Hammam, Khalil, and Hussam, writes Barber, \u201care ordinary people living in an extraordinary context.\u201d All three are Palestinian men who came of age during the intifada and Israeli occupation of their home in the Gaza Strip. While the book\u2019s insightful introductory chapter offers readers ample historical context, the author, a professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee, emphasizes that this is not \u201ca book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.\u201d Instead, it is a story of resilience, survival, and trauma, told from the perspectives of its three main subjects. Barber\u2019s research on childhood trauma in war-torn environments took him on multiple trips to the Gaza Strip over the last three decades, where he developed a close relationship with the three young men. Stories shared by the trio range from the typical trials of adolescence\u2014Hammam, for instance, spends entire chapters stressing over his school exams\u2014to confrontations with the Israeli military. In one particularly harrowing anecdote involving both physical and sexual abuse, Hussam tells of witnessing a Palestinian assuring soldiers that he would \u201cconfess to anything\u201d if released. Many of the stories defy Western narratives about Palestinian youth: In addition to getting highlights of Khalil\u2019s day-to-day family life, readers learn of his history of political activism as he eschewed joining \u201cthe front lines of the stone throwers\u201d to participate in behind-the-scenes organizations of demonstrations. As the author of multiple scholarly books on childhood psychology, Barber approaches the stories of Hammam, Khalil, and Hussam with an empathetic style that gives them space to tell their own stories. The book\u2019s final section looks at the events of October 7, 2023 from a Palestinian perspective, providing an intimate exploration of the ways in which the subsequent Israeli response impacted the lives of three average Palestinian families. The book\u2019s engaging narrative is supplemented by research footnotes, though it never reads like an academic text. The book includes photographs, maps, and other visual elements that complement its accessibility.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hammam, Khalil, and Hussam, writes Barber, \u201care ordinary people living in an extraordinary context.\u201d All three are Palestinian men who came of age during the intifada and Israeli occupation of their home in the Gaza Strip. While the book\u2019s insightful introductory chapter offers readers ample historical context, the author, a professor emeritus at the University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}