A new book takes shape
A year and a half ago, on October 15, 2023, I described my horror at the (even then) disproportionate Israeli revenge action in Gaza, following the brutal attack by Hamas on the population in the southern border area of Israel. Israel retaliated mercilessly with heavy bombardments on densely populated areas, a ground war and a blockade of humanitarian aid, which has now lasted for a year and a half and has all the properties of genocide and war crimes. It is no longer an act of revenge or defense, but an extermination war against the civilian population of Gaza. The numbers of dead and wounded and the actions of the state of Israel speak for themselves.
Hamas is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and was originally an Islamic charity organization (Al-Mujama'al-Islami). Initially, the movement even had Israeli support, because Israel viewed it as an ally against Yasser Arafat's PLO. During the first intifada (1987-1993), Hamas emerged as a resistance and terrorist organisation. It won a (disputed) majority during the 2006 elections in Gaza. Hamas not only fights against Israel, but also takes merciless action against dissident Palestinians, suppressing any opposition.
Writing triggered by horror
In 2023 I mentioned my own experiences in the Middle East in 1973, just after the Yom Kippur War. Writing a book about the atrocities in the Middle East wasn’t fun, as the title of this blog suggests. It was a release to my pent-up horror. The new book has the provisional title CONTESTED LAND. The English title is provisional, as there are several books about whose title has a similar ring. It is a direct translation of the Dutch title HET BETWISTE LAND. At the moment of writing, the Dutch manuscript is about 80% complete, although the work is progressing in fits and starts. Actual publication has yet to be arranged, following which translation into English will probably take a few more months.
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| provisional book cover |
The story begins with my own experiences as a young man on a November morning in 1973, when my ship, the mv Oostkerk, arrived in the Syrian port of Latakia. As the ship was approaching the quay, we were faced with a boycott and a massive demonstration ashore, probably orchestrated by the Ba'ath party of the Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad, following Dutch war support for Israel. The tugboats cast off and left us adrift in the harbour. A collision with a Russian frigate, tied up close by, was only just averted.
In the book, things really go wrong. We crash into the Russian vessel, with catastrophic results. The subsequent (fictional) adventures of the main protagonist in Syria and Lebanon are the subject of the new book.
The 1973-1974 episode tells of the prisons of Syria, an escape to Lebanon and a ruthless Israeli air attack, and the 1980 episode is in the midst of the Lebanese civil war, once again complicated by Israeli and Syrian meddling. I delved into the history of the Middle East for the background and, to be honest, the research opened my eyes.
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| Beirut, November 1973,
photo taken from the yacht club. The mv Oostkerk in the distance: the
orange masts on the left. |
Israel and Palestine
Especially today, during the barbaric massacre in Gaza, Palestine is a controversial subject dominated by ideology. Many would rather look away than engage in an honest conversation about it, and Western politics almost unconditionally support the genocidal acts of the Netanyahu regime. We can only guess at the reasons, but money, propaganda and geopolitics play an undeniable role. Critics of Israel are vilified and slandered.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict of today is the legacy of Zionism, which emerged in the 19th century following East European pogroms, of the simultaneous rise of Arab nationalism within the Ottoman Empire, of British intervention during 1914-1918 and mismanagement during the British Mandate period until 1947. This undoubtedly fitted the colonial Zeitgeist, but a hundred years later we are still confronted with the bitter consequences of the ideological and geopolitical choices of that time.
Because the new book is an historical thriller set against the background of the conflict, I have done in-depth research into its history. For those who want honest insight into it, the information is there for the taking. I am merely referring to the following Wikipedia articles:
Lebanon
A second theme in the book is the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to 1990, a chaotic conflict with many warring parties. It is virtually impossible to get a complete picture of what happened from year to year. Ultimately, the conflict degenerated into a proxy war between Israel, Iran and Syria. Israel and Syria both repeatedly invaded Lebanon.
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| Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon, 1960. Source: UNRWA |
The battles in Beirut left the city badly damaged. There also was heavy fighting around the northern port of Tripoli and the nearby Palestinian camps of Beddawi and Nahr el-Bared, which are featured in this book. The country was largely destroyed in those years and the war led to 120,000 to 150,000 deaths.
One of the sources I found on the civil war was a declassified CIA report on Lebanon and the warring parties from 1987. This gives an interesting picture of that phase of the civil war and its run-up. For example, the report states that the Syrian-backed Amal militia blocked the supply of cement for the reconstruction of the Palestinian Shatila camp near Beirut, where a massacre was committed by the Phalangists in 1982, with Israeli support.
Other sources:
A good source that was sent to me late in the writing of this manuscript was De oorlog van gisteren (The War of Yesterday, a Dutch publication, ISBN 978-90-8321-088-9) by Jan Keulen, former war correspondent in Beirut, Cairo and Amman, and ultimately director of The Rights Forum, an organization committed to a just Israel-Palestine policy. Information from this book filled many gaps in my knowledge of the Lebanese Civil War.
Finally, in describing the devastation and chaos in Lebanon, I gratefully made use of the atmosphere described in the book Beirut Blues (ISBN 978-0-385-47382-8) by the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. She knows better than anyone how to portray the despair of the Lebanese about the demise of their country and the questionable role of local warlords and militias, who were often little better than bandits and lived off the drug trade.
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| Sunrise over the coast of Tripoli, Lebanon, November 1973 |
