The appearance of a book on the impact of political violence on Palestinian families could hardly be timelier. Deaths caused by the present unrest in Israel and Palestine already number over 300, mostly Palestinian, in what is arguably one of the most written-about conflicts of the late 20th century. A book aiming to offer something new on the subject could easily bring readers into the lives of families affected by the trials of over 33 years of military occupation. Unfortunately, this is hardly such a book.
Vivian Khamis, chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Bethlehem University in the West Bank, has doubtless written for an academic audience. It would take a tenacity rare in any casual reader to get through her formulas and methodology. But this does a disservice to her subject -- the Palestinians -- who here are made to speak mostly through "support variables" and "multiple logistic regressions."
This did not have to be. Khamis apparently began with a wealth of material on over 900 families, gathered in the course of years of interviews in Palestine, yet she devotes just 15 pages to quoting them -- still the most valuable part of the book.