Gaza

I started to write this review while in Gaza, and finished it in Leicester. Such freedom of movement – although it was not easy to get permission from the Egyptian authorities to enter the besieged Gaza Strip – is denied to most of the Palestinians living in the coastal enclave. This is not entirely down to the Israelis; as Donald Macintyre mentions, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah gives its ‘backing’ (p. 141) to border closures enforced by the occupying power: Israel and Egypt. In many quarters, such collaboration between the PA and the Israeli occupation authorities is a taboo subject. In part, this is because the backers of the authority set up post-Oslo which has ‘responsibility without power’ (p. 23) have accepted the Israeli narrative which equates Palestinian resistance to terrorism and insists that it only acts in ‘self-defence’ at all times. Veteran journalist Macintyre tackles such myths head-on.