FREEDOM AND DESPAIR

Notes from the South Hebron Hills

David Shulman, University of Chicago Press (OCTOBER) Softcover $18 (224pp) 978-0-226-56665-8

“There are … risks that you have to take if you want to feel human.” This reflection comes after a long day of resistance in South Hebron, where Schulman gathers with Palestinians and fellow Israelis to protest the relentless settler takeover of Palestinian land.

It is an often discouraging process. On more days than not, settlers and police forces beat the resistance back, sometimes making arrests, sometimes landing bone-breaking blows. But Shulman, whose family background includes pogroms and persecutions and whose sensibilities are rooted in a decidedly fair-minded Judaism, knows that he has to persist.

Shulman’s text is affecting, not only in its portrayals of state-supported violence and injustice, but at a sensual level. He recounts meals shared between allies, the smell of wild herbs on warredover hills, and the cool of water drawn from a commandeered well. He captures the humanity of the Palestinians, whose rights to “home” he tirelessly defends. He determines that his own freedom is tied up in affirming theirs.

There will undoubtedly be those who read Shulman’s philosophical, thoughtful, often musing account of peace activism and dismiss him as naïve. His words may be read as betrayal; they may be used against his own community. It has happened before.

But what-ifs are not Shulman’s concern. He sees injustice perpetuated by his neighbors, he sees his government defend the indefensible, and he knows that he must act, speak, and fight for better. His righteous sensibilities carry throughout Freedom and Despair, a persuasive, moving, and crucially needed account of resistance in these contentious times.