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Language of War, Language of Peace
Award-winning author Raja Shehadeh explores the politics of language and the language of politics in the Israeli Palestine conflict, reflecting on the walls that they create - legal and cultural - that confine today's Palestinians just like the physical borders, checkpoints and the so called 'Separation Barrier'.The peace process has been ground to a halt by twists of language and linguistic chicanery that has degraded the word 'peace' itself. No one even knows what the word might mean now for the Middle East. So to give one example of many, Israel argued that the omission of the word 'the' in one of the UN Security Council's resolutions meant that it was not mandated to withdraw from all of the territories occupied in 1967.The Language of War, The Language of Peace is another important book from Raja Shehadeh on the world's greatest political fault line.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
13 people are currently reading
445 people want to read
About the author
Raja Shehadeh
42 books323 followersRaja Shehadeh (Arabic: رجا شحادة) is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer. He is the author of Strangers in the House (2002), described by The Economist as “distinctive and truly impressive”, When the Bulbul Stopped Singing (2003), Palestinian Walks (2007), for which he won the 2008 Orwell Prize, and A Rift in Time (2010). Shehadeh trained as a barrister in London and is a founder of the human rights organization Al-Haq. He blogs regularly for the International Herald Tribune/The New York Times and lives in Ramallah, on the West Bank.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 19, 2021
This is not at all an easy read. But, it is necessary.
The language we use to talk about Israel and Palestine derives itself largely on a single narrative, one which is singularly supportive of Israel and dismissive of Palestine and Palestinians.
I'm admittedly mostly ignorant to the historical complexities of the region. It hasn't been my fight and I no real vested interest in which side or who should have ultimate claims to a land long heralded as significant to three religions constantly at odds with each and one another. I care about the suffering, but have not delved into its meaning too much until now.
That said, this book has helped me pinpoint what I do not know, do not fully understand and how I can recalibrate my thinking and views on the region. It does not offer solutions -- those are not mine to define. But it does offer a perspective and one largely dismissed and absent from my WASPy comfortable world far removed an a work away from the hell that is life in the West Bank and Gaza.
It also leaves me a little more heartbroken given where we are now.
#FreePalestine
The language we use to talk about Israel and Palestine derives itself largely on a single narrative, one which is singularly supportive of Israel and dismissive of Palestine and Palestinians.
I'm admittedly mostly ignorant to the historical complexities of the region. It hasn't been my fight and I no real vested interest in which side or who should have ultimate claims to a land long heralded as significant to three religions constantly at odds with each and one another. I care about the suffering, but have not delved into its meaning too much until now.
That said, this book has helped me pinpoint what I do not know, do not fully understand and how I can recalibrate my thinking and views on the region. It does not offer solutions -- those are not mine to define. But it does offer a perspective and one largely dismissed and absent from my WASPy comfortable world far removed an a work away from the hell that is life in the West Bank and Gaza.
It also leaves me a little more heartbroken given where we are now.
#FreePalestine
November 14, 2023
an outstandingly written book. many non fiction books about conflict and genocide usually, to me, read like they are just news articles copied and pasted together, statistics rolling out constantly and an endless stream of acronyms and names of people you pretend to remember (but you usually don’t know who they’re talking about). perhaps that’s fine for somebody very educated on a matter, but for the large majority of people who want to educate themselves about injustice and zionism, you end up spending more time focusing on names and statistics which takes away from the experience we actually intended on having.
i didn’t have that experience with this book, and i can say that it was just as, or even more informative than many other books that i have read, that are supposed to be like this one. the reader is constantly kept up to date with straight to the point statements, while at the same time everything is covered thoroughly from 1948 onwards.
thank you for this book
i didn’t have that experience with this book, and i can say that it was just as, or even more informative than many other books that i have read, that are supposed to be like this one. the reader is constantly kept up to date with straight to the point statements, while at the same time everything is covered thoroughly from 1948 onwards.
thank you for this book
August 13, 2020
Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh is so impactful to me that i couldnt let myself not pick this book up when i saw it was on discount sale at the bookstore. However, this is more on the short notes of the past events that has happened between Israel and Palestine. Those who already knew about the Zionism and Israel's agenda to further enlarging their area and diminishing the Palestine bit by bit, this might be a perfect book for you. Overall, it was intense and gripping writing.
June 13, 2024
This book was beautifully written and devastating, unfortunately the authors hope for a better future distinctly clashes with the current reality faced by the Palestinian people. I can only pray that eventually liberty will prevail. However, as the future is uncertain, this book can be summed up far better by a poet than a historian.
The Cure of Troy by Seamus Heaney.
Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
History says, Don’t hope
On the side of the grave,’
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea- change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles.
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
The Cure of Troy by Seamus Heaney.
Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
History says, Don’t hope
On the side of the grave,’
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea- change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles.
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
October 12, 2024
This was a really difficult book for me as, although I’m not Jewish, I lived on an Israeli kibbutz in the early nineties. Although I felt I had a broad understanding of the conflict I had not read much from a specifically Palestinian perspective and felt it was important to do so. This impassioned book - partly about how the use of official language has compromised any hope of peace, but also about life under occupation, and the loss of land, property, rights and life itself - certainly made me very much more aware of the Palestinian plight. However it disturbed me that some 'facts' quoted weren't true because it gives me less confidence in the veracity of others. One example: the claim that Israel hasn’t been attacked by another country in the last 40 years. I saw Iraq’s skud missiles raining down in 1991 with my own eyes, lived with rumblings that other Arab states may join in, and felt how small and threatened Israel feels. (But mostly I saw that ordinary people on both sides want peace but it is withheld from them by zealots on both sides.)
June 21, 2017
A book that looks primarily at how the semantics of the "Israel/Palestine conflict" (a misleading semantic hurdle in itself) have developed over the last twenty to thirty years, from the interesting angle of someone who was intimately involved in negotiations between Israel and the PLO.
The only criticism I could give is it was shorter than I had hoped for, but that, if anything, is a testament to Shehadeh's writing that you're never left wanting except for more!
I could add that this is a book that should be read by anyone, whether you have an opinion on 'the conflict' or not, whichever side you're on or if you even profess to be neutral.
The only criticism I could give is it was shorter than I had hoped for, but that, if anything, is a testament to Shehadeh's writing that you're never left wanting except for more!
I could add that this is a book that should be read by anyone, whether you have an opinion on 'the conflict' or not, whichever side you're on or if you even profess to be neutral.
February 16, 2025
My one issue with this amazing book; the thing which keeps me from awarding it the full 5 stars, is the author's painful naivety at the end as he calls for peace through a 'Two State Solution' in all but name. Because as he himself explained throughout the course of this book and (writing in February of 2025,) the last 15 months have proven in spades, the Zio-Nazi Colony Occupying Palestine not only doesn't want anything which can be described as peace, but literally cannot continue to exist unless it 'Exterminates' the Palestinians; either as a concept, nationality and/or ethnicity through ethnic cleansing, or by continuing their ongoing Genocide in the name of "Self-Defence." Because when all is said and done, no matter how many bombs or how much money the Zio-Nazi Colony may receive from the U.S, the Palestinians pose an existential, demographic threat to the entire, Zionist project.
Indeed, the disgusting euphemism of 'Mowing The Lawn' to describe the bombing of civilian populations is disturbingly appropriate, regarding the Palestinians as weeds or another 'Invasive Species' to be controlled. Because just as white people here in Europe & America are losing our minds and embracing Fascism over the fact that we'll no longer be the majority in 2050, the Zio-Nazi population occupying Palestine is shrinking every day while the Palestinian population continues to grow in defiance of their best efforts to strangle them.
As a matter of fact, Zio-Nazi politicians are now effectively admitting that this is the case. Meaning that yes, the entire aim, goal and purpose of everything they've done since October 7th has been part of their plan to either drive the Palestinians out of Gaza, or to kill them; playing off their ethnic cleansing as they dropped leaflets warning people to leave and drove them further and further south into concentration camps as an act of humanitarian benevolence. With of course, the ultimate goal being to make the region unhabitable and drive them into Egypt; just as the Orange Overlord is now trying to play off his pipe-dream of simply removing all Palestinians from Gaza and building a beach front resort as a favour to them instead of a war-crime.
Obviously however, the fact that this book was written a decade ago and there's no way that he could have possibly known all of this does make me lean towards giving him the benefit of the doubt. But then again, in this book, the author systematically documented the path to Hell which Zionism has been taking since its inception; the long, inevitable descent into Fascism & Genocide which now leads me to condemn it as Zio-Nazism, so none of us can pretend that the red flags weren't always there.
At the end of the day though, in spite of his sickeningly optimistic naivety which borders on wilfully ignorant self-delusion, I still highly recommend this book to everyone who is wondering how the Colony Occupying Palestine apparently went from being an 'Inclusive, Western, Liberal Democracy Which Only Wanted Peace' to a population of Genocidal, Fascist Ghouls cheering on the murder of children in the most sadistic way possible and protesting for the right to rape Palestinian hostages overnight. Explaining how, behind all of the carefully crafted propaganda, this was always the underlying truth of Zionism. With the only silver-lining being that in its obsession with destroying 'The Palestinian Threat,' the Colony is merely hastening its own extinction.
Indeed, the disgusting euphemism of 'Mowing The Lawn' to describe the bombing of civilian populations is disturbingly appropriate, regarding the Palestinians as weeds or another 'Invasive Species' to be controlled. Because just as white people here in Europe & America are losing our minds and embracing Fascism over the fact that we'll no longer be the majority in 2050, the Zio-Nazi population occupying Palestine is shrinking every day while the Palestinian population continues to grow in defiance of their best efforts to strangle them.
As a matter of fact, Zio-Nazi politicians are now effectively admitting that this is the case. Meaning that yes, the entire aim, goal and purpose of everything they've done since October 7th has been part of their plan to either drive the Palestinians out of Gaza, or to kill them; playing off their ethnic cleansing as they dropped leaflets warning people to leave and drove them further and further south into concentration camps as an act of humanitarian benevolence. With of course, the ultimate goal being to make the region unhabitable and drive them into Egypt; just as the Orange Overlord is now trying to play off his pipe-dream of simply removing all Palestinians from Gaza and building a beach front resort as a favour to them instead of a war-crime.
Obviously however, the fact that this book was written a decade ago and there's no way that he could have possibly known all of this does make me lean towards giving him the benefit of the doubt. But then again, in this book, the author systematically documented the path to Hell which Zionism has been taking since its inception; the long, inevitable descent into Fascism & Genocide which now leads me to condemn it as Zio-Nazism, so none of us can pretend that the red flags weren't always there.
At the end of the day though, in spite of his sickeningly optimistic naivety which borders on wilfully ignorant self-delusion, I still highly recommend this book to everyone who is wondering how the Colony Occupying Palestine apparently went from being an 'Inclusive, Western, Liberal Democracy Which Only Wanted Peace' to a population of Genocidal, Fascist Ghouls cheering on the murder of children in the most sadistic way possible and protesting for the right to rape Palestinian hostages overnight. Explaining how, behind all of the carefully crafted propaganda, this was always the underlying truth of Zionism. With the only silver-lining being that in its obsession with destroying 'The Palestinian Threat,' the Colony is merely hastening its own extinction.
December 17, 2021
I have to admit I was completely ignorant to any of the details of the struggle between Israel and Palestine. I knew there were issues, but that’s about as far as my knowledge went ~ hence wanting to read up on it.
This is a really good book, quite a hard read I would say, but short and concise. I feel if you are like me and literally know next to nothing on the matter, it would probably be worth reading another book or researching exactly what has gone on in the Middle East before attempting this book, as I feel not knowing anything made it all a bit more confusing. This book doesn’t really cover any of the background of when and how the conflict very first began in great detail, more so how the conflict transpired after 1967. Just a few short sentences covering the very beginning.
I feel this would have been a better read for me having had some prior knowledge on the issues at hand and I wish the book spent a bit longer in the beginning diving into the history of it all. However, having said this, I feel a know a lot more after reading it and it has peaked my interest to continue learning and doing my own research, which is currently underway.
Another reason I couldn’t give more stars was because in the very beginning the author claims he wants to give the most unbiased view possible. I really don’t think he succeeds at this. Being an Arab Palestinian himself and having seen and been a part of the struggles first hand, it is totally understandable. But he does not accomplish his goal.
One example of this is when the author discusses 3 Jewish Israelis who were kidnapped and murdered. The whole chapter on them does not once declare who out of the Arab Palestinians committed this crime, or if it is unsolved, who it is likely to have been. He talks of who the Israelis blame but quickly brushes this away as if it were nonsense as it was never proved. But we never really look at in detail what happened to these young Israelis. Instead we spend the chapter talking about how the Israeli police knew the victims were dead but did not tell the public this, as to use it as an excuse to raid lots of Arab homes etc and how the Israelis retaliated with the most brutal of crimes against a young Arab Palestinian boy. We go into how the Arab Palestinian died and who did it. The Israelis do not receive this kind of in depth analysis. We cover ground over and over again of the failings of the Israelis - which I completely believe to be true by the way - but an unbiased view and telling of these events would have also chastised the Arab Palestinians who committed the first crime and would have looked in more detail at both sides of that story.
This is just one example. I don’t believe that anything told is untrue, and I am sure that Israel have a lot to answer for, but we don’t really hear anything about the other side of the story. Regardless of whether that side is nowhere near as cruel or barbaric, there are always 2 sides to hear about.
Overall a good book - I’d suggest it to anyone who’s at least a little clued up on the conflict!
This is a really good book, quite a hard read I would say, but short and concise. I feel if you are like me and literally know next to nothing on the matter, it would probably be worth reading another book or researching exactly what has gone on in the Middle East before attempting this book, as I feel not knowing anything made it all a bit more confusing. This book doesn’t really cover any of the background of when and how the conflict very first began in great detail, more so how the conflict transpired after 1967. Just a few short sentences covering the very beginning.
I feel this would have been a better read for me having had some prior knowledge on the issues at hand and I wish the book spent a bit longer in the beginning diving into the history of it all. However, having said this, I feel a know a lot more after reading it and it has peaked my interest to continue learning and doing my own research, which is currently underway.
Another reason I couldn’t give more stars was because in the very beginning the author claims he wants to give the most unbiased view possible. I really don’t think he succeeds at this. Being an Arab Palestinian himself and having seen and been a part of the struggles first hand, it is totally understandable. But he does not accomplish his goal.
One example of this is when the author discusses 3 Jewish Israelis who were kidnapped and murdered. The whole chapter on them does not once declare who out of the Arab Palestinians committed this crime, or if it is unsolved, who it is likely to have been. He talks of who the Israelis blame but quickly brushes this away as if it were nonsense as it was never proved. But we never really look at in detail what happened to these young Israelis. Instead we spend the chapter talking about how the Israeli police knew the victims were dead but did not tell the public this, as to use it as an excuse to raid lots of Arab homes etc and how the Israelis retaliated with the most brutal of crimes against a young Arab Palestinian boy. We go into how the Arab Palestinian died and who did it. The Israelis do not receive this kind of in depth analysis. We cover ground over and over again of the failings of the Israelis - which I completely believe to be true by the way - but an unbiased view and telling of these events would have also chastised the Arab Palestinians who committed the first crime and would have looked in more detail at both sides of that story.
This is just one example. I don’t believe that anything told is untrue, and I am sure that Israel have a lot to answer for, but we don’t really hear anything about the other side of the story. Regardless of whether that side is nowhere near as cruel or barbaric, there are always 2 sides to hear about.
Overall a good book - I’d suggest it to anyone who’s at least a little clued up on the conflict!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2020
The following is excerpted from my review of this book for the Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies:
"Israel’s war/peace framing, however, is dangerous. It results in a methodical individualism to explain current events, in which acts are driven by individual choices contextualised within a tragic fog of war that evenly envelops all actors. Systemic understandings are foregone and one is left with nothing but anodyne paeans for reconciliation and hope for the future. In this way, war and peace are not opposites, as Israel presents them, but work together to avoid raising systemic power asymmetries into our collective consciousness. Israel’s language of ‘war and peace’ comes hand in hand with references to ‘both sides’ in ‘the conflict’. There are moments when the predominance of this framing even trips up Israel’s best critics, as when Shehahdeh himself writes that ’by reducing a colonial occupation to a mere ‘dispute, they fail to appreciate the magnitude of the conflict between the two sides.’ Instead of ‘conflict’ between ’two sides’, of course, one understands Shehadeh seeks to pivot from the language of war/peace to the language of colonialism/decolonisation, apartheid/desegregation, supremacy/emancipation, and ethnic cleansing/pluralism, but is repeatedly hemmed-in by the existing terms of discussion.
Israel’s conquest of the terms of debate with its war/peace lens also implicitly prioritises questions of violence and security – and it does so over questions of justice. The language of security becomes appropriate, self-defence for both sides becomes understood as equally necessary, and it becomes plausible to imagine that Israel might be an equal victim, if not the victim of ’the conflict’. It follows from this thinking that rejectionist actors and proponents of violence on ’both sides’ are to blame – and the violent extremism of these ‘fringes’ become the source of lament, instead of the injustice of reigning colonial systems of theft, segregation and supremacy."
Susan Abulhawa also has a much more articulate takedown of the language of "conflict" near the end of her article here:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10...
"Israel’s war/peace framing, however, is dangerous. It results in a methodical individualism to explain current events, in which acts are driven by individual choices contextualised within a tragic fog of war that evenly envelops all actors. Systemic understandings are foregone and one is left with nothing but anodyne paeans for reconciliation and hope for the future. In this way, war and peace are not opposites, as Israel presents them, but work together to avoid raising systemic power asymmetries into our collective consciousness. Israel’s language of ‘war and peace’ comes hand in hand with references to ‘both sides’ in ‘the conflict’. There are moments when the predominance of this framing even trips up Israel’s best critics, as when Shehahdeh himself writes that ’by reducing a colonial occupation to a mere ‘dispute, they fail to appreciate the magnitude of the conflict between the two sides.’ Instead of ‘conflict’ between ’two sides’, of course, one understands Shehadeh seeks to pivot from the language of war/peace to the language of colonialism/decolonisation, apartheid/desegregation, supremacy/emancipation, and ethnic cleansing/pluralism, but is repeatedly hemmed-in by the existing terms of discussion.
Israel’s conquest of the terms of debate with its war/peace lens also implicitly prioritises questions of violence and security – and it does so over questions of justice. The language of security becomes appropriate, self-defence for both sides becomes understood as equally necessary, and it becomes plausible to imagine that Israel might be an equal victim, if not the victim of ’the conflict’. It follows from this thinking that rejectionist actors and proponents of violence on ’both sides’ are to blame – and the violent extremism of these ‘fringes’ become the source of lament, instead of the injustice of reigning colonial systems of theft, segregation and supremacy."
Susan Abulhawa also has a much more articulate takedown of the language of "conflict" near the end of her article here:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10...
July 20, 2021
4.5 stars. this was my first book into the history and context of the struggles in this region. since it is not meant to be an exhaustive history, it is perhaps a hard first place to start, but the scholar provides an informed and interesting perspective. being a legal scholar and an activist he presents examples from this perspective, and he is careful to be generous and show the many fractures and differences within the Palestinian population (and Israeli / Jewish population as well), so that we see just why this is so complicated an issue. those hoping for peace (or not) by nonviolence or via militarization are struggling against each other even within the groups, and that is really important to see, while also showing what is happening between Israelis and Palestinians. the language aspect (the main focus according to the title) is also an important issue to highlight. as a language (writing) teacher and editor, this part of course interested me a great deal. this book has encouraged me to seek out more on this region and this topic.
December 31, 2017
This book was more of a historical book with some analysis of language, rather than an analysis of the language used in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which is what I was looking for and thought the book was going to be about).
Still enjoyed the book because I got to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but disappointed by the misleading summary of the book. So, 3 stars
Still enjoyed the book because I got to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but disappointed by the misleading summary of the book. So, 3 stars
December 7, 2022
I feel like I don’t know much about the Israel - Palestine conflict, but I definitely do now after this book. Felt like I was thrown a little in the deep end at the start, lots of new words, but quickly picked it up, and really learned a lot by the end. Surprised it’s not reported in the media more, a really heartbreaking story, with the world not seeming to care
October 23, 2023
Absentees, infiltrators - these are the words the Israeli state uses for internally displaced people and refugees, who also aren't recognised as the UN either because instead of UNHCR, they are given assistance by the UNRWA. Meanwhile, Jews the world over have rights over the conquered and occupied lands of dispossessed Palestinians.
May 4, 2017
Understandably impassioned given the author's history and heredity and he really tries to stay balanced in his commentary but from my perspective he doesn't quite stay objective. I will know more once I have visited Palestine.
February 15, 2025
Searing. Clear eyed and a profound meditation on language. A stark reminder that nothing the world saw since late 2023 is new, its all happened, again and again. Look forward to reading more of Raja Shehadeh.
December 17, 2023
Read it during the Gaza genocide 2023.
January 22, 2024
This book was really useful for understanding more about what Israel have been doing to Palestine for decades without consequence. It was a hard but important read.
July 17, 2024
a must read.
November 1, 2024
A good primer on Palestine.
November 13, 2016
Raja Shehadeh's Language of War, Language of Peace is wrenching and beautiful. Shehadeh's history of the language is fascinating. Any doubt that words can't hurt you is gone once you realise that Palestinians who fled war in 1947 and 1967 and had their land taken from them weren't even granted status as refugees by the UN. They still aren't. Infiltrators, vandals, terrorists they are called.
August 10, 2022
Anyone wanting to understand the reality of the Palestinian issue must read this book. Wonderful in its heart-wrenching sadness. Over the last couple of months I have read both this and Kristallnacht - I would suggest they are read side by side
January 2, 2016
Highlights injustices done to Palestinians. Life seems so unfair if you were born an Arab in Palestine & trying to mind your own business & live a peaceful life in your own land. See what happened in Gaza. The Israelis keep stealing the Locals land bit by bit...
October 25, 2015
Excellent - great clarity of writing from someone on the ground. He has hope for a solution, but with no great conviction it seemed to me that it can happen.
Thanks Eoin for the gift!
Thanks Eoin for the gift!
August 12, 2021
Insightful perspective
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews