Companions In Conflict: Animals in Occupied Palestine

Description

Palestinian Book Award-winning author explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a unique lens- the animals who try to survive and flourish in a fragmented land. In August of 2016 Israeli police officers arrested a Palestinian donkey in the Jordan Valley for not carrying the correct paperwork. It's an image as sad (and strangely common) as it is symbolic- no creature great or small is free from the absurdities of Israel's occupation of Palestine. Companions in Conflict is a surprising investigation into how deeply intertwined the fates of the region's human and animal populations really are. In it, we encounter a herd of eighteen "illegal" Palestinian cows hunted down by Israeli soldiers as a security threat. We meet some of the region's last remaining donkeys who, along with their owners, have been swept up in a massive economic shift. We learn the tragic case of the now-taxidermied inhabitants of "the worst zoo in the world," who were frightened to death by Israeli explosive devices, or left to starve during draconian curfews. Through the stories of these animals, and many others like them, the book asks- what do their lives tell us about the histories and futures of Palestinians and Israelis? And how can the pursuit of environmental justice lead the way to establishing human rights?

Penny Johnson is a researcher at the Institute of Women's Studies at Birzeit University in Palestine and co-editor of the Institutes' Annual Review of Women's Studies. She is the co-editor and contributor to two well-recieved books of essays- Shifting Sands- The Unraveling of the Old Order in the Middle East (Interlink, 2015) and Seeking Palestine- New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home (Olive Branch Press, 2012), which won the Palestine Book Award. American born, Penny Johnson is married to the writer and lawyer Raja Shehadeh and they live in Ramallah.

"Penny Johnson deepens John Berger's notion that never again will a single story be told as if it were the only one. This deeply layered book is written with unflinching grace, clarity, anger and humour. It's a fabulous gambol, performed with deceptive ease, revealing both the dancer and the dance." -Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin "Thank you, Penny Johnson, for reminding us of one of the worst yet most overlooked evils of our political conflicts: these disputes afflict more than just humans. May this lovingly written book bring us closer to peace for all beings." -Sy Montgomery, author of How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in 13 Animals "Insightful, surprising, and moving. The cost of occupation has surely never before been told in these terms." -Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire "What a strange and beautiful creature this is, a Palestinian Where the Wild Things Are for adults, written with literary grace, a deep sense of history, and a love of justice. A short book with large implications, Companions in Conflict pulls off something rare: it illuminates a hidden corner of one of the world's most media-saturated landscapes." -Adam Shatz, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS "Cows, donkeys, wild boars, hyenas .. some of the animals whose fortunes Penny Johnson follows in this thoughtful, always humane and often surprising book. Companions in Conflict shows the devastating effect on Palestinian natural life of the Israeli Occupation and of Israeli strategies since 1948. Widely researched, politically committed and oddly humorous, this a timely and original addition to the literature that ties what's happening in Palestine to the pressing global issues that concern us all." -Ahdaf Soueif, author of The Map of Love "Johnson's wholistic outlook on how humans could potentially interact with, benefit from and enjoy nature, including animals, courses throughout "Companions in Conflict". She tells a story that has not been told before and which needs to be told, and which is especially timely as environmental issues gain more and more international urgency."-Sally Bland, The Jordan Times "The author's meticulously researched narrative, dotted with well-chosen and eloquent passages from literature and fables, is instructive and accessible... In addition to her stories about the experiences of the animals in the region, Johnson reviews the difficult issues involved in environmental and animal protection... Necessary." -KIRKUS REVIEWS "For millennia, any bestiary worth its salt managed to not only catalogue the animals in the purview of a certain society, but to also take distant readers closer to the experience of being a human alive in a particular space. Penny Johnson's vivid, sensitive, and well-researched book does this on nearly each page, while simultaneously prompting readers everywhere to consider the lives of animals in their own corners of this rapidly changing world." -Elena Passarello, author of Animals Strike Curious Poses "Unique and moving . . . an essential and timely addition to the literature in animal studies"-Bjorn Kristensen, Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies