath, Abraham, and the Right to Clean)

Occupied Pleasures- Tanya Habjouqa (photos from Gaza)

Visualizing Palestine: infographics https://visualizingpalestine.org/

Movies:

Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains: Chronicle of a Present Absentee (2009): Wes Anderson-esque film. Beautiful, set in 1948, 1967, and 2000 Nazareth

In between (2016) - film about young Palestinian women living in Jaffa/Tel Aviv

Oriented (2016) - documentary about the Palestinian LGBTQ scene in Jaffa

Naila and the Uprising (2018)- a Just Vision documentary about Palestinian women’s leadership in nonviolent activism during the 1st Intifada.

Five Broken Cameras (2012) - a documentary about Palestinian grassroots civil disobedience in Bil'in

The Law in These Parts (2011) – a documentary about the origin and function of legal systems in the West Bank since 1967

The Gatekeepers (2013) - a documentary interviewing the past 6 Heads of the Shin-Bet (Israeli equivalent of the CIA)

Budrus (2010)- a documentary about the village of Budrus and the nonviolent activism that was used to protest the building of the wall through the village.

Disturbing the Peace (2016) documentary about the joint nonviolent movement Combatants for Peace

The Wanted 18 (2015) - a story about nonviolent resistance in Beit Sahour when the entire town hid 18 cows from the Israeli army during curfew

Omar (2014) - nominated for an Oscar

Arab Labor: popular Israeli sitcom TV show that was written by Sayed Kashua, a Palestinian-Israeli. Makes you laugh AND cringe at the same time.

Organizations and Activist groups that I love:

Many have tours, check their websites or facebook for updated events. All have detailed reports of the situation on the ground

Breaking the Silence: tours of Hebron and South Hebron Hills

Ir Amim: East Jerusalem tours

Machsom Watch: checkpoint watchdogs (all women). Offer occasional tours

B’tselem

Peace Now: occasional settlement tours

ACRI

IPCRI: conferences, seminars and more

Zochrot: they have an app you can download called iNakba. It geolocates you and shows you what historic Palestinian villages you are near as you travel through Israel.

Military Court Watch

Combatants for Peace

Holy Land Trust

Youth Against Settlements

Youth of Sumud

Taghreer

Adalah

Adameer

UN OCHA—great beginning for resources and data

Women in Black

Coalition of Women for Peace

Anarchists against the wall

PLACES THAT RESTORE YOUR SOUL VIA GOOD FOOD AND GOOD CONVERSATIONS AND GOOD PEOPLE

***= must visit

Food and Cafés

Jerusalem

Florentine Pizza

HaMarakia (soup and activism)

Imbala (co-op cafe run by activists)

***HaMifal (squatter artist warehouse turned resto/cafe/gallery/meeting place)

Mouseline (ice cream: get the Basil! Or the grapefruit mint.)

***Aricha Sabich (across from Mahene Yehuda)

Cafe Bezalel (classic art student scene)

Cafe Nadya (Classic Israeli breakfast)

Kudos (also good for breakfast)

Sushiya- on Trumpledor street, not the franchise. (tiny hole in the wall. Get the fish bowl. Fresh, delicious, revitalizing. Cheap!)

Azura: in the market. AMAZING Iraqi style food. Stews/soups/stuffed eggplant/hummus.

Jaafar: Knafeh and pastries in the Old City, Muslim Quarter

Al Sawra street food: near al-Hakawati theater in East Jerusalem. Nice cafe vibes

Austrian Hospice (old city): Apple Strudel, a classic. And an orientalist oasis from the hustle and bustle of the Muslim quarter.

Treat yo’ self: Mahene Yehuda restaurant, and it’s sister restos including Talbiyeh (near Jerusalem theater). A proper chef restaurant/experience that is shaped by the fresh and seasonal available foods.

Tel Aviv

***Cafelix (Sgula square: this is the cafe I worked at. Micro-roastery. German-Israeli owners. Know whats up. Order a cortado, you will not be disappointed.)

Shaffa: in the flea market. great night scene, good food. Get the Sinniyiah.

***Abu Hasan hummus (jaffa)

Cafe Shapira

***Alla Rampa

Albi (cafe/food)

***Port Said

The Thai in Har Sinai (next to port said and the grand synagogue)

Street with Ethiopian food near the central bus station (Central Bus station is a must visit—the whole world is there).

Joz V’loz

***Albi: cafe/food

Casbah: florentine classic. Beware stoner waiters, may take a long time to get food.

Saluf and Sons! YEMENI DELICIOUS

***Levinsky 41: the craziest sodas (soda water and herbs and concentrated fruits. GO!)

Dalida: little known secret, if they are full and can’t seat you, they will give you a free cocktail coupon for another time. Pop by on a busy night, grab a coupon, come back with a reservation.

Romano

Hanoi

Cafe Pua: flea market. BEST BREAKFAST

Vitrine Lili: burgers! great burgers!

America: also, actually the best burgers

Burning Tacos

Taqueria: killer nachos.

Haifa

Masada Street. HaPina specifically

West Bank:

***** Jala Jungle (Previously Hosh Yasmin )(Beit Jala): a MUST. Block out several hours to be here. Aim for a time near sunset. Take the Bus #21 to Bethlehem and get off before you cross the wall in Beit Jala. Backtrack to Rico’s market, and walk down the hill on the street that has a flower shop on the corner. Ask if you need directions. You’ll find yourself on the hilltop of the al-Makhrour valley at a farm/resto.

**Singer Café- Beit Sahour

Tent- Beit Sahour

Drink

Jerusalem

**HaTipa (v v v local scene)

Sira

Imbala

HaMifal

***HaMazkeka (live music every. single. night.)

4:20

Horkanos

Pergamon

Tel Aviv (note: Tel Aviv’s scene changes quickly. This may be outdated. Anna Loulou recently closed, but it remains in my heart forever).

****Anna Loulou: collective owned bar between Palestinians and Israelis. LGBTQ scene. Dancing doesn’t start till late, plan to get there around 12. And be prepared for lots of cigarettes.) (https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-bar-beyond-coexistence-1.5401348)

Port Said

Teder FM

Kuli Alma

Sputnik (?)

Uganda

Shpagat (LGBT bar, emphasis on lesbian)

The Container- jaffa port