By turns inspiring and heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Izzeldin Abuelaish's account of an extraordinary life. A Harvard-trained Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and "who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians" (New York Times), Abuelaish has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life - as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line, as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. And, most recently, as the father whose daughters were killed by Israeli soldiers on January 16, 2009, during Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip. His response to this tragedy made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start talking to each other. His deepest hope is that his daughters will be "the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis."

Izzeldin Abuelaish has all the reasons in the world to hate but resolutely refused to. Despite his loss, he still sought to spread a message of hope. Well worth a read. It also helps you to understand the background of the Israel-Palestine conflict. ( )

The sheer amount of adversity Abuelaish has had to overcome is astounding, only surpassed by the incredible amount of humanity he somehow still possesses.

Abuelaish takes the time to humanise the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of the effect it has had on people on both sides - in particular in giving firsthand accounts of what daily life in Gaza entails, to grow up in poverty and insecurity, to be constantly denied basic rights, and to be treated as subhuman -, making it a fairly accessible introduction into this ongoing complicated quagmire.

Seeing as his main message is for peaceful coexistence, for both sides to come together through their shared humanity, he is extremely careful to attribute blame to both. As a result, the tone is almost too measured, perhaps intentionally (so as to avoid criticisms of politicising agendas via emotional manipulation) depriving what would have otherwise been intensely devastating scenes of their potency.

Thankfully, the inclusions of third person accounts of Abuelaish painted a more human portrait of him: someone who has had to hide every bit of dissatisfaction and frustration at the unfairness and inequality he is subjected to daily in order to go about his professional and personal life, to be beyond reproach by the Israelis so as to be in a position of power to effect change for Palestinians, but then perhaps then setting an impossible standard for future Palestinians?

I would love an update from Abuelaish (the book included one from 2011) about his thoughts on the current situation and his life since the book was published.

Extra: The Guardian's review is also well worth a read. ( )

Average writing. Abuelaish wrote the book with an obvious agenda, an admirable one—but probably because I was already 100% sympathetic with it, I didn't find it challenging or particularly interesting. I also have a hard time identifying with the author. He's a politician and sometimes he writes like one. (And how can he have eight children, and leave them for six months at a time?) ( )

What an incredible story. I'd like to thank the author so much for sharing it. I'd also like to thank him for not giving up on humanity as he lived through it.

I won't provide a complete summary of the book, you can read that elsewhere, but this is the true-life story of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish who tells of his life in Gaza. His life of love and loss from his struggle to educate himself as a child, to gaining his degree in medicine, into fatherhood, to where his life is now. All of this while calling home a country whose borders are controlled by a government who hates him, just because he was born on the wrong side of that border.

Whether or not you share his faith, or agree with his lifestyle, I hope we can all learn a lesson or two from Dr. Abuelaish, and perhaps also put into perspective some of our own struggles, frustrations, and anxieties.

This is a First-Reads review of an ARC edition. ( )