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Palestine/Israel: Personal vs. Structural

Preamble:
--With the recent escalation of the conflict and its genocidal consequences, many comrades here shifted to learn more about the topic, ranging from the more well-known The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2020) to the more niche Palestine: A Socialist Introduction (2020).
--I was planning my own approach, which would also start with nonfiction to build the big picture (structural) analyses/critiques:
i) Re-trace back to earlier influences like Chomsky, who synthesizes so much material: Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (1982) and On Palestine (2015)
ii) …which leads to Ilan Pappé: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) and Ten Myths About Israel (2017), along with other notable critics like Norman G. Finkelstein (The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, 2000), Edward W. Said (The Question of Palestine, 1979), etc.

--That’s when “What is Politics�� released their first video episode on the topic called .
--“What is Politics�� takes the next steps of analyzing each opposing framing directly from their sources:
a) pro-Palestine: the aforementioned The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2020), etc.
b) pro-Israel: Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace (2017); former Israeli PM Golda Meir’s A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography (1973), etc.
c) other (pro-nationalist): Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (1999); A History of Zionism (1972), etc.
…“What is Politics�� focuses on critiquing nationalism as a tool weaponized by elites on every side to cover up class conflicts (including opportunities for class-conscious solidarity) that threaten their rule. I’d like this synthesized with more sympathetic analysis of anti-colonial nationalism like Vijay Prashad’s The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World.
--Note: “elites on every side��, beyond Arab/Jew: the critical view that sources I respect all seem to agree on is “The Jewish Question�� was a European problem (specifically European elites using Jews as scapegoats to distract from their own class conflicts) exported to the so-called “Middle East�� (Eurocentric term) along with “nation states�� from Europe's inter-imperialist rivalries/wars (WWI, WWII) carving up the world with artificial national borders for imperialist powers.
-see Chomksy on
--Finally, a reference to the documentary Encounter Point stood out; this portrayal of a “Bereaved Families Forum�� dialogue group between Palestinians and Israelis who have lost loved ones suggests that:
a) Forgiving personal grievances (even under such extreme circumstances), thus overcoming social group identities in the process, is possible through direct human interactions.
b) However, such direct human interactions still have difficulties even discussing differences in political/historical narratives (i.e. understanding of structural analysis).
…I need some time to really unpack the implications of this. “What is Politics�� references the following on social group identities, as well as critical anthropology:
-Human Groups and Social Categories: Studies in Social Psychology (1981)
-Social Groups And Identities (1998)

Highlights:
--As I started to stew over how people engage with social group identities and political/historical narratives (in particular the communication challenges), I decided to go off my normal path and read a well-known fiction.
--I first heard of the Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa in the collection Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Capitalist Climate Change, which features some of my absolute favourites:
i) Vijay Prashad: The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World
ii) Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
iii) Amitav Ghosh: Sea of Poppies
…so, you can imagine how impressed I was that Abulhawa’s essay stood out.

--Coincidentally, this book features a nonfiction reference list that is almost identical to my nonfiction plan, featuring Chomksy/Finkelstein/Said, as well as Robert Fisk, etc.
--I’m not a fiction connoisseur; besides from a baseline of readability (this book was obviously a smooth read), I’m looking for fiction which offer me interesting scenarios for thought-experiments which can (eventually) be applied to the real world. Sometimes, I may take these in different directions away from the author’s nonfiction intentions (ex. Lord of the Flies).
--A character worth highlighting is the Palestinian-born, Israeli-raised David; the interactions involving David reminds me of relations with personal grievances:

David lowered his eyes and tried to explain the urge of power to impose itself for the sake of imposition. The elixir of unopposed force and the daredevil thrill of impunity.

“There is no reason or logic. I was twenty years old and they gave me total power over other human beings […] Rage and the impunity I knew I had throbbed in my arms when I was holding the rifle.��

--This passage reminds me of the construction of nationalism:

They repulsed attacks and called for a truce, wanting only to live on their land as they always had. For they had endured many masters—Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Ottomans, British—and nationalism was inconsequential. Attachment to God, land, and family was the core of their being and that is what they defended and sought to keep.

…In terms of big picture analysis, I still need to rely on my nonfiction approach. As for questions on people engage with political/historical narratives, nonfiction once again may stir more connections with this story��