Jewish-Israeli author Ilana Hammerman’s recent memoir, “A Small Door Set in Concrete” (University of Chicago Press, 2019), takes readers into life after decades of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This memoir traverses the experiences of Palestinien men, women, and children living behind the wall who are unable to move and act freely.
Hammerman, who is a board member of the human rights organization B’Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and who founded a women’s civil disobedience group in 2010, has actively opposed the occupation for decades. She shines a light on the personal and human daily struggles of those living behind the wall. In the words of the reviewer, “Hers is not a resistance from an activist’s handbook. There is no photographing the Occupation’s checkpoint or marching with linked arms in a protest...Hammerman’s resistance is a striking out: a woman on a bicycle riding too far, too lightly outfitted, into a place that she was told held nothing of value.”
“A Small Door Set in Concrete,” reviewed by Priscilla Wathington, is scheduled to appear in the forthcoming Al Jadid, Vol. 24, No. 78, 2020.
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