Description
Anna Baltzer, a young Jewish American, went to the West Bank to discover the realities of daily life for Palestinians under the occupation. What she found would change her outlook on the conflict forever. She wrote this book to give voice to the stories of the people who welcomed her with open arms as their lives crumbled around them.
For five months, Baltzer lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists,
and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across endless checkpoints and
roadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves. Baltzer witnessed firsthand
the environmental devastation brought on by expanding settlements and outposts and the
destruction wrought by Israel’s “Security Fence,” which separates many families from each other, their communities, their land, and basic human services. What emerges from Baltzer’s journal is not a sensationalist tale of suicide bombers and conspiracies, but a compelling and inspiring description of the trials of daily life under the occupation.
Read the Setember 8, 2010 interview with Anna Baltzer by noted journalist Christian Avard on the iBrattleboro website here: Avard interview
Author Info
Anna Baltzer is a Jewish American graduate of Columbia University, Fulbright scholar, and two-time volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service in the West Bank, where she documented human rights abuses and supported the nonviolent resistance movement to the occupation.
Reviews
“Captivating text and artistic photography…a deeply personal story that will inspire you not only to have hope but to actively seek and work for peace and justice."
—Mazin Qumsiyeh, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan
"Moving and vivid.”
—Tanya Reinhart, author of Roadmap to Nowhere
"Even those who are familiar with the grim reality of the occupied territories will quickly be drawn into a world they had barely imagined by these vivid, searingly honest, intensely acute portrayals.”
—Noam Chomsky
“Scores of beautiful and heartbreaking color photographs accompany Baltzer’s lively and detailed journal entries…”
—Mark Chmiel, Saint Louis University, in Journal of Palestine Studies