As I’m sending this out, it feels like too little too late in the face of an ongoing genocide. But I am reminding myself that settler colonial projects also seek to eradicate the entire culture and identity of the people they colonize, so reading about and honoring Palestinian history, culture, and literature is in itself a form of resistance.
If you are looking for an immediate action to take, Jewish Voice for Peace has automated the process of calling your representatives to ask them to stop the genocide.
For anyone looking to learn about Palestine and read Palestinian perspectives. Book recommendations collected from creators on social media including @leen, @anat_international, @simkern, @sameera, and @aaronaceves, and my community—thanks all who are sharing and educating.
I acknowledge that this list only scratches the surface of Palestinian literature, but hopefully it’s a good place to start. Additional resources are linked at the bottom of this post.
Accessing these books: Many (unfortunately not all) of these titles are available through local libraries; some (denoted below) are currently free; and if you are financially able and looking for alternatives to Amazon, I suggest buying from a local bookstore or bookshop.org, which supports indie bookstores. Ebooks may be directly available from the publishers. You may also be able to find used copies on pangobooks.com.
By Palestinian authors
Nonfiction
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti (currently FREE from Haymarket Books)
Light in Gaza: Essays for the Future by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze (currently FREE from Haymarket Books)
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad, Brian Bean (currently FREE from Haymarket Books)
Friends of Israel by Hil Aked
A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism edited by Sarah Sills, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Esther Farmer (anthology of Palestinian and Jewish stories)
Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh
Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique by Sa'ed Atshan
Fiction
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry
The Stone House by Yara Hawari
Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
Something More by Jackie Khalilieh
Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
Courting Samira by Amal Awad
Poetry
The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish (read select poems for free here)
Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. by Noor Hindi (read select poems for free here)
Birthright by George Abraham
Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine by Remi Kanazi
Additional reading by non-Palestinian authors
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
Enclosure: Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror by Gary Fields
The Palestine Laboratory: how Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world by Antony Loewenstein
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe
Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu by Anshel Pfeffer
Palestine by Joe Sacco (graphic novel)
Additional resources
Not sure where to start or want to delve further in specific areas of interest? See an extensive list of books sorted by topics on decolonizepalestine.com.
If you like speculative fiction and poetry, you can find a wonderful and growing list of Palestinian speculative lit here!