Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of “the enemy.” In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.

I call you “neighbor” because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, “neighbor” might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home, incarnation of each other’s worst historical nightmares.

From the introduction, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Amid Heightening Mideast Conflict, a New Israeli Approach to Reconciliation

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor was added to The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list on June 3, 2018.

With Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, award-winning author and Shalom Hartman Institute senior fellow Yossi Klein Halevi offers a heartfelt plea for peace and a new dialogue based on his “experience as occupier” and common ground in faith.

This ambitious work is an attempt to offer a new language for peace at a time when conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is escalating and a solution seems impossible. With 10 lyrical and provocative letters, Halevi is the first Israeli author to directly address Palestinians in an attempt to explain how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes.

Combining a powerful commitment to Israel’s legitimacy with deep empathy for Palestinian suffering, he reveals the complex strands of faith, pride, anger, and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.

Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor relaunches narratives about the Middle East at a historic juncture, making it an essential read for the present and for years to come.