Over two decades of turmoil and change in the Middle East, steered via the history-soaked landscape of Palestine. This new edition includes a previously unpublished epigraph in the form of a walk.When Raja Shehadeh first started hill walking in Palestine, in the late 1970s, he was not aware that he was travelling through a vanishing landscape. These hills would have seemed familiar to Christ, until the day concrete was poured over the flora and irreversible changes were brought about by those who claim a superior love of the land.Six walks span a period of twenty-six years, in the hills around Ramallah, in the Jerusalem wilderness and through the ravines by the Dead Sea. Each walk takes place at a different stage of Palestinian history since 1982, the first in the empty pristine hills and the last amongst the settlements and the wall. The reader senses the changing political atmosphere as well as the physical transformation of the landscape. By recording how the land felt and looked before these calamities, Raja Shehadeh attempts to preserve, at least in words, the Palestinian natural treasures that many Palestinians will never know.
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"'Shehadeh does a tremendous job... one of the most compelling things you will read this summer.' Scotland on Sunday 'He distils his pain and anger into eloquent prose, meticulously counting the ways he loves the land...Palestinian Walks is no trite exercise in myth-making or propaganda.' Sunday Tribune (Ireland) 'Continually grapples with misconceptions...Shehadeh is always engaging...delivering what many activists neglect to mention: the odd, slightly absurd details that really touch people; things that appear off camera, away from news reports.' Independent on Sunday"
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Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2008
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Joanne
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having not long returned from a visit to Israel and the West Bank I decided to read "Palestinian Walks" written by Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian human rights lawyer who has stayed living in the West Bank through all the troubles of the last 60 years. It was a far better book than I had anticipated with the brilliant way that Shehadeh was able to intertwine the experiences, beauty and destruction of the environment witnessed in his walks, with personal reflections and history and incidents of the region.
I agree completely with the quotes from reviews of the Independent on Sunday "Delivering what many activists neglect to mention: the odd, slightly absurd details that really touch people" and the NY Times "Few Palestinians have opened their minds and hearts with such frankness."
The sadness and frustration of Shehadeh come over, without any hatred or bigotedness, and also incredibly not giving the reader an utter sense of despair at the end. Obviously Shehadeh is critical of Israeli policy in the West Bank, but he also expresses his frustration and anger with the former PLO leadership in exile at their insistence on recognition at the expense of an adequate land solution in the Oslo Agreement, as well as corrupt practices when in control.
It was the small details that were so enlightening. In the last two walks encounters and conversations with a young Israeli settler (An Imagined Sarha) and two young, angry Muslim Palestinians (The Masked Shepherds) are recorded which are so sensitively done. The tradegy of how particularly Israeli policy, as well as fear, makes contact between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs so limited is brilliantly displayed in the conversation which makes up a large part of the chapter "An Imagined Sarha".... Read more ›
I agree completely with the quotes from reviews of the Independent on Sunday "Delivering what many activists neglect to mention: the odd, slightly absurd details that really touch people" and the NY Times "Few Palestinians have opened their minds and hearts with such frankness."
The sadness and frustration of Shehadeh come over, without any hatred or bigotedness, and also incredibly not giving the reader an utter sense of despair at the end. Obviously Shehadeh is critical of Israeli policy in the West Bank, but he also expresses his frustration and anger with the former PLO leadership in exile at their insistence on recognition at the expense of an adequate land solution in the Oslo Agreement, as well as corrupt practices when in control.
It was the small details that were so enlightening. In the last two walks encounters and conversations with a young Israeli settler (An Imagined Sarha) and two young, angry Muslim Palestinians (The Masked Shepherds) are recorded which are so sensitively done. The tradegy of how particularly Israeli policy, as well as fear, makes contact between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs so limited is brilliantly displayed in the conversation which makes up a large part of the chapter "An Imagined Sarha".... Read more ›
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By Well Read
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Winner of the Orwell Prize 2008. Raja Shehadeh's twenty seven years going on sarha's, wandering the hills of Ramallah and beyond, form the warp and the weft of a life rich with observations. The purpose of a sarha is to wander freely and aimlessly, to nourish the soul and rejuvenate. Each walk combines poignant, lyrical, reflections of a vanishing landscape with an ancient history. Along with that, eloquent stories of the people who cultivated the land with terraces of olive trees and grapevines. Poetic, political, and spiritual, this second edition has seven unique walks, each one embracing real people, past and present.
The hills are alive with the music of shepherds and their flocks, vibrant spring flowers, arid sunburnt wadis, transforming light, winter rain and snow, and Jewish settlers who claim a divine right to the land. One of the most captivating stories in the book is that of Abu Ameen, a poor stone mason. For all its poignancy, this is also an elevating story of human endurance, tested to extremes, in the harshness of a land with many restrictions.
Raja Shehadeh is a lawyer and writer living in Ramallah, a city in the Palestinian West Bank. He is also the author of the highly praised When the Bulbul Stopped Singing and Strangers in the House.
The hills are alive with the music of shepherds and their flocks, vibrant spring flowers, arid sunburnt wadis, transforming light, winter rain and snow, and Jewish settlers who claim a divine right to the land. One of the most captivating stories in the book is that of Abu Ameen, a poor stone mason. For all its poignancy, this is also an elevating story of human endurance, tested to extremes, in the harshness of a land with many restrictions.
Raja Shehadeh is a lawyer and writer living in Ramallah, a city in the Palestinian West Bank. He is also the author of the highly praised When the Bulbul Stopped Singing and Strangers in the House.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Marand
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The author is a Palestinian human rights activist & lawyer specialising in land law. He has been extensively involved in trying to prevent Israeli expropriation of land for settlements for many years. He tells the history of the impact of Israeli settlement development through the medium of a series of walks undertaken in the West Bank over a period of almost thirty years. The book is beautifully written, lyrical, evocative. It is intensely political but not polemical which for me makes it all the more powerful. He describes the changes in the physical landscape over the years - the settlements, the new roads constructed on Palestinian land that Palestinians are not permitted to use, the silence of the hills & valleys now disturbed by the incessant sound of construction, the walls, the pathways destroyed by rubble thrown down from settlement & road building. "Throughout our walk in these hills we had not come across a single soldier or settler and yet we felt their presence all around us as they continued to build new settlements, enlarge existing ones and connect them with roads."
At times I sensed profound disillusionment, loss of self-confidence and sense of purpose. He writes:
"For many years I managed to hold on to the hope that the settlements would not be permanent. I had meticulously documented the illegal process by which they came to be established, every step of the way. I felt that as long as I understood, as long as the process by which all this had come about was not mysterious and the legal tricks used were exposed, I could not be confused and defeated and Israel could not get away with it. Knowledge is power. I had to keep up with the Israeli legal manoeuvres and expose them to the world.... Read more ›
At times I sensed profound disillusionment, loss of self-confidence and sense of purpose. He writes:
"For many years I managed to hold on to the hope that the settlements would not be permanent. I had meticulously documented the illegal process by which they came to be established, every step of the way. I felt that as long as I understood, as long as the process by which all this had come about was not mysterious and the legal tricks used were exposed, I could not be confused and defeated and Israel could not get away with it. Knowledge is power. I had to keep up with the Israeli legal manoeuvres and expose them to the world.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By John P. Jones III
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
...what will be left, I believe, is topology: the dreaming memory of the land as it lay this way and that."
So said Annie Dillard, at the beginning of her autobiography, An American Childhood Others have felt the same way, from Cezanne's obsession with Mont St. Victoire, to even myself, and the light on a certain mountain in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province, which I hoped to be able to recall clearly, 25 years after my first encounter with it. Shehadeh's sentiments are strongly similar; he has a deep attachment to the land of his birth, how it lays this way and that. In his first of six stories in this book, he introduces the concept of "sarha," an Arabic word that means to roam freely, at will, without restraint. Throughout his life he has enjoyed taking long hikes in his native hills; his prose reflects this profoundly moving and therapeutic pleasure. Unlike Pittsburgh, or Provence, or even south central Vietnam, the topography that has given Shehadeh so much pleasure is rapidly changing, the result of individuals who believe they have a higher priority right to the land, and reinforce their belief with endless concrete, leveling hilltops for their settlements, and paving roads straight through them, instead of following the contours. At the same time they are building walls, more walls, more barriers that restrict Shehadeh, and his fellow Palestinians' access to the land of their birth. Though he does not literally say it, the entire book echoes, with a slight paraphrase, the words of Ronald Reagan: "Mr. Netanyahu, tear down these walls."
Each of the six stories is solid, and well-written, but my favorite is the second one, "The Albina Case.... Read more ›
So said Annie Dillard, at the beginning of her autobiography, An American Childhood Others have felt the same way, from Cezanne's obsession with Mont St. Victoire, to even myself, and the light on a certain mountain in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province, which I hoped to be able to recall clearly, 25 years after my first encounter with it. Shehadeh's sentiments are strongly similar; he has a deep attachment to the land of his birth, how it lays this way and that. In his first of six stories in this book, he introduces the concept of "sarha," an Arabic word that means to roam freely, at will, without restraint. Throughout his life he has enjoyed taking long hikes in his native hills; his prose reflects this profoundly moving and therapeutic pleasure. Unlike Pittsburgh, or Provence, or even south central Vietnam, the topography that has given Shehadeh so much pleasure is rapidly changing, the result of individuals who believe they have a higher priority right to the land, and reinforce their belief with endless concrete, leveling hilltops for their settlements, and paving roads straight through them, instead of following the contours. At the same time they are building walls, more walls, more barriers that restrict Shehadeh, and his fellow Palestinians' access to the land of their birth. Though he does not literally say it, the entire book echoes, with a slight paraphrase, the words of Ronald Reagan: "Mr. Netanyahu, tear down these walls."
Each of the six stories is solid, and well-written, but my favorite is the second one, "The Albina Case.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important and moving book
In describing walks around Ramallah as a young man and now in middle age, Mr Shehadeh shows in a very moving way how restrictions have remorselessly impacted on Palestinians living... Read more
Published 4 months ago by John Bamfield
5.0 out of 5 stars
A different view of Palestine
This book is wrtieen by a woman who grew up on the West Bank of the Jordan. It is both heartening and sad to read how beautiful the landscape can be when there is any window of... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Dr. Isobel Ann Dunbar
4.0 out of 5 stars
Palestinian Walks: sad stories about the land we love because of...
Palestinian Walks: the book describes walks of the author 'Raja Shehadeh' in the West Bank, before and after Oslo. Read more
Published 11 months ago by aya
5.0 out of 5 stars
Walking in astrange country
Descriptions of the countryside are wonderfully clear and so unexpected. There is a real sadness about the stories told, and the walks that cannot be taken again by the writer. Read more
Published 22 months ago by blewburyfam
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it and weep.....
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian human rights lawyer living in Ramallah. He has been walking in the Palestinian countryside for over 25 years and appreciates its wild flowers,... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2011 by Wynne Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant meditation on a landscape (and people) destroyed
This is an intensely personal and political book by Raja Shehadeh, a human rights activist and a lawyer specialising in land laws. Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by Specky Bob
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "Must Read"
I bought it for my Mother who insists that I borrow it after she has finished.
Published on 16 April 2010 by SM
5.0 out of 5 stars
A moving and fascinating book
I felt when reading this book I had walked on the hills so beloved by the author. I was lucky enough to hear him read extracts at the Edinburgh Book Festival and warmed at once to... Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2010 by S. Welham
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fiction.
If you're into fiction this a great read if you want facts on the ground look elsewhere.
Published on 15 Nov 2009 by G. P. Rasch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palestinian Walks
An excellent well written book which gives a new insight in to the Palestinian way of life and hardships over the last sixty years. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2009 by Hello
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