As the U.S. assault on Iran rages, we asked our resident Middle East expert Alex Boodrookas to provide some historical perspective. Dr. Boodrookas is an Assistant Professor of History at MSU Denver specializing in the Modern Middle East; Labor History; Immigration; Decolonization. His book is published this April by Stanford University Press and is entitled Comrades Estranged: Labor and Citizenship in the Twentieth-Century Persian Gulf.

Dr. Boodrookas has shared a helpful list of resources and a timeline of major events to accompany this podcast.

READING LIST | THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL & PALESTINE

BOOKS & ARTICLES

• Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” MERIP. A clear,

reliable, article-length overview of the conflict available for free online.

• Rashid Khalidi, Hundred Years War on Palestine. A readable and personal history of the

conflict by a respected historian.

• James Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict. A solid and accessible summary written by a

respected historian.

• Edward Said, “Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims,” and Ella Shohat, “Zionism from

the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims.” Two older but influential and well-written articles.

Shay Hazkani, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War. A bottom-up history of the

pivotal 1948 war.

• Meron Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948. A

personal but still scholarly account of the aftermath of the expulsions of 1948.

• Shira Robinson, Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State.

A more academic but important work focused on the immediate aftermath of 1948.

Noura Erakat, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Focuses on the questions

of international law raised by the discrimination directed against Palestinians.

• Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel's Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank. A brief

summary of the occupation and its effects

• Tareq Baconi, Hamas Contained. A history of the organization using its own documents.

For fiction, see Literary Hub’s article entitled “40 Books to Understand Palestine”

DOCUMENTARIES

• Five Broken Cameras | The Law in These Parts | The Gatekeepers | Reel Bad Arabs | Tantura

TRUSTWORTHY SOURCES FOR NEWS &ANALYSIS ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

• MERIP | Ottoman History Podcast | New Lines Magazine | Jadaliyya | MadaMasr