12 Best Books About Palestine: Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir and Poetry

Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem. But in 1948, she and her family were forcibly displaced from their home during the Nakba, a time in which over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land. In this powerful memoir, Karmi describes her journey from Jerusalem to North London. She reflects on living through the Nakba and how the years that followed led to a search for her true identity in a land so far and so different from what she knew.

Karmi’s memoir gives voice to the displaced Palestinians. Through her story, readers will understand the pain and loss experienced during the Nakba, a sentiment that remains ongoing today, as Palestinians continue to suffer forced displacement at the hands of Israeli settlers. Karmi’s story provides a first-hand account of the Nakba and all that came to follow.

“Light in Gaza” is an anthology by Palestinian writers and artists. Prior to the ongoing genocide of Gazans, Gaza was home to over two million people. This book offers a wide-ranging look at their lives, dreams and experiences. While showing readers what life in Gaza was like, the book also imagines a future of what Gaza could be and what the struggle for liberation could lead to.

This moving anthology includes the voices of Gazans at home and abroad. Through the stories included, readers will hear personal reflections from Palestinians, as well as political and economic analysis, providing an in-depth look at Palestine and Gaza specifically. Who better to tell the stories of Gaza than Gazans themselves?

Mohammed El-Kurd is a Palestinian poet, journalist and activist born in East Jerusalem, in the West Bank. For years now, El-Kurd has been unapologetically outspoken against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He often appears as a commenter on major news networks, and he regularly writes for The Nation.

His book of poetry, “Rifqa,” is named after his grandmother. Growing up in Palestine, El-Kurd’s grandmother would greet him every day after school with a bouquet of jasmine. Rifqa was older than the state of Israel, and El-Kurd’s poems trace her exile from Haifa all the way to his family’s more recent dispossession from Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. This brilliant book of poetry explores the horror of the Nakba and the continuing Palestinian struggle for freedom, amid the ongoing settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of El-Kurd’s people.

Joe Sacco’s “Palestine” is an illustrated memoir about the author’s experiences in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from December, 1991 to January, 1992. Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist who traveled to Palestine while researching the Gulf War. In his graphic novel, he positions himself as a westerner in the Middle East. He accepts his role as an outsider and focuses on his own personal experience, rather than futilely attempting to appear “neutral.” As Sacco documents the events that occur during his visit and interviews Palestinians affected by the occupation, he himself becomes a character in the book.

Sacco attends and participates in demonstrations, funerals and roadblocks. He has encounters with Israeli soldiers, and he shares food and housing with Palestinians. Sacco never shies away from his own commentary and opinions as he fully immerses himself in Palestinian life, even going so far as to break curfew with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“Palestine” is a moving, well-researched work on the effects of settler colonialism, shedding light on the experiences of those living under occupation. Sacco acknowledges that he arrives in Palestine having internalized the Israeli point of view for his whole life, but the experiences he has with the people of Gaza change his perspective and show the realities of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

In July 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, the third major assault on the Gaza Strip in six years. Prior to the ongoing attacks, this was the most deadly assault on Gaza. In seven weeks, 2,200 Gazans were killed, with over 10,000 injured. In “Shell Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault,” journalist Mohammed Omer describes what it was like living through that assault with his wife and three-month-old son.

Omer describes images of children’s dead bodies stuffed into refrigerators; Israeli soldiers shooting machine guns at anything that moved, including the donkeys; families rushing out of their homes after being warned that missiles were just minutes away; fishing boats set on fire; and so much more. This highly detailed book shows readers what it’s like living in Gaza and facing the terror of Israeli assaults.

“Palestine Speaks” is another anthology that gives voice to Palestinians living under occupation. Each essay in this collection gives voice to a people in crisis. The narratives in this anthology describe all different types of people — a fisherman, a physics professor, a journalist, a marathon runner and more — and their shared experiences under occupation.

“Palestine Speaks” shows the ways in which the Israel-Palestine conflict has shaped individuals’ lives in Gaza and the West Bank.

Jody Sokolower is a white, Jewish high school teacher who traveled to East Jerusalem to document the lives of the youth. Written specifically for young people, “Determined to Stay” is a nonfiction book that tells the story of occupation in Silwan, a Palestinian village just outside the Old City in Jerusalem. The book draws parallels between the lives of Palestinian and U.S. youth.

Sokolower describes, for instance, a 16-year-old girl named Sara, who is afraid of being tear gassed or shot at by the IDF, after they bulldozed her family home. Alongside Sara’s story, Sokolower tells the stories of her Latinx neighbors in San Francisco who face raids and evictions, and she interviews Palestinian youth who find hope in hip-hop and dance. She juxtaposes the racism, injustices, settler colonialism and police brutality in America with those very same issues in Palestine. Sokolower focuses on the youth, giving voice to their fears, insecurities and traumas as they are violently displaced. “Determined to Stay” is an excellent read for young adults in America who want to understand the conflict in Palestine juxtaposed with the realities of America.

In December 2017, at age 16, Ahed Tamimi was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier in the face after he refused to leave her front yard in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Tamimi grew up attending nonviolent demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the illegal settlements in her village.

In this memoir, Tamimi tells her story as a young girl growing up under occupation. One of her earliest memories is visiting her father in prison, after he was arrested for being a part of the Palestinian resistance movement. She describes being a toddler and poking her fingers through the fence to touch his hand, only to later spend her 17th birthday in jail. “They Called Me a Lioness” shows what it’s like to grow up under occupation, living in fear, and what it’s like to be a child, and eventually a young adult, in Palestine.

“Gaza Writes Back” is a collection of short stories by young writers in Gaza, edited by Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian poet who was killed in an airstrike in December, 2023 during the ongoing Palestinian genocide. This collection gives voice to the youth of Palestine, providing them with a platform to tell their stories. The frequent Israeli assaults on Gaza have shaped these young writers’ lives, which is evident in the stories they tell. For these young writers, this book is an act of resistance and means of preserving their memories and narratives.

In “Apartheid Israel,” 18 scholars discuss the similarities between the apartheid in South Africa and the current situation in Israel. This book is an eye-opening account by academics who are well-versed in Africa and its diaspora. This is an essential read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of apartheid and how that history is relevant to contemporary Israel and Palestine.

“Palestine: A Socialist Introduction” examines the Palestinian struggle through a socialist, anti-imperialist lens, outlining the ways in which Palestinians can achieve liberation. The book outlines the struggle for freedom in the United States, linking it to the ongoing struggle in Palestine. This is a great read for anyone who wants to understand the history of the Palestinian resistance and solidarity movements and how they are playing out today. Activists and organizers especially will find this book useful, as it provides important lessons for resistance and organization, arguing that socialism is the key to achieving freedom in Palestine.

Rashid Khalidi’s “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine” provides an in-depth history of Palestine and the struggle for liberation like no other. For anyone who wants to learn about the history of Palestine and settler colonialism since 1917, this book is an essential read. And for those that do know the history, this book can help fill in any gaps, as it goes into detail about major events over a 100 year period.

Khalidi also personalizes the story, as he draws on his own family history — a family filled with mayors, judges, journalists, diplomats and scholars — to better understand the conflict and the history behind it. He utilizes archival materials, closely tracing the events beginning in 1917, focusing on key moments in Israel’s colonial past, such as the Balfour Declaration, the Nakba in 1948, Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and more.