Reviews

Amidst the horrors visited on the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, the fate of the “Palestinian citizens of Israel” is often forgotten, by those who see Israel solely as the Jewish state it aspires to be, and by those working to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians. Even organisations such as Sindyanna, a fair trade co-operative of Palestinian and Jewish Israeli women in the Galilee, have appeared on the boycott lists of less enlightened solidarity organisations.

Hopefully this book will help to change that. Edited…

Alien penguins, thought-powered spacecraft and some doddery members of Green Peas race through this children's book to stop an evil fast food empire. Marcellus Guzzle, despot of the toadburger chain, and his henchmen will murder anyone who gets in his way.

While his dreams of ecological disasters and unlimited financial profits seem to be coming true, an unlikely adversary appears on the scene. Eddy Tumble is just a fat 14-year-old who loves fast food until he dies at the dinner-table and is then brought back to life. He is joined…

For a number of reasons, and this book explores some of them, “just war” theory has come under various kinds of strain in recent years.

As a result, some would seek to jettison it altogether, arguing that it is no longer relevant because the world has changed in too many ways since the theory was developed and formulated. Some try to patch it up on the basis that having something is better than having nothing, but without any real commitment to it. Some, however, continue to insist that, honestly and creatively used, just war theory…

Subtitled “A big event in a small town in the big country”, this chirpy little pamphlet is the work of a Stirling local, outlining his experience of the “spectacle” that was last July's G8 protests.

In the introduction Declan says “Its about a time when the world was very briefly focused on ... where I happen to live and work. It was a strange but exciting time for me and that's why I have been drive to write about it.” It's divided into two distinct sections - the first dealing with “before” the G8 and the second a day-by-day…

Shut Them Down is a collection of reflections on the anti G8 mobilisation which took place in July 2005. It was created by activists whose stated aim was to “harness the energy created in Scotland to move in productive directions”. In the introduction the editors humbly deny speaking for the movement as a whole, and aim only to provide reflection on this particular instance of mobilisation within the wider “movement of movements”.

The book is extremely varied in content, ranging from personal diary-style accounts of road…

Messages to the World is the first time that all the written statements and audio broadcasts of Osama bin Laden have been brought together in a single volume in English. Starting in December 1994, with what is generally considered to be his first published statement intended to reach a broad audience, the text covers the decade up to December 2004, and another attack against the ruling family in his homeland of Saudi Arabia.

It is strange that it has taken so long for such a work to appear. Perhaps this says a great deal about the…

This new DVD offering from Undercurrents - released on 8 March to mark International Women's Day - compiles nine short films produced by women film-makers. Includes Helen Iles award winning Life Before Death, which reflects on women's experience of terminal illness and brief shorts taking a, sometimes humorous, look at topics such as ID cards, the mental health system, disability, the Clown Army and direct action against nuclear waste shipments in Germany. An eclectic mix and an ongoing project which Undercurrents hope will be “a showcase…

Winterbottom's gripping film charts the “incredible journey” of the Tipton Three - from a planned wedding in Pakistan to their imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay: at times surreal and constantly disturbing. Shown on Channel Four in March, this film can now be watched online (for a streaming/rental fee). Visit http://www.tiscali.co.uk/guantanamo

The New Internationalist's mini books are packed with quotes, cartoons, photographs and nuggets of information, which makes them ideal for dipping into. These three titles pursue pacifist, environmental and animal rights agendas as one would expect from this magazine group, run by a co-op. The New Internationalist was originally sponsored by Oxfam, Christian Aid and the Cadbury and Rowntree Trusts, and still focuses on poverty and inequality.

Although most of the quotes support an activist agenda, thought-provoking opposing voices…

This book is a useful introduction to some of the philosophical issues and theories relating to war and peace. It begins with an account of three basic approaches to the morality of war; political realism, internationalism and cosmopolitanism.

Political realism argues that moral values have no leverage in international politics, while internationalism looks to give those values some international status, primarily through the medium of international law. Cosmopolitanism, on the other hand, begins from what is sometimes called “world…

Timing and space dictate that this second offering from Verso - a slim volume of anti-Iraq war essays - gets a rather slim space in this issue of PN.

This collection of six short articles, written over the past three years by contributors Brian Eno, John Le Carre, Harold Pinter, Richard Dawkins, Michel Faber and Haifa Zangana, was published in March to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

To a large degree this book is essentially “recycled material”: I didn't find much new or challenging here. Three…

“It's always too soon to go home. And it's always too soon to calculate effect.” Activists who feel despondent and or just plain tired will read this book and take heart in our work and find purpose in the creative search for a better world. Solnit believes we've had many successes; we can and should rejoice - and then carry on.

“I once read an anecdote by someone in Women Strike for Peace, the first great antinuclear movement in the United States, the one that did contribute to a major victory: the 1963 end of aboveground…

On 7 July 2005 four young British men detonated bombs on London's public transport system, killing 52 people as well as themselves. Why they did it and how we can prevent future such attacks are the two central themes of Milan Rai's latest book, which combines a deeply moving tribute to the bombers' victims with the gripping, page-turning qualities of a good detective novel.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks - and before the Government shrewdly re-focused the public debate onto the role of “preachers of hatred” - opinion…

Years ago I wrote admiringly (in NvA) of Pat Arrowsmith's poems and illustrations, Drawing to Extinction (Hearing Eye 2000), but now - with too little time and too few words to do them justice here's another clutch of books from Hearing Eye (hearing_eye@torriano.org). This is recommendation in itself and I envy the poets for being so chosen.

Miroslav Jancic (1935-2004), who was born in, exiled from, and returned to die, in Sarajevo, has something to say about being “…

Katharine von Schubert's book tells the story of a period of a year and half, when this young woman joined Quaker Peace and Social Witness's human rights observation programme in the West Bank. As such, I approached it with some trepidation. In the last few years, a number of volumes have emerged recounting the experiences of international activists in Palestine, from the International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams and a range of other groups. Some have been very good, and offered genuine insights into the situation in…