Jeff Halper will sign copies of An Israeli in Palestine at its official launch in East Jerusalem on December 4th.

In his new book, An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel (Pluto Press, 2008), Israeli anthropologist and human rights advocate Jeff Halper throws a harsh light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the point of view of a critical insider.

While the Zionist founders of Israel created a vibrant society, culture and economy, they did so at a high price: Israel could not maintain its exclusive Jewish character without imposing on the country's Palestinian population policies of ethnic cleansing, occupation and discrimination, expressed most graphically in its ongoing demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

An Israeli in Palestine records Halper's journey "beyond the membrane" that shields his people from the harsh realities of Palestinian life to his "discovery" that he was actually living in another country: Palestine.

Without dismissing the legitimacy of his own country, he realizes that Israel is defined by its oppressive relationship to the Palestinians.

Pleading for a view of Israel as a real, living country which must by necessity evolve and change, Halper asks whether the idea of an ethnically pure 'Jewish State' is still viable.

He offers ways in which Israel can redeem itself through a cultural Zionism upon which regional peace and reconciliation are attainable.

---

Author Jeff Halper will appear in East Jerusalem for the official launch of An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 4th at the Hind Husseini College, Al-Quds University in Sheik Jarrah. For information, contact the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem (+972-26283704, Imad@EducationalBookshop.com).