Books on Israel and Palestine (Fiction and Nonfiction)

A list of fiction and non-fiction books about Palestine and its people: history, culture, identity, conflict, resistance, suffering, justice, and apartheid.

This reading list was inspired by the Goodreads Listopia: ‘Best Books about Palestine’ curated by user Ofer Engel and the Goodreads community.

The List

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
Palestinian Dissident by Sam Shoman
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani
Palestine by Joe Sacco
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems by Mahmoud Darwish
Orientalism by Edward W. Said
Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question by Edward W. Said (Editor)
The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine by Ben Ehrenreich
The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi
Fast Times in Palestine by Pamela J. Olson
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
Gaza Writes Back by Refaat Alareer (Editor/Contributor)
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim (Editor)
Sitti’s Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé
Ladies of the Dance by May Mansoor Munn
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Norman G. Finkelstein
The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrims’ Progress by Mark Twain
Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land by Amira Hass
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege by Amira Hass
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren
Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel by Elias Chacour
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren
Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour by Barbara W. Tuchman
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom by Rebecca Ruth Gould
I Was Born There, I Was Born Here by Mourid Barghouti
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi
My Life by Golda Meir
Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine by Refaat Alareer
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha
In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation by Saree Makdisi
A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
الوقائع الغريبة في اختفاء سعيد أبي النحس المتشائل (The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist) by Emile Habiby
The Butterfly’s Burden by Mahmoud Darwish
Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy by Ben White
Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales by Ibrahim Muhawi
Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process by Edward W. Said
Twenty Two Years to Life by Mohammed Massoud Morsi
The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace by Adi Schwartz
Anno 2020 by James Morcan
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Men As Friends: From Cicero to Svevo to Cataldo by Irwin Epstein
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
Leaving La-La Land: Escape to Reality by Robert K. Bosscha
What Is Past Is Dead by Mohammed Massoud Morsi
Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh
The Words of My Father by Yousef Bashir
The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker by Sami al Jundi
A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird
Born Palestinian, Born Black by Suheir Hammad
Where the Line Is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine by Raja Shehadeh
Post Zionists: Judith Butler, Hillel Kook, Gideon Levy, Shlomo Sand, Tanya Reinhart, Amira Hass, Tom Segev by Books LLC (Creator)
Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis
A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali by Naji al-Ali
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins
Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi
In This Place Together: A Palestinian’s Journey to Collective Liberation by Penina Eilberg-Schwartz
Wall of Dust by Timothy P. Niedermann
The Palestinian People: A History by Baruch Kimmerling
Her Olives by Fida Islaih
The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story by Ramzy Baroud
Palestine on a Plate: Memories From My Mother’s Kitchen by Joudie Kalla
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem
Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land by Sandy Tolan
The Drone Eats with Me: A Gaza Diary by Atef Abu Saif
Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh
Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 by Mahmoud Darwish
On Palestine by Noam Chomsky
A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba by Atef Alshaer (Editor)
The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine–A Tale of Two Narratives by Padraig O’Malley
The Multiple Child by Andrée Chedid
One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse by Ali Abunimah
A Vision of Angels by Timothy Jay Smith
Tsunami Connection by Michael James Gallagher
Recollections of Jerusalem by Anya Berezina Derrick
Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
Freedom Sailors: The Maiden Voyage of the Free Gaza movement and how we succeeded in spite of ourselves by Greta Berlin
Louisa by Simone Zelitch
L’ombre de l’olivier by Yara El-Ghadban
My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness by Adina Hoffman
Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future by Joel C. Rosenberg
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat
Code Name: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat
Israel/Palestine and the Queer International by Sarah Schulman
Golda Slept Here by Suad Amiry
I Am Cyrus: Harry S. Truman and the Rebirth of Israel by Craig von Buseck
The Night and its Homing by Ethel Mannin
Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean by Basem L. Ra’ad
Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Sitti’s Olive Trees by Ndaa Hassan
Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance by Shourideh C. Molavi
The Land Beneath the Light by Shereen Malherbe
We Are Not Numbers: The Voices of Gaza’s Youth by Ahmed Alnaouq (Editor)
Growing a Seminary in Ethiopia: A Triumph of Faith in an Uneasy Odyssey, 1994-2024 by Carl E. Hansen
Sparkles And Karim: Iraq 2014 by Dave Moores
The Able Queen: Memoirs of a Hump Pilot Lost in the Himalayas by Rainy Horvath
Last Day of Mahatma - Fast unto Death by Avinash Shukla
The Forbidden Letters: A True Story by Hemu Aggarwal
The Secret Life of a Weight-Obsessed Woman: Wisdom to Live the Life You Crave by Iris Ruth Pastor
The Gun and the Olive Branch by David Hirst
Letters from My Hymie: A Jewish-American Soldier’s WWII Letters Home by David Fradin
History As I See It and Others by Hafiz Sheriff
Death Ships - the story of life & death on six big emigrant ships by Doug Limbrick
The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis by David Abraham
The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia by Karen Elliott House
The Integrity Gap: When Good Intentions Undermine Truth by Stephen M. Fry Ph.D.
We Were a Nice Normal Family: A Memoir of Recovery from C-PTSD by Patricia Grenelle
Human Robots and Holy Mechanics: Reclaiming Our Souls in a Machine World by David T. Kyle
Raising Jesca by Shana Marie Gilbert
A Defiant City: 239 sketches of Hong Kong’s mass protest movement 2019-20 by So Fong
Torah Of Trauma by Chaya Lerner
Le Message by Andrée Chedid
Transfer by Naomi Shihab Nye
Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah
The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas by Grant Rumley
In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish
The Palace of Angels by Mohammed Massoud Morsi
Bitter Babylon by Ethel Mannin
What Is Modern Israel? by Yakov M. Rabkin
The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? by Mahmoud Darwish
Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation by Cate Malek (Editor)
My Garden Over Gaza by Sarah Musa
Yassini Girls by Shereen Malherbe
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Antony Loewenstein
We Were a Nice Normal Family: A Memoir of Recovery from C-PTSD by Patricia A. Grenelle
L’Artiste: et autres nouvelles by Andrée Chedid Andrée
Almond Blossoms and Beyond by Mahmoud Darwish
A Street Divided: Stories From Jerusalem’s Alley of God by Dion Nissenbaum
Haifa Fragments by Khulud Khamis
The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development by Sara M Roy
Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family by Najla Said
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris
Sunset Over Dartmoor by Ethel Mannin
Method and Madness: The Hidden Story of Israel’s Assaults on Gaza by Norman G. Finkelstein
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction by Sumaya Awad (Editor)
A Land With a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism by Esther Farmer (Editor)
Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
You Are The Color by Rifk Ebeid
Jasmine Falling by Shereen Malherbe
Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappé
The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience by Plestia Alaqad
The Franks in Outremer: Studies in the Latin Principalities of Palestine and Syria, 1099-1187 by Alan V. Murray
The Return to Beirut by Andrée Chedid
Drops of This Story by Suheir Hammad
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi
It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir by Emma Williams
Bethlehem: Biography of a Town by Nicholas Blincoe
Voices of the Nakba: A Living History of Palestine by Rosemary Sayigh (Contributor)
These Olive Trees by Aya Ghanameh
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein
Decolonial Solidarity in Palestine-Israel: Settler Colonialism and Resistance from Within by Teodora Todorova
Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society by Daniel Barenboim
Josephus by Lion Feuchtwanger
The Absence of Peace: Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Nicholas Guyatt
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
Baba, What Does My Name Mean?: A Journey to Palestine by Rifk Ebeid
Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh
Zaatar Diva by Suheir Hammad
The Wind in My Hair by Salwa Salem
Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black
Kingdom of Olives and Ash by Fida Jiryis (Editor and Contributor)
Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis
Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck
The Man Who Created the Middle East: A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement by Christopher Simon Sykes
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart
Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence by Zachary Karabell
Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine by Ibtisam Barakat
The Drone Eats With Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire by Atef Abu Saif
The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine by Nathan Thrall
A Party for Thaera: Palestinian Women Write Life in Prison by Haifa Zagnana
The Six Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East by Guy Laron
The World After Gaza: A Short History by Pankaj Mishra
Secrets Under the Olive Tree by Nevien Shaabneh
The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective by John Quigley
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat
The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag by Norma Hashim (Editor)
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
Year Zero of the Arab Israeli Conflict 1929 by Hillel Cohen
Black Saturday: An Unfiltered Account of the October 7th Attack on Israel and the War in Gaza by Trey Yingst
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work by Jimmy Carter
Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine by Anaële Hermans
Blood in the Water: How the US and Israel Conspired to Ambush the USS Liberty by Joan Mellen
The Israeli Military and the Origins of the 1967 War by Ami Gluska
The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands by Amir Tibon
1949: The First Israelis by Tom Segev
The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace by Michael Scott-Baumann
Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo by Seth Anziska
Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump by Khaled Elgindy
Hebron Breaks The Silence by Tzipi Schlissel
Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories, 1967 to the Present by Ahron Bregman
Nasser’s Gamble: How Intervention in Yemen Caused the Six-Day War and the Decline of Egyptian Power by Jesse Ferris
The Scent of Jasmine: Coming of Age in Jerusalem and Damascus by Anan Ameri
Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced by Rochelle Davis
Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response by Aaron J. Klein
Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation by Sim Kern
Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile by Diana Allan
Six-Day War 1967: Operation Focus and the 12 hours that changed the Middle East by Shlomo Aloni
The Thinking Heart: On Israel and Palestine by David Grossman
Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbom
Gaza: A Country Preparing for Dawn by Donald Macintyre
Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out by Ramzy Baroud (Editor)
The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph
Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Walter Brueggemann
Decolonizing Palestine: Hamas between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial by Somdeep Sen
One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation “Wrath of God” by Simon Reeve
Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel by Alice Walker
An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty-Year Peace Mission by Anthony David
Palestine +100 by Basma Ghalayini (Editor)
What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis
The Israeli Mind: How the Israeli National Character Shapes Our World by Alon Gratch
The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye
Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi
Zwischen den Fronten: Erlebte Weltgeschichte by Peter Scholl-Latour
Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War by Micah Goodman
Our Promised Land: Faith and Militant Zionism in Israeli Settlements by Charles Selengut
The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership by Yehuda Avner
Shell-Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault by Mohammed Omer
The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey by Laila El-Haddad
Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman
Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service by Michael Bar-Zohar
Mahmoud Darwish, Exile’s Poet: Critical Essays by Hala Khamis Nassar (Editor)
The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World by Ira M. Lapidus (Editor)
Craving Palestine Cookbook: A Culinary Journey of Palestinian Flavors, Identity, and Generosity by Lama Bazzari
Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths by Karen Armstrong
Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City by Michael Dumper
A River Dies of Thirst: Journals by Mahmoud Darwish
The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean by John Julius Norwich
Not Just a Soccer Game: Colonialism and Conflict Among Palestinians in Israel by Magid Shihade
Qissat: Short Stories by Palestinian Women by Jo Glanville (Editor)
Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life by Sayed Kashua
Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel by Gardner Thompson
The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis, 1700-1948 by Ilan Pappé
The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives by Gilbert Achcar
After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine by Ahmed Moor (Editor)
Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense by Marcello Di Cintio
A Country of Words: A Palestinian Journey from the Refugee Camp to the Front Page by Abdel Bari Atwan
Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Stories of Life Inside the Strip by Louisa B. Waugh
The Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown by Afif Safieh
Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller
Shake Off by Mischa Hiller
The Lady from Tel Aviv (Saqi Bookshelf) by Rabai Al-Madhoun
Classic Palestinian Cuisine by Christiane Dabdoub Nasser
The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence 1914 – 1948 by Laila Parsons
A Concise History of the Arabs by John McHugo
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
Self-Criticism After the Defeat by Sadik J. Al-Azm
Heritage and the Cultural Struggle for Palestine by Chiara De Cesari
Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine by Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins
Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies by Heba Hayek