July 8, 2016, פֿאָרווערטס Forward http://www.forward.com (US)
In the classic
American film noir “Out of the Past,” the wayward mob mistress and the private
eye hired to drag her back home are, inevitably, flirting in a casino in
Mexico. “Is there a way to win,” she asks, sultry and musical, pretending that
she’s talking about the gambling tables. “No,” the doomed chump answers, “but
there is a way to lose more slowly.” It’s hard not to read “The Way to the
Spring,” journalist Ben Ehrenreich’s deeply reported new chronicle of
Palestinian life and resistance in the West Bank and Hebron, with those dark
words in mind. The men and women he grows close to lose almost every battle
they fight — beaten down by Israel’s infinitely superior military force and the
expansion of Jewish settlers operating with apparent government approval. And
despite or, he might argue, because of his Jewish heritage, Ehrenreich makes no
bones about siding with the losers.
Courtesy of Ben
Ehrenreich
Simple
Pleasures: The daughter
of artist
Eid Suleiman al-Hathalin playing ball on her birthday.
The book has
already been both lauded for its impassioned writing and criticized for the
author’s explicit sympathy for his subjects (sometimes within the same review).
Sheerly Avni spoke with Ehrenreich by phone from his home in Los Angeles, just
as he was packing for a trip to the Palestinian Festival of Literature.
Sheerly Avni:
You lived in the West Bank and spent some time there on and off, for about
three years. How much did the amount of time you spent there impact your
understanding of events?
Ben
Ehrenreich: I know a lot
of Americans and Europeans who visit the West Bank either as reporters or with
delegations and return home filled with optimism and hope because they’ve met
all these great and inspiring people who are engaged in inspiring acts of
resistance. But actually living in the West Bank gives you a very different
