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'Isabel Kershner turns a complicated issue into a gripping story without sacrificing the nuances or the complexities. Barrier is an elegantly written and eloquent page turner.' - Bob Simon, 60 Minutes Correspondent
'Isabel Kershner has provided a distinctly human perspective on the Israeli security barrier. She weaves a compelling story, wonderfully written and told largely through the eyes of individual Israelis and Palestinians. But this is more than only the story of the barrier and how it is seen; it is also an explanation of the conflict and the pain it continues to impose on both sides. The Israeli quest for security and acceptance and the Palestinian yearning for dignity and freedom emerge unmistakably in this very moving book.' - Dennis Ross, Chief Middle East peace negotiator for Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Author of The Missing Peace
'Isabel Kershner's book is not about the concrete and wire fences; it is about those who created them, the bombers as well as the mighty occupiers; but most importantly, it is about those victimized by its unwelcome and destructive presence. We hear their voices and feel their pain. More than that, Kershner's story-telling digs deeper into the strategic implications making her book useful to experts as well as all concerned with the Middle East.' - Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah
'Barrier is superb. Extraordinarily balanced and perceptive, it is a sympathetic but unflinchingly honest portrayal of two peoples irreversibly entangled in their own historic tragedies. Veteran journalist Isabel Kershner portrays their conflict from the bottom up - through the eyes and voices of Palestinians and Israelis on both sides of the barrier. If you can only read one book about this conflict this is it: It is brilliant and unique.' - Samuel Lewis, U.S. Ambassador to Israel under Presidents Carter and Reagan, and Former President, United States Institute of Peace
'Jerusalem Report editor Kershner travels the 375-mile length of the barrier separating the Palestinians of the West Bank from their Israeli neighbours, reporting on what she finds along the way, little of it cause for hope. 'Fences have so far not made for good neighbours,' Kershner concludes. A revealing report.' - Kirkus Review
'readable, compassionate and thoroughly fair...she talks to victims and activists from both sides of the line, bringing lives and landscape vividly to life at the same time as putting the wall in its political context.' - The Economist
'..a fascinating and insightful account of the human, political and military stories behind the construction of what will likely end up being the most costly infrastructure project in Israel's history. - David Green, The Jerusalem Report
'Isabel Kershner has provided a distinctly human perspective on the Israeli security barrier. She weaves a compelling story, wonderfully written and told largely through the eyes of individual Israelis and Palestinians. But this is more than only the story of the barrier and how it is seen; it is also an explanation of the conflict and the pain it continues to impose on both sides. The Israeli quest for security and acceptance and the Palestinian yearning for dignity and freedom emerge unmistakably in this very moving book.' - Dennis Ross, Chief Middle East peace negotiator for Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Author of The Missing Peace
'Isabel Kershner's book is not about the concrete and wire fences; it is about those who created them, the bombers as well as the mighty occupiers; but most importantly, it is about those victimized by its unwelcome and destructive presence. We hear their voices and feel their pain. More than that, Kershner's story-telling digs deeper into the strategic implications making her book useful to experts as well as all concerned with the Middle East.' - Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah
'Barrier is superb. Extraordinarily balanced and perceptive, it is a sympathetic but unflinchingly honest portrayal of two peoples irreversibly entangled in their own historic tragedies. Veteran journalist Isabel Kershner portrays their conflict from the bottom up - through the eyes and voices of Palestinians and Israelis on both sides of the barrier. If you can only read one book about this conflict this is it: It is brilliant and unique.' - Samuel Lewis, U.S. Ambassador to Israel under Presidents Carter and Reagan, and Former President, United States Institute of Peace
'Jerusalem Report editor Kershner travels the 375-mile length of the barrier separating the Palestinians of the West Bank from their Israeli neighbours, reporting on what she finds along the way, little of it cause for hope. 'Fences have so far not made for good neighbours,' Kershner concludes. A revealing report.' - Kirkus Review
'readable, compassionate and thoroughly fair...she talks to victims and activists from both sides of the line, bringing lives and landscape vividly to life at the same time as putting the wall in its political context.' - The Economist
'..a fascinating and insightful account of the human, political and military stories behind the construction of what will likely end up being the most costly infrastructure project in Israel's history. - David Green, The Jerusalem Report
Product Description
This moving and riveting exploration of the divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, and within each community, traces Israel's controversial security barrier and reports on the personal effects of its being built. Kershner deftly focuses on how peoples' lives are being profoundly changed, politically, socially, economically, and morally.
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4 reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
exposing the fabric
28 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
I picture the Israeli-Palestinian conflict like the graphic computer simulations of a black hole in space-time. What you see is a neat mesh of lines that, near the black hole, becomes wildly distorted. So, too, is there a similarity with Einstein's thought-experiment of travel near the speed of light...what the traveler experiences and what the "stationary" observer of that traveler sees appear unreconcilable, yet both the traveler and the observer could claim truth is on their side.
This book follows the strands of human life, the mesh of those lives near the black hole, the "holy land". The author lets us see different perspectives while easing us through the background of events and people that have created the situation and live with it.
Less than a year old (published late 2005), this book takes us up past the death of Arafat but ends before Sharon's stroke. We meet farmers and townspeople, the highly placed and the low, the wealthy and the poor, the bitter, the outraged and the complacent, the victims on both sides. You begin to understand the tragedy of the whole situation, of the dreams that end in nightmare, of the horrors that some wish to make reality, of those who are determined beyond the reach of reason, of those who work to destroy all hope while claiming to preserve it.
I am 55 years old and have lived through a good portion of the episodes of this tragic region, though at a far remove. I know reasonable people who, when this subject arises, become unrecognizable in their thinking. I expect my last breath will be drawn with it still unresolved. It is the place where the rock meets the hard place, where for every one who would make a concession, there is another who will give none and this book portrays it revealingly.
This book follows the strands of human life, the mesh of those lives near the black hole, the "holy land". The author lets us see different perspectives while easing us through the background of events and people that have created the situation and live with it.
Less than a year old (published late 2005), this book takes us up past the death of Arafat but ends before Sharon's stroke. We meet farmers and townspeople, the highly placed and the low, the wealthy and the poor, the bitter, the outraged and the complacent, the victims on both sides. You begin to understand the tragedy of the whole situation, of the dreams that end in nightmare, of the horrors that some wish to make reality, of those who are determined beyond the reach of reason, of those who work to destroy all hope while claiming to preserve it.
I am 55 years old and have lived through a good portion of the episodes of this tragic region, though at a far remove. I know reasonable people who, when this subject arises, become unrecognizable in their thinking. I expect my last breath will be drawn with it still unresolved. It is the place where the rock meets the hard place, where for every one who would make a concession, there is another who will give none and this book portrays it revealingly.
Balanced more in one direction than the other
27 Feb 2012
Format:Hardcover
Isabel Kershner is currently a NYTimes Correspondent in Israel. She has covered Israeli-Palestinian issues for some time and is an experienced hand. In considering the question of the defensive barrier built and being built by Israel to prevent terrorist attacks on its population she speaks to all parties involved. She speaks to Palestinian Arab villagers whose lives are made more difficult by the barrier, and to Israeli settlers who also oppose it as dividing the land they wish to see unified. She speaks with Israeli defense people who defend the Barrier , and human rights demonstrators who rally against it. She appears to be in one sense objective but her tilt is more to the Palestinian side.
There is a feeling that she does not underline strongly enough the Palestinian rejection of the very right of existence for Israel.
There is a feeling that she does not underline strongly enough the Palestinian rejection of the very right of existence for Israel.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
The Barrier to peace?
18 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover
I always wanted to know more about this "Barrier" and it's affects it would have in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was not disappointed.The author shows both view points and it's relationship to the people lives on a daily basis. A must read for anyone interested in learning more about the middle east and the people who live there.
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