Freedom and Despair: A Selected Bibliography

David Shulman knows intimately what it takes to live your beliefs, to return, day after day, to the struggle, despite knowing you are often more likely to lose than win. Interweaving powerful stories and deep meditations, Freedom and Despair offers vivid firsthand reports from the occupied West Bank in Palestine as seen through the eyes of an experienced Israeli peace activist who has seen the Israeli occupation close up as it impacts on the lives of all Palestinian civilians.

Alongside a handful of beautifully written and often shocking tales from the field, Shulman meditates deeply on how to understand the evils around him, what it means to persevere as an activist decade after decade, and what it truly means to be free. The violent realities of the occupation are on full display. We get to know and understand the Palestinian shepherds and farmers and Israeli volunteers who face this situation head-on with nonviolent resistance. Shulman does not hold back on acknowledging the daily struggles that often leave him and his fellow activists full of despair. Inspired by these committed individuals who are not prepared to be silent or passive, Shulman suggests a model for ordinary people everywhere. Anyone prepared to take a risk and fight their oppressive political systems, he argues, can make a difference--if they strive to act with compassion and to keep hope alive.

David Shulman will discuss Freedom and Despair on November 29, 6pm.

Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar - This is a canonical Hebrew literary work describing precisely the kind of processes of dispossession and expulsion that we face in the occupied territories every day. The Yizhar novella deals with a paradigm case from the 1948 war.

My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness by Adina Hoffman - This beautiful biography of the Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali, whom I knew, is perhaps the perfect introduction to modern Palestinian history. In particular, there is reference to Taha's very powerful poem, "Revenge."

Living Emergency by Yael Berda - A lucid introduction to the bureaucratic terror that all Palestinians in the occupied territories encounter daily; written by an eloquent activist.

The Wall and the Gate by Michael Sfard - Sfard is the most prominent human-rights lawyer in Israel, and his book is a masterpiece of legal and political history, including the role of the Israel Supreme Court in legalizing the Israeli settlements in the territories. Sfard appears regularly before the court in cases involving Palestinian land rights and other issues relating to the Occupation.

The Bad Conscience by Vladimir Jankélévitch - The most insightful philosophical study of the human conscience that I have ever seen. This is a book close to my heart. It deals with questions that are at the center of my own book. Jankélévitch was arguably the finest and most creative of the twentieth-century French philosophers.

About David Shulman: David Shulman is the Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of several books, including Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestineand The Hungry God: Hindu Tales of Filicide and Devotion, both published by the University of Chicago Press. He is a peace activist and a founding member of the joint Israeli-Palestininian movement Ta'ayush. In 2016, he was awarded the Israel Prize for Religious Studies. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.