THE YELLOW WIND

by David Grossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1988

Commissioned by the Israeli newsweekly Koteret Rashit and excerpted recently in The New Yorker, this work is part scathing indictment of Israeli policies in the Occupied Left Bank and part plea for mutual accommodation in the Arab-Jewish stand-off. A best-seller in Israeli, it is an important, long-overdue work that introduces reason and humanity into a situation that for 20 years has been notably lacking in these qualities. Grossman, himself a young Israeli journalist/novelist currently living in Jerusalem with his wife and two children, foresees only escalating violence if the current Israeli position vis-á-vis the Left Bank continues. In interviewing Arabs in Palestinian refugee camps, members of the militant Gush Emunim who have settled the area, and students and exploited Arab workers, the author reveals that the situation is grim indeed, for both Arabs and Jews. Grossman sees a master/slave relationship developing and astutely points out that it is the ""master"" who is eventually more dehumanized by the experience. He implies that, like the slaveholders of the 19th century, Israelis will come first to despise, then to fear their Arab ""inferiors,"" if they do not already; with the Arab population increasing in the occupied territory at a greater rate than that of Jews, the policies in the years ahead will have to become more repressive than they are today if the ""status quo"" is to be maintained. It is a legacy Grossman does not want to pass on to his children. After years in which the political and religious rantings of the Arafats and the Kehanes have gained most of the attention, it's reassuring at last to have a voice of moderation heard in the land. Painful, perhaps, but essential reading.

Pub Date: March 15, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION