In his expertly written book, "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation", Palestinian-American professor Saree Makdisi provides an exhaustive look at the daily experiences that shape Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Makdisi teaches English and Comparative Literature at UCLA, and is a frequent commentator on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Makdisi's book catalogues the policies and procedures of occupation from the point of view of its victims, the Palestinians. 

Released in April 2008 by W.W. Norton & Co, Language for a New Century is an unprecedented anthology of poetry from the East. The IMEU spoke recently with Nathalie Handal, the Palesitnian-American poet and playwright who, along with Tina Chang and Ravi Shankar, edited the volume. 

Fady Joudah's collection The Earth in the Attic, published by Yale University Press, reads like a quiet storm of human emotions and experiences. Winner of the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, the oldest literary prize in the U.S., Joudah's poems explore loss, displacement, suffering, and longing. They drift from the personal and specific to the larger stories of peoples and nations that Joudah encounters. 

As one of six million voiceless Palestinians living in exile, Yousef Khanfar has developed a powerful and unique voice of his own that has reached the heights of his profession. In a world where Palestinians are more frequently the subjects of photography, Khanfar's images provide an unfiltered, intimate and human vision for a more peaceful world. 

On the Hills of God is a beautifully-written coming-of-age story about a young Palestinian about to graduate from high school just as the homeland he knows and loves falls apart and the world around him is permanently transformed. Ibrahim Fawal's novel tells the story of Yousif Safi, the son of a Christian family living in the fictional town of Ardallah. 

Dr. Karmi's book allows the reader to look beyond the grim predictions and to see a solution that may be the only way for peace and justice to ever prevail in this troubled land. Her vision is to bring Palestinians and the now established Israeli Jewish community together in one state so that justice can be served for both sides. The challenge, she says, is to change the current paradigm of thinking that has now become so entrenched in political discourse, yet for which there is no future at all. 

Mearsheimer and Walt devote the early chapters of the book to dismantling the strategic and moral arguments commonly made on Israel's behalf. The two realists are perhaps most convincing on the moral front when they challenge the common narrative of little Israel fending off ruthless Arab states. "A good case can be made that current U.S. policy conflicts with basic American values." 

Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine should be required reading for Western aid workers and foreign politicians in this and other conflicts. It should also be read by the taxpayers of those countries to better understand the purpose and impact of their government's foreign policies and the role of aid within those policies.