Law, Violence and Sovereignty Among West Bank Palestinians Cambridge Studies in Law and Society: Amazon.co.uk: Tobias Kelly: Books

Review

'Kelly's analysis perceptively unravels the different interpersonal and political layers that may be involved in a particular dispute. … Most who think about the legal, or political, situation in the West Bank operate in global terms: denial of self-determination, or Israel's security concerns. Kelly's book focuses on interaction at the economic and personal level, thus rendering these broader issues more concrete. His elucidation of these relationships may be helpful to potential mediators. Israelis and Palestinians will likely interact for a long time to come and a sound legal basis for that interaction would make life more bearable for all concerned. At a more general level, Kelly's book invites thought about how disputes are handled in other societies. His approach is not comparative, but once he discusses such issues as propensity to sue versus resolving disputes through informal mechanisms, a reader inevitably will draw comparisons to the similarities and differences observable in other jurisdictions. The labour relations focus and the many facets that Kelly explores, put the book squarely within the scope of other titles in the Cambridge series in which it has been published.' John Quigley, Moritz College of Law

'… Kelly's book is rich, innovative and well grounded. … the author shows beautifully how the reality of territorial integration, economic dependence and legal fragmentation has created a situation in which collective rights and the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict altogether, needs to be redefined.' American Ethnologist

Review

'Kelly's analysis perceptively unravels the different interpersonal and political layers that may be involved in a particular dispute. ... Most who think about the legal, or political, situation in the West Bank operate in global terms: denial of self-determination, or Israel's security concerns. Kelly's book focuses on interaction at the economic and personal level, thus rendering these broader issues more concrete. His elucidation of these relationships may be helpful to potential mediators. Israelis and Palestinians will likely interact for a long time to come and a sound legal basis for that interaction would make life more bearable for all concerned. At a more general level, Kelly's book invites thought about how disputes are handled in other societies. His approach is not comparative, but once he discusses such issues as propensity to sue versus resolving disputes through informal mechanisms, a reader inevitably will draw comparisons to the similarities and differences observable in other jurisdictions. The labour relations focus and the many facets that Kelly explores, put the book squarely within the scope of other titles in the Cambridge series in which it has been published.' John Quigley, Moritz College of Law '... Kelly's book is rich, innovative and well grounded. ... the author shows beautifully how the reality of territorial integration, economic dependence and legal fragmentation has created a situation in which collective rights and the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict altogether, needs to be redefined.' American Ethnologist --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

1 review

4.0 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Law and Injustice in the Palestinian West Bank 16 Jan 2007

By Michael Newman

Format:Hardcover

Most discussion of the West Bank focuses on the violence between Israelis and Palestinians and the intractable nature of the conflict. Tobias Kelly, a social anthropologist, has written a fascinating book, which illuminates these issues by considering them in a quite different way. Between 2000 and the spring of 2002 he lived in a Palestinian village twenty kilometres away from Ramallah, observing the impact of both the Oslo Peace Accords and the second intifada on the lives of ordinary people. Concentrating particularly on employment and labour disputes, he explains the plight of those who suffer from numerous forms of discrimination as they seek to enforce their rights in the bewildering mosaic of legal systems operating in the West Bank. In a series of poignant episodes, he follows his subjects as they seek redress when, for example, an employer from the same village dismisses them in response to Israeli refusal to use Palestinian labour. This involves a hopeless quest for justice across numerous checkpoints. But Kelly is not simply a chronicler, for he explains both the institutional complexities and, with a light touch, uses a range of theories to elucidate the ways in which individuals interpret the wider legal and social structures they encounter in their daily lives. And while his work is certainly a powerful indictment of a system based on ethnic exclusion by the Israeli state, he also reveals the contradictory attitudes of the people in the village towards the Palestinian National Authority during this period. Kelly's book is highly recommended for anyone who seeks to understand the realities behind the headlines.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

› See the customer review

Law, Violence and Sovereignty Among West Bank Palestinians (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society) [Paperback]

Formats

Product details

More About the Author

Product Description

Review

Review

Tag this product

Customer Reviews

Customer Discussions

Start a new discussion

Listmania!

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject

Feedback