When conflicts become entrenched over generations, the language of war
infiltrates everyday life, concealing destruction and hardening
positions. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East.
Award-winning author Raja Shehadeh explores the politics of language and
the language of politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reflecting
on the walls that they create - legal and cultural - that confine
today's Palestinians just like the borders, checkpoints and so-called
"Separation Barrier." He shows how the peace process has been ground to
a halt by twists of language and linguistic chicanery that have degraded
the word peace itself. The situation at the world's greatest political
fault line has never looked bleaker, but still Shehadeh finds reason to
hope and explains why.
Raja Shehadeh is Palestine's leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the
founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.
Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books, including Strangers
in the House and Occupation Diaries and winner of the 2008 Orwell
Prize for Palestinian Walks. He lives in Ramallah in Palestine.
