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A Personal Diary of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1989 - Present)

URL: http://www.birzeit.edu/diary/
Category: Political
Issue: December, 1996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh

Nigel Parry, a British writer & photographer, has been living and working in Palestine's West Bank since 1989, and here he documents day-to-day life in the university community of Birzeit. The diary entries (many include photos) are a crap shoot, as they vary greatly in content. Some are boring, like the discussion about license plates, others riveting--in particular, an account of civilians tortured by the Palestinian Security Service (PSS). But as a whole, the diary offers a view of life in the West Bank that you probably won't find anywhere else and that's makes it worthwhile.

Overall Rating:15 out of 18

I remember this review getting my goat when I first read it. License plates aren't boring if you're a Palestinian with the wrong one, and being "riveted" by torture seemed a little sick. Whatever, the diary is much broader and, in many ways, very different now than it was in December 1996. Also, an unnecessary biographical error that one quick glance of the FAQ would have solved: I haven't been working in the West Bank since 1989, but since 1994.