While 2023’s #ReadPalestine week wrapped up on December 5, a number of the books remain free, and more free zines have been published and gathered by the “Pleasure Pie” activist collective in Boston, USA.
The 10 zines currently available are:
“A Gazan Young Man Dreams of a Peaceful Death,” by Mo. Alkrunz in Gaza. (Design by Pleasure Pie, 2023)
“We [Palestinians] Are Not Going Away,” a series of first-person accounts. (Design by Pleasure Pie, 2023)
“Sex Education in Gaza”; an interview with a Gazan sex educator on the state of sex education under occupation. (Design by Pleasure Pie, 2023)
“Queer Voices from the Fight for Palestinian Liberation” (Created in November 2023 and updated in January 2024)
“BDS: What It Is, Why It Matters,” a visual on BDS by acclaimed graphic novelist Leila Abdulrazzaq
“Israel-Palestine Explainer,” a zine by the writers at Jewish Currents
“Palestinian Artists in History & Today” (Made by Gliese Art Collective)
“Tkhines for a Free Palestine,” an illustrated collection of anti-Zionist Jewish prayers
“Free Palestine: Resources Inside!,” a zine with resources for supporting a free Palestine.
Six more free zines are available from the group Librarians and Archivists with Palestine:
“The ABCs of Occupation & Resistance,” a zine by Rachel Mattson, 2014.
“Human Geography in Nablus, ‘Mountain of Fire,’” a zine by Vani Natarajan and Melissa Morrone, 2014.
“Overdue Books: Returning Palestine’s ‘Abandoned Property’ of 1948,” a 2014 zine by by Hannah Mermelstein
“Prisoners’ Books at the Nablus Public Library,” a 2014 zine by Maggie Schreiner
“Handala,” a 2014 zine by Josh MacPhee.
“Wall: Palestine,” a zine by Josh MacPhee with various delegates, 2014.
A the pay-what-you-want Palestinian Fashion Zine:
“A Palestinian Fashion Zine that explores the fashion of different Palestinian cities, while drawing attention to the cultural heritage of Palestinians around the globe.” Available here.
A free zine from the CUNY Graduate Center:
A zine on advocating for Palestine:
Available in English, Arabic, German, French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.
Two zines in Romanian:
Veganx în solidaritate cu Palestina (Un interviu cu Laura Schleifer, de Dr. Leila Dehghan). Translated by the Queer Vegan Community. Published by Pagini Libere, 2023. (Romanian)
“We are witnessing genocide and we cannot remain silent. Vegans, antispeciesists, and anyone else interested in the well-being of all cannot ignore the massacre in Palestine. The occupation of Palestinian territories by Zionist settlers, which led to the formation of the state of Israel, produced uninterrupted aggression and was marked by particularly violent events, such as the Nakba, the expulsion of the majority of the indigenous population in 1948, which continues today.
(…)
The translated interview provides a description of the Palestinian liberation movement from a vegan perspective. This liberation depends on international support, and among the actions one can take to contribute are: personal information, disseminating information, participating in protests and engaging in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign.”
Queerș pentru Palestina (luări de poziție, eseuri și poeme). Edited by Blocul Roz. Published by Pagini Libere, 2023. (Romanian)
“Given the way queer identities are instrumentalized in Israel’s colonizing discourse, an explicitly queer stance for Free Palestine is needed.
Through this zine, we wanted to collect a series of positions, essays and translations that bring into discussion in our territorial and linguistic space the ways in which we can manifest ourselves in solidarity. Thus, the zine includes two translations of the Queers in Palestine group’s statements translated with the help of the Queer Vegan Community (CVQ); a speech transcribed and performed by Ali Venir from Cutra; three essays on Zionist colonialism, pinkwashing and veganwashing written from the monthly Collective Ruminations meetings organised by CVQ; poems written in solidarity by Nóra Ugron and Raluca Panait and finally, Palestinian poems translated by Cenacle X.”
Other books and magazine issues from #ReadPalestine week that remain free, or have been since made free:
Who Will Speak for the Men of Gaza, by Taiba Abbas, from Ala Books & Authors
The publisher writes: “How do we attempt to lift the weight of a pain bigger than our own bodies? How do we atone for the guilt of being alive? In our smallness, in our insignificance, how do we offer ourselves to Gaza? We do it by letting them fill our lives till our life is no longer our own. We do it by holding onto someone. By being led, guided through the abyss of our pain by an anchor of meaning, of light, of connection. We do it by making it personal. Making collective mourning personal. By reaching so far out until someone reaches back, and speaks to us, only us. And they become our Gaza. As Maisara AlRayyes did for me.
Maisara was a Chevening scholar, an alumnus of King’s College London and SOAS university, and a medical doctor in Gaza. His unspeakable tragedy is a compendium of Gaza’s tragedy. The annihilation of entire bloodlines and generations wiped out in a single stroke. A deliberate genocide leaving possible survivors buried alive under rubble, unrescued. A merciless holocaust sparing no one, no man, no woman, no child.
But death is a reality that barely touches him. At 28, surpassing death, immortalised in youth, in movement, in the brilliant fecundity of an entire future ahead of him, Maisara is the antithesis of dying. His world comes rushing in through social media accounts that are left behind, their doors wide open. Posts, photos, videos. Maisara lives and outlives himself. He invites me in, he takes me through his Gaza. The flesh, the colour, rising over the ash and rubble, growing his Eden back to life.
Get Who Will Speak for the Men of Gaza? here.
Koi Hai? [Is anyone there?], from Zuka Books, Pakistan
Ananke proudly presents the eVersion of Koi Hai, an anthology of letters, notes, poetry, translations & illustrations from #Pakistan & the diaspora; reinforcing the message of love & in solidarity with Palestine Print version of the anthology is published by Zuka Books, Pakistan.
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, from Verso Books
From the River to the Sea collects personal testimonies from within Gaza and the West Bank, along with essays and interviews that collectively provide crucial histories and analyses to help us understand how we got to the nightmarish present. They place Israel’s genocidal campaign within the longer history of settler colonialism in Palestine, and Hamas within the longer histories of Palestinian resistance and the so-called ‘peace process’. They explore the complex history of Palestine’s relationship to Jordan, Egypt, and the broader Middle East, the eruption of unprecedented anti-Zionist Jewish protest in the US, the alarming escalation in state repression of Palestine solidarity in Britain and Europe, and more.
Taken together, the essays comprising this collection provide important grounding for the urgent discussions taking place across the Palestine solidarity movement.
Published in collaboration with Haymarket Books.
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A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba, ed. Atef Alshaer (Saqi Books, 2019). ISBN: 0863569900. (English).
Note: To access free, readers must enter the code Absence100 at checkout on the Saqi website.
A Map of Absence presents the finest poetry and prose by Palestinian writers over the last seventy years. Featuring writers in the diaspora and those living under occupation, these striking entries pay testament to one of the most pivotal events in modern history – the 1948 Nakba.
This unique, landmark anthology includes translated excerpts of works by major authors such as Mahmoud Darwish, Ghassan Kanafani and Fadwa Tuqan alongside those of emerging writers, published here in English for the first time. Depicting the varied aspects of Palestinian life both before and after 1948, their writings highlight the ongoing resonances of the Nakba.
An intimate companion for all lovers of world literature, A Map of Absence reveals the depth and breadth of Palestinian writing.
Get A Map of Absence here using the checkout code Absence100.
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Out of Time: The Collected Stories of Samira Azzam, by Samira Azzam, translated by Ranya Abdelrahman. (ArabLit Books, 2022). IBSN: 979-8362585235. (English)
Samira Azzam (1927–1967) was one of the leading Palestinian writers of the twentieth century. Yet after her death, her work fell into a half-shadow, in which she was acknowledged as great, but not quite canonized. In a 2018 article on the Palestinian short story, the critic Faisal Darraj says it plainly: “Azzam has not yet received the accolades she deserves.” This translated collection — full of her vivid snapshots of life in Palestine and Lebanon in the first half of the twentieth century — is a start at giving Samira Azzam a few of the accolades she deserves.
Get Out of Time here using the checkout code FREEPALESTINE.
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A Party For Thaera: Palestinian Women Write Life In Prison, ed. Haifa Zangana, translated by Salam Darwazah Mir (Women Unlimited, 2021) ISBN: 978-93-85606-38-0 (English)
In a first, nine politically-diverse women, former Palestinian political prisoners, sat around a table in a small room in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to share their stories of incarceration. These non-writers learnt to express the reality of their time in prison, of the separation from their children, of the endless struggles against Israeli occupation, to produce heartfelt narratives that go beyond simply recalling the details of their sentence or revisiting their trauma. Instead, this unique volume transforms their experiences into an expression of the self, giving readers an “exceptional” insight into an almost unknown women’s world, of life and love behind bars and beyond.
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Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze (Haymarket Books, 2022) ISBN: 9781642597257. (English)
Light in Gaza is a seminal, moving and wide-ranging anthology of Palestinian writers and artists. It constitutes a collective effort to organize and center Palestinian voices in the ongoing struggle. As political discourse shifts toward futurism as a means of reimagining a better way of living, beyond the violence and limitations of colonialism, Light in Gaza is an urgent and powerful intervention into an important political moment.
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Everyday Forms of Resistance, by Jumana Emil Abboud, Noor Abed, Ahmad Alaqra, Mirna Bamieh, Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, Wim Catrysse, DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Research), Maja Demska, Forensic Architecture, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Jumana Manna, Joanna Rajkowska, Mohammad Saleh, Marta Wódz, Jaśmina Wójcik (CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, 2019) ISBN: 978-83-65240-85-9. (Polish & English)
Everyday Forms of Resistance is a project scheduled for several years which investigates in its broadest sense the role of art within society and the daily use of forms of resistance, in Palestine, as well as worldwide. How do we, as civilians, deal on a daily basis with the challenges of these times? What are the everyday gestures that allow us to resist, but also how does art come into play?
Get Everyday Forms of Resistance here
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Third World Approaches to International Law: Writings on Palestine, 2019-2023,by Noura Erakat, Victor Kattan, Steven Salaita, Ata R. Hindi, Shahd Hammouri et al (TWAIL Review, 2023) ISBN: 978-1138040724. (English)
A compilation of writings on Palestine from anti-colonial legal and intellectual perspectives. The collective includes essays, academic articles, interviews, personal reflections and solidarity statements, written mostly by Palestinian authors and published by the Third World Approaches to International Law Review journal and website.
Get Third World Approaches to International Law here.
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Menguak Hubungan Dagang Indonesia-Israel, by Angga Aulia Akbar (Marjin Kiri, 2013) ISBN: 978-979-1260-18-3. (Indonesian)
Since its early days after independence, Indonesia always had a strong support for the freedom of Palestine and therefore refused to open any diplomatic relation with Israel. President Soekarno clearly placed Israel amongst the “oldefos” (old established forces).
But unbeknown to many people, and contrast with Indonesia’s own political stance toward Israel, the commercial relations between the two countries have been established without formal diplomatic channels, started from the purchasing of Israeli jet planes and helicopters during Soeharto’s era. After 1998 Reform, Indonesian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce was even opened in Tel Aviv.
This book attempts to expose these contradictory policies regarding Indonesian support for Palestine.
Get Menguak Hubungan Dagang Indonesia-Israel here.
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Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, edited by Christopher Hitchens and Edward W. Said, with contributions by Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Abu-Lughod, G.W. Bowersock, Noam Chomsky, Norman G. Finkelstein, Muhammad Hallaj, Rashid Khalidi, Peretz Kidron and Elia Zureik(Verso, 2020) ISBN: 9781789600773. (English)
Beginning with a thorough exposé of the fraudulent assertions of Joan Peters concerning the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine prior to 1948, the book then turns to similar instances in Middle East research where the truth about the Palestinians has been systematically suppressed: from the bogus—though still widely believed—explanations of why so many Palestinians fled their homes in 1948, to today’s distorted propaganda about PLO terrorism. The volume also includes sharp critiques of the wide consensus in the USA which supports Israel and its territorial ambitions while maintaining total silence about the competing reality of the Palestinians.
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Ten Myths About Israel, by Ilan Pappe (Verso, 2017) ISBN: 9781786630209. (English)
The “ten myths” that Pappe explores—repeated endlessly in the media, enforced by the military, accepted without question by the world’s governments—reinforce the regional status quo. He explores the claim that Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration, as well as the formation of Zionism and its role in the early decades of nation building. He asks whether the Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, and whether June 1967 was a war of “no choice.” Turning to the myths surrounding the failures of the Camp David Accords and the official reasons for the attacks on Gaza, Pappe explains why the two-state solution is no longer viable.
Get Ten Myths About Israel here.
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Advocating for Palestine in Canada, by Emily Regan Wills, Jeremy Wildeman, Michael Bueckert and Nadia Abu-Zahra. (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) ISBN: 9781773634760. (English)
This collection brings together activists, journalists and academics to explore the challenges of engaging in Palestinian advocacy in Canada. This account of Palestine solidarity activism in Canada grapples with these questions through a wide-ranging exploration of the movement’s different actors, approaches and fields of engagement, along with its connections to different national and transnational struggles against racism, imperialism and colonialism.
Get Advocating for Palestine in Canada here; available as a flipbook on the publisher’s website, along with their Palestine, Power, Solidarity reading list, not for download.
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Una tierra con gente. Voces de Palestina de Sofia Caamaño i Sònia Bajona.(Editorial Descontrol, 2020). ISBN: 978-84-17190-95-8. (Castellano)
“Una tierra sin gente para una gente sin una tierra” es una de las frases más citadas en la literatura sionista. Con ella, Israel justificó muchas de las acciones que llevó a cabo a lo largo del último siglo sobre los seres humanos que este eslogan invisibiliza. Palestina no era un desierto, sino que estaba habitada por millones de personas que fueron asesinadas, desplazadas forzosamente y obligadas a vivir en condiciones infrahumanas durante décadas. Estas páginas recogen las historias de algunas de ellas. Los doce relatos que conforman este libro son una ventana al interior de los campos de personas refugiadas, las ciudades palestinas, las cárceles, los movimientos de resistencia y el mundo interno de quienes viven en primera persona la ocupación israelí.
Get Una tierra con gente. Voces de Palestina here.
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Zapiski o okupaciji: Nablus, Kalkilija, Hebron, by Eric Hazan, translated by Katarina Rotar. (Založba, 2017). ISBN: 978-961-257-082-8. (Slovenian)
Eric Hazan je preživel mesec dni v Palestini. Obiskal je tri mesta: Nablus, Kalkilijo in Hebron. Pri tem so nastali “Zapiski o okupaciji”: knjiga, ki je napisana neposredno in iskreno, v obliki lapidarnih zapisov (pogovori na ulicah in trgih, intervjuji z družinami palestinskih zapornikov in s politiki, prizori s ceste, obisk izoliranih vasi, dnevniški zapiski in razmišljanja …), ki si prizadevajo prikazati vsakdanje življenje tamkajšnjih prebivalcev in ugotoviti, kaj je raison d’être velikanskega izraelskega vojaškega in birokratskega stroja, ki ga svet označuje z abstraktno in hkrati varljivo besedo »okupacija«.
Eric Hazan spent a month in Palestine. He visited three towns: Nablus, Qalqilya and Hebron. The result of his travel are the “Notes on the Occupation”: a book written from the firsthand and in an honest manner, in the form of lapidary notes (conversations in the streets and squares, interviews with Palestinian prisoners’ families and politicians, scenes from the roads, visits to isolated villages, diary notes and reflections…), which seek to show the daily life of the local population and to understand the raison d’être of the giant Israeli military and bureaucratic machine, which the world labels by the abstract and deceptive word “occupation”.
Get Zapiski o okupaciji: Nablus, Kalkilija, Hebron here.
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Gaza Stay Human, by Vittorio Arrigoni. (Kube Publishing, 2010). IBSN: UK9781847740199. English.
An authoritative and deeply moving eyewitness account of the terrible twenty-two-day Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. These daily dispatches were written in precarious conditions, between bombing raids and intermittent Internet access. Vittorio Arrigoni ends his dispatches with the plea “stay human,” which became the motto of the peace protests in his native Italy. This includes entries reflecting on life in Gaza after the offensive and also features an introduction by famous Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.
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(Sefsafa Publishing House, 2021) اساطير الصهيونية، المؤلف: جون روز، المترجم: د. قاسم عبده قاسم
ينقض جون روز في كتابه أساطير الصهيونية الدعامات والأسس التاريخية والسياسية التي بني عليها المشروع الصهيوني من خلال تفنيد أساطيره وكشف خرافاته، فهو يقدم للقارئ نقدًا تحليليا لجذور الصهيونية، ويكشف عوارها وكذبها وتحريفها، وتشويهها للحقائق
وبحسب المؤلف فقد ساعد أعظم صناع الأساطير الصهيونية، دافيد بن جوريون، دون قصد على تشكيل أول وآخر فصول الكتاب فقد تباهى بن جوريون مرة بأن الأسطورة يمكن أن تصبح حقيقة إذا أمن الناس بها بما يكفي من القوة، وقد استخدم بحذق ومهارة، خفة اليد الثقافية، لكي يتلاعب باحتراف بقصص التوراة، بحيث تناسب المزاعم السياسية للصهيونية على الأرض الفلسطينية
وعبر قراءة تاريخية شديدة العمق، يعمل روز معول الهدم في التاريخ الأسطوري الذي اصطنعته الصهيونية، ليضع مشروعها عاريًا أمام القارئ، ليتركه مدعومًا فقط بالعنف العاري
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¿Atrapados entre el terror y la guerra? Ejército, movimiento pacifista y antimilitarismo en Israel, by Abdul-Rahman Alawi, Rudi Friedrich, Endy Hagen, Reuven Kaminer, Uta Klein, Pere Maruny, Khalil Toama, and translated by Thilo Hartmann. (Virus Editorial, 2005) IBSN: 9788496044562. (Spanish)
Casi dos décadas tras su publicación ‘¿Atrapados entre el terror y la guerra?’ ofrece un contexto histórico importante ante el recrudecimiento de la violencia ejercida por el Estado de Israel. Este libro recoge múltiples y diversas voces israelíes y palestinas que expresan la experiencia (y los fracasos) en los intentos de hallar una solución pacífica al conflicto. Se analiza el militarismo y expansionismo colonial israelí, la historia de opresión del pueblo palestino, las polémicas internas en la izquierda sionista, el movimiento de objeción al servicio militar y el refuerzo de los roles de género vinculados a las dinámicas belicistas. Se reproduce también el testimonio de antiguos soldados israelíes arrepentidos y objetores de conciencia que enfrentaron prisión.
Nearly two decades after its publication, ‘¿Atrapados entre el terror y la guerra?’ provides a relevant historical context to the escalating violence perpetrated by the State of Israel. This book brings together multiple and diverse Israeli and Palestinian voices expressing the experience (and failures) in attempts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. It analyzes Israeli militarism and colonial expansionism, the history of oppression of the Palestinian people, the internal polemics in the Zionist left, the movement of objection to military service, and the reinforcement of gender roles linked to warmongering dynamics. The testimony of repentant former Israeli soldiers and conscientious objectors who faced imprisonment is also reproduced.
Get ¿Atrapados entre el terror y la guerra? Ejército, movimiento pacifista y antimilitarismo en Israel here.
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Τα παιδιά της Παλαιστίνης κάτω από την ισραηλινή κατοχή (Palestinian Children Under Israeli Occupation), by Ahmed el-Helah and Mariam A. Itani, translated by Vittoria Marangoni and Giorgos Maganas (The Colleagues’ Publications, 2013) ISBN: 978-960-9797-14-6. (Greek)
Το βιβλίο αυτό επιδιώκει να δώσει μια πλήρη εικόνα των όσων υποφέρει ο παιδικός παλαιστινιακός πληθυσμός υπό ισραηλινή κατοχή. Εμπεριέχει στοιχεία και μελέτες που αφορούν την υγεία, την εκπαίδευση και την κοινωνικο-οικονομική κατάσταση των παιδιών της Παλαιστίνης.
This book attempts to give a full picture of what the Palestinian child population is suffering under Israeli occupation. It contains data and studies concerning the health, education and socio-economic situation of Palestinian children.
Get Τα παιδιά της Παλαιστίνης κάτω από την ισραηλινή κατοχή here.
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Αναρχικοί Ενάντια στο τείχος (Anarchists Against the Wall), ed. Uri Gordon – Ohal Grietzer, translated by Giorgos Karantzas (The Colleagues’ Publications, 2015) ISBN: 978-960-9797-41-2. (Greek)
Αναρχικοί Ενάντια στο Τείχος: μία από τις πιο γενναίες και αφοσιωμένες ομάδες που δουλεύουν ενάντια στην κατοχή. Πηγαίνουν εκεί που άλλοι Ισραηλινοί φοβούνται να πάνε, βάζουν τους εαυτούς τους τακτικά σε σωματικό και συναισθηματικό κίνδυνο, και οικοδομούν ένα εντελώς νέο επίπεδο συμμαχιών με τους Παλαιστίνιους που αγωνίζονται για δικαιοσύνη.
Anarchists Against the Wall: one of the bravest and most committed groups working against the occupation. They go where other Israelis are afraid to go, regularly put themselves in physical and emotional danger, and build a whole new level of alliances with Palestinians fighting for justice.
Get Αναρχικοί Ενάντια στο τείχος here.
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Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence, by Léopold Lambert (dpr-barcelona, 2012) IBSN: 978-84-615-3702-0. (English)
The book is an examination of the inherent instrumentalization of architecture as a political weapon; research informs the development of a project which, rather than defusing these characteristics, attempts to integrate them within the scene of a political struggle. The proposed project dramatizes, through its architecture, a Palestinian disobedience to the colonial legislation imposed on its legal territory. In fact, the State of Israel masters the elaboration of territorial and architectural colonial apparatuses that act directly on Palestinian daily lives. In this regard, it is crucial to observe that 63% of the West Bank is under total control of the Israeli Defense Forces in regards to security, movement, planning and construction.
Get Weaponized Architecture here.
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Organizing for Palestine! A #ReadPalestineWeek Sampler. (Between the Lines, 2012-2020). (English)
Organizing for Palestine! provides inspiration from four books for solidarity action with the Palestinian people, including stories of student activism, art activism, and direct action, the history of the Toronto chapter of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and of BDS organizing in Montreal. From Turtle Island to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime!
Get Organizing for Palestine! here.
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Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, by Omar Barghouti (Haymarket Books, 2011) ISBN: 9781608461158 (English)
Now, as awareness of the apartheid nature of the State of Israel continues to grow, Omar Barghouti, founding member of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, presents a renewed call to action. Aimed at forcing the State of Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights for the Palestinian people, here is a manifesto for change.
Get Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions here.
Magazines:
Mizna has made their Palestine issue available for free.
La Platica del Norte wanted to make this issue free.
ArabLit Quarterly has made their FOOTBALL issue free. It includes work by Palestinian writers Ameer Hamad and Adania Shibli, Palestinian football chants, & more.
Publishers for Palestine 