The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine

The ‘spring’ of the title has a double meaning. Mainly it refers to the life-giving spring in the village of Nabi Saleh on the West Bank, taken over by illegal Israeli settlers and for years the focus of weekly protests by the villagers. It is also an ironic reference to the ‘Arab spring’ and why that did not – could not – spread to Palestine. The book is full of such deft interweaving of the immediate and local with the wider political picture, essential to an understanding of the events Ehrenreich describes so vividly. The author is an American journalist who spent more than four years in Palestine, building close relationships with families who are bearing the brunt of Israel’s […]