The Rhetoric of Peace.

• Author: Gordon, Neve
• Position: Books

The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid edited by Roane Carey, with an introduction by Noam Chomsky Verso Books. 354 pages.

The claims and views expressed in this book will be new to many people, judging by the presentation of the new intifada in most mainstream media. As the subtitle suggests, the book offers a revisionist view, but it does so cautiously, presenting fact after fact alongside rigorous argumentation and interpretation. Gradually, as the reader is exposed to the voices of scholars, activists, politicians, schoolteachers, and even children, a coherent picture emerges--one of cruelty and despair, poverty and subjugation, and most of all, a longing for self-determination.

The book's twenty-one chapters provide a detailed description and examination of the power dynamics characterizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The essays cogently uncover the social, political, and economic processes that led to the eruption of the second intifada, corroborating Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's famous claim that "never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed."

Violence, the book attempts to show, has many faces, and one of its most insidious current manifestations is the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Most people, including the majority of Israelis, seem unaware that after the Oslo Accords were signed there was neither peace nor prosperity in the territories. The situation of most Palestinians deteriorated, and what appeared to be a promise rapidly turned in the eyes of many of the occupied residents into a curse.

Consider the economy. In one essay, Harvard professor Sara Roy points out that within the first three years following the 1993 Oslo peace agreement, per capita GNP in the West Bank and Gaza Strip fell 37 percent as unemployment soared to 28 percent, one of the highest rates among existing political entities. She mentions the corruption of the Palestinian Authority as one of the reasons for the economic decline but points out that the effect of corruption is minor in comparison to the economic strangulation Israel imposed through the ongoing closures of the territories. Today, no more than two miles from Jerusalem, where the cost of living is similar to that of a major U.S. city, are thousands of Palestinians living on less than $2.10 a day per household--that is, two adults and four children.

The Oslo Accords, not unlike Israel s peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, were based on United...