Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is a 2018 book by the American-born Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi. Formatted as a collection of letters to a hypothetical Palestinian dialogue partner, Halevi seeks to explain Jewish Israeli perspectives on the issues that divide them and to invite the Palestinian side into a conversation aimed at building mutual understanding. Halevi is a former journalist who serves alongside Imam Abdullah Intepli as co-director of the Muslim Leadership Initiative through Duke University. Halevi is also the author of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden, an exploration of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian spirituality in Israel, and Like Dreamers, a book on the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2013. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor and has made his home in Israel since 1982.

This study guide uses the 2018 first edition of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, published by Harper.

Content Warning: This book presents a perspective on a divisive social and political issue, including reflections on historical traumas like the Holocaust and the Nakba. Where disputed terminology is an issue, this study guide uses terms which seek to encompass both sides (for example, referring to the broad geographic area in question as the Levant or as Israel/Palestine).

Summary

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is a collection of ten literary letters addressed to the titular “Palestinian neighbor.” It lays out an Israeli perspective on Jewish identity, history, and the modern problems of the Israel/Palestine conflict, while also inviting a Palestinian response. The book presents itself as the first step in a dialogue, which will only be complete if Palestinian interlocutors choose to respond, either in published form or by sending their messages directly to Yossi Klein Halevi as he has invited. This format underscores one of the book’s major themes—that of The Culture-Shaping Effects of Stories—with an acknowledgement that while Halevi’s goal is to express the Israeli story, the right to express the Palestinian story must lie with the Palestinians themselves.

The ten letters deal with a wide array of topics but are united by a recognition of the shared rhythms of life in Israel/Palestine. This recognition is conveyed in part by Halevi’s making note of various Israeli and Palestinian holidays and observances, many of which form the occasions for the letters he writes. Halevi places great stress on Interfaith Dialogue, and he weaves religious reflections (mostly touching on Judaism and Islam) into his letters. The letters are not only arranged in a loose order by the book’s calendrical focus on religious holidays and national observances, but also through a series of overarching categories that move from a discussion of broad themes of Jewish narrative and identity (Letters 1-3) to an analysis of more recent historical matters (Letters 4-6) and reflections on the current state of Israeli society (Letters 6-10).

The first three letters serve as a broad introduction to Halevi’s goal of presenting the Israeli story. Letter 1 describes Israeli life through the lens of Halevi’s own experiences in Israel and his desire to build a sense of mutual understanding between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims. Letters 2 and 3 focus on larger questions of Jewish narrative and identity, taking into view the long arc of Jewish history, with particular reflections on its beginnings in the Abrahamic family as well as the way in which Jews maintained their spiritual and emotional connections to the land of Israel throughout the long centuries of their diaspora.

Letters 4-6 examine issues of the Israel/Palestine conflict that touch on more recent historical events. Letter 4 offers an account of the Jewish presence in the land from the late Ottoman period of the 19th century to the events of Israel’s war of independence in 1948 (called the Nakba, “the catastrophe,” by Palestinians). Letter 5 moves the story forward and looks at the effects of the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel’s current borders were established, and of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Letter 6 continues to examine the contemporary situation, seeking to answer the question of why attempts at a two-state partition have failed in the past and what might be required to allow any such future attempts to succeed.

The last group of letters, while still touching on matters of Jewish identity and history, move their focus to an examination of contemporary Israeli society and the hopes, fears, and perspectives that shape it. Letter 7 examines the place of religious motivations in Israeli society, taking a close look at the certain religious flashpoints in the Israel/Palestine conflict, such as the use of contested sites like those at Hebron and the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa. Letter 8 offers a view of the delicate balancing act inherent in Israeli society, as it seeks to embody paradoxical concepts in several different categories: a Jewish state and a modern democracy; religion and secularism; eastern and western cultures; and the tradeoffs between moral idealism and the imposition of security protections. In Letter 9, Halevi turns to the Holocaust, focusing on the psychological effects of the Holocaust that have conditioned Israeli culture and the potential for interfaith dialogue through a collective reckoning with the wounds of the Holocaust. The final piece, Letter 10, is a short conclusion that extends a hopeful perspective on the potential for peace to flourish, grounded in a shared sense of faith, a mutual recognition of one another’s narratives, and a collective love of the land.