"We read to know we are not
alone," novelist C.S. Lewis said about stories and books.
As Palestinians and Israelis -- Muslims, Christians
and Jews -- build relationships a step at a time, this reminds us we're not
alone but part of a growing wave of responsible citizens.
This is about a book that matters.
It is about "We Just Want to Live Here:
A Palestinian Teenager, an Israeli Teenager -- An Unlikely Friendship."
It's a helpful book for students of the
Israeli-Palestinian relationship..
Palestinian Amal Rifa'i and Israeli Odelia Ainbinder are two teenage
girls who live in the same city, yet worlds apart.
They first met on summer 2000 student exchange
program to
Weeks after they returned, the new, violent Intifada broke out September 29, 2000.
They lost contact.
But two years later,
Amal and Odelia
exchanged their deepest feelings through letters from August to November, 2002.
In their letters, they discuss the Intifada,
their families, traditions, suicide bombers, and military service.
They write frankly of their anger, frustrations, and
fear, but also of their hopes and dreams for a brighter future.
Together, Amal and Odelia give us a renewed sense of hope for peace in the
Another author describes
this book:
"Profoundly moving....The conflict between Jews
and Arabs has been described in countless books and argued in unending
polemics, but here, in the letters between these two eighteen-year-old women,
an Arab and a Jew, is the heartbreaking essence of the quarrel.... In these
letters (an idea brilliantly conceived and carried through by Sylke Tempel) Amal
and Odelia educate each other..... This is the
book for anyone who wants to feel and understand the emotions on both sides. It
will become a classic."
Read a review at TeenReads.com and order the book at http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0312318944.asp
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We Just Want to Live Here
Amal Rifa'i, Odelia Ainbinder
St. Martin's Press
Biography / Autobiography
Paperback
154 pages
5" x 7"
ISBN 0312318944