Join in APN's 3 Weeks of Contemplation. For a donation of $108 or more, APN will send you 2 books of your choice from among all of the recommendations. Indicate your choices in the comment box using the keywords: "Hate" "Wall" "Letters" “Friendship" "Jerusalem" "Native".

We also offer the Israeli-Palestinian cookbook as a bonus. If desired, please add "Cookbook" to your other two book selections.

You can also direct us to send any of the books as a gift from you. Please note that all but $25 of your donation will be tax deductible, and $50 if receiving the cookbook.. Thank you.

Book Recommendations

Week 3 - Contemplating and Questioning the Occupation

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity encompasses the heart-wrenching story and inspiring mission of its author, Izzeldin Abuelaish. Abuelaish is a Gazan doctor turned peace activist after three of his daughters were killed by Israeli shelling during the 2008 Gaza War. The son of Palestinian refugees from the Negev, Abuelaish pushed for reconciliation and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians as a gynecologist at an Israeli hospital. In this book, Abuelaish unfolds his and his family’s tragic story not to call for revenge, but to advocate for peace and the recognition of Palestinian human dignity.

In The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights, Michael Sfard elucidates the catch-22 inherent in his work as a human rights lawyer: his legal protests against Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights lend legitimacy to the system of occupation itself. Not one to remain pessimistic for long, Sfard also explores the hope for a future Israel free of occupation which respects Palestinians’ rights, and the steps needed to be taken to achieve this elusive goal. Michael Sfard is an Israeli human rights lawyer and legal counsel for Peace Now other organizations and has been described as “the left’s leading lawyer in Israel.”

Bonus Book: Divine Food: Israeli and Palestinian Food Culture and Recipes While it’s easy to focus on what divides us, especially during a time such as Tisha B’Av, food allows us to remember what unites us. After all, every fast ends with a communal meal, as we come together after our contemplation and soul-searching. In this cookbook, Israeli designer David Haliva takes us on a culinary journey throughout Israel and Palestine, from Tel Aviv’s avant garde celebrity chefs to the traditional recipes of Bedouin in the south. By drawing authentic, popular dishes from every region of the land, Divine Food creates a culinary map of the region that is accessible to any foodie.

Week 2 - Inspiring and heartwarming stories of Israelis and Palestinians fighting against hate in the interest of peace, demonstrating that love, empathy, and cooperation does persist in spite of the conflict.

In Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, Yossi Klein Halevi embarks on the difficult process of addressing his Palestinian neighbors with empathy while explaining his own Israeli point of view on the conflict that divides them. “I call you ‘neighbor’ because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you,” writes Halevi in this emotional and provocative book. “Given our circumstances, ‘neighbor’ might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?” Yossi Klein Halevi is an American-Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

In An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty-Year Peace Mission, Anthony David details the unlikely friendship between Ruth Dayan, the wife of Israeli iconoclast, politician, and famed general Moshe Dayan, and Raymonda Tawil, whose daughter Suha married Yasir Arafat, chairman of the PLO and Palestinian national hero. Tracing their highly political lives from before their meeting in 1970 and thereafter, David creates a vivid portrait of two feisty women determined to forge peace. Anthony David is an American author with a Phd in the history of Jerusalem known for co-writing Once Upon a Country with Palestinian academic Sari Nusseibeh.