When the Birds Stopped Singing

Starred review from August 4, 2003

This short, powerful book should be required reading for anyone who has ever wondered what it's like to be an ordinary citizen living in a war zone. Shehadeh's view of the volatile Israeli-Palestinian conflict is certainly not neutral, dealing with his emotions and experiences during Israel's incursion into his West Bank city during the spring of 2002. It is, however, remarkably balanced for a man in his situation. Under curfew and trapped in his home, Shehadeh, a lawyer, writer and human rights activist (Strangers in the House), concentrates on conserving his food supply, distracting himself with his legal work, trying not to wonder when his wife, who is out of the country, will be able to get home, and trying not to be angry. "I've learned how to create small spaces of my own in which to live," he writes. "I'm continuing to exercise for half an hour by vigorously walking around the courtyard with appropriate music blasting. Today it was Shostakovich quintets." Intermingled with his rage at Israel's right-wing government and at the Arab world, which expresses sympathy with the Palestinian plight while treating it as little more than a reality TV show, is the realization that something has to change. "The Israelis are being hit and have casualties and our life has been brought to a standstill. We are killing each other. We have to stop. This is what is important, not what the outside world thinks."

August 1, 2003
The city of Ramallah on the West Bank has long been an important center of Palestinian nationalism. Since the beginning of the most recent Palestinian uprising, the city has come under various curfews and military attacks by Israeli armed forces. In many ways, what has happened to Ramallah encapsulates the wretchedness of life for the Palestinians living in the rest of the occupied territories. In this book, Shehadeh (Strangers in the House), a prominent Palestinian lawyer and writer living in Ramallah, chronicles the daily struggle for existence in that city since March 28, 2002, the day before the latest full-scale Israeli invasion of that city started. As a founder of Al-Haq, a respected nonpartisan human rights organization, the author is well placed to chronicle a life of displacement, agony, and fear on the West Bank. This is Shehadeh's third book of diaries in which he portrays the indomitable spirit of people under occupation. He does so with verve and tact. A great addition to the recent firsthand writings on the Palestinians, this is highly recommended for public libraries.-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2003
A quiet but angry commentator on Israeli military actions, Shehadeh describes daily life during one stanza in the deadly antiphony: the bombing of a seder meal in March 2002 and Israel's invasion of West Bank cities. In this journal of one month, the author does not rationalize terrorist acts against Israelis, and his underlying integrity lends force to his protest against Israel's incursions into Palestinian areas. Shehadeh gave a general presentation of the Palestinian Arab plight in his memoir " Strangers in the House" (2002); here he provides an intimate view of living under curfew, listening to gunfire and explosions, detouring around troops and roadblocks, and having one's home searched or damaged. Amid these vignettes, Shehadeh expounds on the immediate context--the collapse of the Oslo Accord--up to the present stage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is indignantly critical of Israel and does not much praise Palestinian leadership. Tragically jammed between the two are the aspirations and humiliations of nonmilitant Palestinians, which the author ably expresses. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)