326 Book Reviews
Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced
Migration in the Middle East
by Dawn Chatty and Gillian Lewando Hundt (eds)
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2005 ISBN
1845451201, 274 pp, £17.00 (pb)
In my opinion this book succeeds on many
levels. The introduction sets out the rationale
for the study, the need for a multidisciplinary
regional research programme
to link, compare and contrast the lives of chil-
dren across the five countries and territories
where Palestinians were allowed to take ref-
uge after their expulsion or flight from man-
dated Palestine in 1948 and from the West
Bank in 1967.
The data and information that it contains
were collected using participatory research, a
methodology which brings the young people’s
stories and those of their carers to the fore.
This means there are many first-hand accounts
which are illuminating and enlightening; you
could read the book just for these. But there is
a great deal more because this methodology
makes space for the emergence of a bigger pic-
ture. The book reveals just how Palestinians in
the refugee camps of Syria, Lebanon, West
Bank, Gaza and Jordan cope and, in some
cases, have been coping for three generations.
As well as this, the accounts of the young peo-
ple and their carers are appropriately placed
within an indigenous context.
The un emotive language which is used also
adds to the book’s clout. When the young peo-
ple talk of abuse from teachers or of family
members being shot by Israeli army snipers it
is, of course, disturbing. However, for this rea-
der, phrases such as ‘routes of flight’ which
crop up quite regularly kept making me stop
and consider what it means to have such a
phrase used to describe a common experience.
The details of how carefully research teams
were chosen and the stringent attention paid to
how the research was done show the strength
of the commitment to ethical practice. The con-
siderable challenge posed in getting field
research teams together in areas where, for
example, movement is restricted due to the
occupying forces, does not seem to have weak-
Ó 2006 The Author(s)
Journal compilation Ó 2006 National Children’s Bureau
ened this resolve. The cultural and contextual
accuracy gives authenticity. For a western rea-
der who might only see media images or who
has limited experience of the Middle East or,
indeed, wherever unhelpful stereotypes and
fictions might be, this is of great value.
The editors hope that this study ‘will identify
coping structures, strategies and mechanisms
from which lessons might be learnt and dissemin-
ated to researchers, practitioners and policy mak-
ers’. This is a useful resource for anyone working
in Palestinian refugee camps. It is good to have
such a positive study, one that clears away mis-
conceptions of Palestinian youth as being either
passive victims or political activists. Hearing their
voices makes it possible for non-governmental
organisations to work in a much more informed
and relevant way, not because they don’t listen,
but because when talking to policy-makers and
programme funders they need access to research
to back up their applications for resources.
To conclude, studies such as these are import-
ant because they play a vital role where whole
communities are under threat. Palestinian
ways of life, currently under extreme threat, in
all their diversity, need to be recorded and rec-
ognised for their depth, beauty and strength if
they are not to be lost. Their ways of coping
are valuable to us all and without their voices
we are poorer. I feel privileged to have had the
chance to review this book.
Teresa Parker
Programme Co-ordinator
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel
Enhancing the Well-being of Children and
Families through Effective Interventions:
International Evidence for Practice
by Colette McAuley, Peter J. Pecora and Wendy
Rose (eds)
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006
ISBN 13: 978 1 84310 116 1, 384 pp, £24.99hb
If you are interested in learning what is known
and particularly, what is still unknown about a
comprehensive range of interventions to
CHILDREN & SOCIETY Vol. 20, 324–327 (2006)