In January 2024, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks of Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging with the author Linda Dittmar.
We will send each participant a paperback copy of the book. We'll let
you know which parts of the book will be discussed each week along with
the Zoom details to access the discussions.
We'll put the book in the mail to you as soon as you sign up.
When: For one hour on four Thursdays, January 11, 18, 25, and February 1, 2024 at 17:00 UTC.
That's
7 a.m. in Honolulu, 9 a.m. in Los Angeles, 11 a.m. in Mexico City, 12
noon in New York, 5 p.m. in London, 6 p.m. in Yaoundé, 8:30 p.m. in
Tehran.
Where: Zoom (details to be shared upon registration)
This is a small group series with limited space of up to 18 people.
Sign up to reserve your spot and allow for enough time to receive the book. We look forward to reading and discussing this important book with
you!
About the Book:
A raw and courageous memoir of the 1948 war and its aftermath and
searing personal journey to uncover the suppressed traumas, facts, and
myths that undergird the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When
author Linda Dittmar stumbles upon the ruins of an abandoned
Palestinian village, she is faced with a past that sits uneasily with
her Israeli childhood memories—and the history she was raised never to
question.
Tracing Homelands is an intimate, beautifully
written account that uncovers inconvenient truths about an embattled
Israeli-Palestinian history that is often buried in silence. Its
eloquently personal voice charts a reluctant eyewitness’ journey to
uncover the ruins of Palestinian villages destroyed in the 1948 war,
while weaving flashbacks to the author’s Israeli youth and Zionist
upbringing. A braided narrative told with empathy and unflinching
honesty, it reflects on the Palestinian and Jewish lives entwined in
this searing history.
As Dittmar revisits the sites and sights of
her childhood, her intimate understanding of the 1948 war and its
aftermath opens up an inquiry into the language and silence, the seeing
and willed not-seeing, that have been obscuring the Nakba and holding
peace hostage. Spanning six decades of this history (1942-2008), this
story of war and dispossession rests on deep attachment to a land that
is claimed by both people. Here the land itself speaks its own truths: a
tale told in rocks and mud, pine forests and parched summer grass, and
vibrant modernity amid derelict sentinels of its past.
About the Author:
Linda Dittmar’s early years (1939-1960) were marked by the turmoil of
war and nation-building as Mandatory Palestine became Israel. Growing
into Israeli adulthood, she witnessed the traumatic effects of both the
Jews’ Holocaust and the Palestinians’ Nakba. In the U.S. since 1961, she
received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, taught literature and film
studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and had visiting
lectureships in Tel Aviv, India, and elsewhere. Her publications include
From Hanoi to Hollywood and Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism.
Her work has been recognized by several residencies and distinguished
awards, including the Fulbright Foundation and the Massachusetts
Cultural Council.
Reviews:
“The
memoir Tracing Homelands vividly conveys the unstable psychological
ground under the feet of settlers of the ‘Promised Land’—land that
was—and continues to be—cruelly wrested from its original inhabitants …
Readers are pulled along a winding and rocky path to and through the
remains (or possible remains) of many destroyed villages – and bits and
pieces of their history … The result is a highly original and engrossing
exploration of many of the most gruesome events of the Nakba. Readers
are offered a poignant, multilayered experience that brings together
many sad and spooky Nakba sites.” —Mondoweiss
Here is a review by David Swanson called "Why Not Knowing How Israel Was Created Matters."
Register Here.
Remember: You do not have to wait to the last minute to sign up for book clubs, but can sign up months ahead with plenty of time to receive and read the books. The book clubs also make great gifts. Future book clubs are always at https://worldbeyondwar.org/bookclubs
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