A very quick read on how the current situation in Palestine has been allowed to continue and supported by the USA, France, and England. The contrast to South African apartheid was interesting, and I wish those comparisons could have been delved into longer. The hypocrisy of Israel claiming to have a just and moral standing while bombing indiscriminately and faking warning calls were clearly supported. Equally shown was the hypocrisy of other countries, like the USA, who have signed international agreements and have local laws that should have restricted monetary and military support to Israel but have been ignored.
I was disappointed that Shehadeh describes the October 7 attacks using the since-debunked numbers of Hamas killing “some 1,200 soldiers and civilians.” Of course, the attacks were horrific. But there is a serious distinction between a resistance group killing occupying soldiers and killing civilians, and serious questions raised about how many civilians were actually bombed and shot by the Israeli military and how many were in fact killed by Hamas. This concession to Israeli framing continues as Shehadeh calls the genocide the “Gaza war” and uses other inaccurate, softer terms despite evidence to the contrary. 

He does explore the wild gap between Israeli and Gazan life well: “Except for the occasional rocket fired from Gaza, to which Israel retaliated by making Gazans pay a heavy price, Palestinians in Gaza seemed safely imprisoned behind the barrier built with great sophistication and at great expense. Young Israelis felt secure enough that they planned a rave right on the border with Gaza.”