A volume based on Nir Baram's deep investigation on the area, seeking to understand what means living on the West Bank, and the meaning of the occupation for both sides. The author meets and interviews a wide variety of people and in many different situations, settlers, Palestinians, politicians, young people, people living in refugee camps, families etc.
An interesting read for those who want an unbiased opinion

This is a deeply troubling and upsetting book, but essential reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the tragedy that is the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Journalist and author Nir Baram travelled around the West Bank and East Jerusalem for over a year, listening to those whose lives have been so profoundly affected by the seemingly intractable situation that prevails in this divided land. Illuminating and engaging, the book is a clear and intelligible guide which, although it offers no solution, does at least offer the reader some insight into the complex political and human reality faced by the Palestinian every day.

Although I assume from the beginning that the book might be biased, which is true, there are some elements and information though that can be taken and used for further research and understanding of the situation. I wish more people are asking more and more questions instead of just taking some facts through the ideological bias. Maybe the 'future' will look much more different in the case of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.

For those familiar with the complexities and intricacies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or others who just have a basic understanding I would recommend this thought provoking and impassioned book about the subject. The author Nir Baram worked on the liberal left leaning Harretz newspaper and his grandfather and father were both ministers in the Israeli Labor Party governments. He is considered an important intellectual voice in Israel today and an advocate for equal rights for Palestinians.

Nir confronts what he considers one of the biggest problems prevalent in Israeli society and politics today, namely apathy and ignorance of what is occurring in the West Bank behind the wall. The barrier is not only physical but metaphysical and is now ingrained in the thinking of the two peoples. To gain a greater understanding he meets and interviews those on both sides including Israeli West Bank Settlers and Palestinians cut off behind the wall and checkpoints in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He also stays on a Kibbutz under threat of attack on the boarders of Gaza. The underlying tension is evidenced throughout the book in both confrontations witnessed at numerous army checkpoints and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The daily petty injustices and harassment of the Palestinian people who live in what can only be described as a vast prison is powerfully told.

To understand the conflict one needs to know the history of the region and the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands and the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank following the 1967 Six-Day War that is integral to this conflict. As Nir states the issue is now further complicated and exacerbated by the continuing building of settlements on the West Bank in defiance of UN resolutions. The issue of the two state solution is another constant theme of the book and the conclusion is that it is becoming increasingly problematic and that a one state 2 nation concept where all have equal rights is explored. One thing that comes out from this book is that the present almost apartheid system is not sustainable in the long term and new ways of thinking are required. I would certainly recommend this book and it shows that there are those in Israeli society today who are prepared to question and propose a better future.

A Land without Borders is a journey that lasted more than a year, around West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In a series of 12 chapters, the Israeli journalist and author Nir Baram recounts his journey and discussions with people from diverse backgrounds – Israeli and Palestinians – throughout the country from Palestinian refugee camps, to Israeli settlements and from crossings like Kalandia to Al-Aqsa Temple Mount. He provides a direct, honest, painful even shocking overview of the misery and violence and the impacts of occupation on communities, families and individuals across the West Bank.

Baram offers a new insight into a conflict that lasts fifty years and reveals a troubling situation of Israel- both Palestinian and Israeli. At the beginning of his book Nir Baram poses three questions:

Had the West Bank become a different place since the 1967 war?
Where the two states solution implementable anymore?
Were Israelis and Palestinians acknowledging the core of the conflict?

By now more than 550.000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and they are spreading further partly through outposts. In the meantime, Palestinians continue to face serious threats, destruction to homes, loss of land, assets and livelihoods, forced displacement and restrictions on freedom of movement, insecurity and psychological distress. Palestinians, natives of Jerusalem, do not have the same rights as Jews. Separating by the wall, the Palestinians districts are not accessible to ambulances services or waste collection. Palestinians are tread as second class citizens.

Most Israelis supress any knowledge of the hardship of the daily lives at the occupation partly because, Nir Baram argues, it will contaminate their political illusions. At the same time, they don’t want really to talk about Israel’s political future, “making to indeed with generalizations, complaints and vague predictions, peppered with black humour. I realised”, says Baram, “that what has evolved in Israel over the past few years is a collective repression of the future.”

Nir Baram calls the period of occupation a demonic time. He thinks that the traditional two-states solution has failed. He proposes an alternative solution, a project called “Two states, one homeland”, meaning two separate states within the 1967 borders that will maintain free movement between them, equal rights, and where settlers do not lose their homes. That, of course, means that some settlers would be under Palestinian sovereignty but they would no longer be settlers, they would be citizens.

Is Nir Baram’s vision utopian? Perhaps. But at least he has a vision, which surprisingly have found some unexpected supporters in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, whereas all the political steps that have been taken in the past decades, have all but failed.

This is a tricky book to review - partly because anything negative I may feel towards the book is more to do with my ignorance regarding current affairs in Israel rather than specifically relating to the narrative written by the author. The author has worked as a journalist and this comes across strongly. The book is very well written and much of it is on the basis of interviews with ordinary (and not so ordinary) people throughout the country. If you have a passing interest in what is going on in the West Bank and beyond, then this book is well worth a read. Some of the content is interesting, some fascinating and some shocking. I didn't realise 'the divide' crops up and is still being newly imposed throughout the country or that if you live on the wrong side of the wall you may not get your rubbish collected or be able to call an ambulance if you are sick. Equally shocking, when you live in a diverse society, is that in a holy city, some sectors of that society are not allowed to pray in a traditionally holy place. This could be an important book which educates people (like me) more widely about the issues people in Israel face, over and above what is reported on the news. I like travel books and was hooked by the second part of the title 'My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank' but this is much more than a travel book! Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a troubling read. At the end it does not convince that there is any real solution to the intractable problem of Israel and the Palestinians and that the current state of play may end up as the end of the road. The timing of the publication is significant as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 conflict that resulted in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The author travelled around the Green Line in 2014, the Green Line harking back further to the 1949 armistice agreement between Israel and it neighbours. As he travels, he meets Jew and Palestinians of varying shades of opinion, different ages and classes. He believes at the outset that the Israelis and indeed most people around the world do not believe there is a solution acceptable to both sides. The author's aim , in part, is to show that there are more ideas out there that may offer a way forward.

He begins his journey having already been part of a group opposing the occupation, seeking equal rights for Palestinians and favouring a two state solution. By the end his views have changed in as much as he sees the need for equality for Jew and non-Jew whether in the context of a single or two state solution, recognising that demographics, geography and politics have changed over the fifty years since the occupation began.

What comes across is that the views of many Palestinians are not nearly as entrenched as I had thought, often less concerned with how many states and what they are called but with a common theme of the importance of equal rights for Palestinians, particularly around freedom of movement, and a call for some resolution of the nakba and loss of Palestinian lands in 1948. As the author notes, the formal peace deals that have been proposed all aim to deal with the aftermath of the 1967 war and the events of 1948 have not been included in discussions, being seen as an obstacle to peace. The author concludes that to get to a resolution, the pre-1948 situation will have to be addressed with in some way, most likely reparations rather than the return of property.
Similarly, the Jewish settlers he encounters do not represent a monolithic view, some accepting that something must be done to relieve the plight of Palestinians as matter of morality, even if this does not extend to a Palestinian state or the right to vote in Israel. One chapter offered up a chilling discussion with an American-born Jewish settler who dismisses entirely the notion of a Palestinian state, and who thinks, bizarrely, that Palestinians are better off in Israel. She believes that, because the population of Jordan is Palestinian, Jordan is effectively the Palestinian state and that Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate "with dignity", whatever that may mean. I happened to read this profoundly depressing chapter on the day that a Jewish soldier was convicted of murdering a seriously injured Palestinian who posed no danger to him. The sight of his smiling, smirking family in the court sickened me, as did Benjamin Netanyahu's subsequent suggestion that the court show leniency in the sentencing.

My heart lifted, if only for a while, when I read of another American-born settler who moved to Israel in 1993 when he was in his mid-twenties. He teaches at a yeshiva which is very different to another yeshiva the author visited earlier in the book: this one encourages open-mindedness and recognises the Palestinian religious and historical connections with the holy land. It seeks to develop an inter-faith approach and seeks equality of rights. We also hear about another inter-faith group of Palestinians and Jews. Whilst reading about these small initiatives it is tempting to hope that such ideas might inspire enough Arabs and Israelis to try something different, but I suspect such small groups will struggle to get their point across.

By the end of the book, despite a few positive sparks, I was left with little hope for any real solution. Little has been done over recent years, the Americans have lost interest (and in my view Trump is not likely to help the situation if he does decide to intervene). Depressing as it is, this is worth reading to get a feel for the view of the grass roots on both sides, and presents a more nuanced picture that is often portrayed in the media.