NEW BOOK: Understanding Palestine & Israel
In the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza and the ongoing struggles for justice in Palestine, a crucial new book is arriving at the perfect time. Understanding Palestine and Israel by renowned activist and political analyst Phyllis Bennis, and with a foreword by noted Palestinian analyst Omar Baddar, cuts through the noise and delivers clear, accessible answers to the most pressing questions about the situation—questions that many have never had the opportunity to ask.
With her legacy of activism and decades of expertise, Bennis unpacks the history that led to this moment, from the Balfour Declaration to the Occupied Territories, from Zionism to the US role in financing and arming Israel’s military actions. The book also examines the conditions in Gaza before October 7, 2023 attacks, the roots of Palestinian resilience, the role of the U.S. government in enabling Israel’s assault in Gaza, and the global movement for ceasefire and justice, including South Africa’s initiative at the World Court to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes. The epilogue examines the 2024 election of Donald Trump.
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, where she co-directs the New Internationalism Project. She serves as an international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace and is a leading voice in global movements supporting Palestinian rights and challenging US foreign policy. She has written numerous books on Palestine, the broader Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, and the United Nations, is a frequent contributor to Democracy Now, al Jazeera, BBC, MSNBC and more, and writes widely in U.S. and international media outlets.
She has been twice short-listed to become the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Want to save on this book and support IPS? Purchase “Understanding Palestine and Israel” at this link and use coupon code IPS to save 10 percent. An additional 20 percent will be donated to IPS at no cost to you. (This offer will expire on September 1, 2025. )
Below, Phyllis explains why she wrote this book and how advocates can use it.
Praise for Understanding Palestine and Israel:
“This invaluable tour de force by Phyllis Bennis offers readers the most comprehensive, lucid, readable, and reliably informed and evidence-based guide available … While objective in its use of data and interpretative commentary, the book is impressively clear about the distinction between oppressor and oppressed.”
— Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University
“No topic in the Western world has been more deliberately distorted and obscured than the subject of Palestine and Israel … With stunning clarity and an unwavering commitment to speaking truth in an age of official lies, Phyllis Bennis tears back the curtain of government and corporate disinformation to reveal the truth of a one-hundred-year history of colonization, apartheid and genocide, and a growing global movement for justice in Palestine. This point-by-point examination brings together the historical, factual, legal, and moral basis for an informed understanding of one of the great historical (and ongoing) injustices of the past hundred years.”
— Craig Mokhiber, international human rights lawyer and activist and former senior United Nations official
“To interrogate the role of the Israeli government and its military, over many years, in creating a fertile soil for Palestinian anger…. Understanding Palestine and Israel, a new book by writer Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at DC’s Institute for Policy Studies, might be a useful primer.”
— The Washington Post
Buy “Understanding Palestine and Israel” at this link and use coupon code IPS to save 10 percent. An additional 20 percent will be donated to IPS at no cost to you. (This offer expires on September 1, 2025. )
