On this edition of Your Call, Jewish American writer Nathan Thrall discusses his new book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.
Thrall explores what he calls a bureaucracy of oppression through the story of a bus accident on the outskirts of East Jerusalem in which six Palestinian kindergarteners and a teacher burned to death. The book details how Israel’s occupation has shaped every aspect of the tragedy.
In the wake of Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7 and the Israeli military's assault on Gaza, several of Thrall's readings and events have been canceled or postponed in Britain, New York, Los Angeles, London, and Washington DC.
Guest:
Nathan Thrall, journalist, essayist, former director of the Arab-Israeli project at the International Crisis Group, and author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy
Web Resources:
Curbed: What a School-bus Crash in Jerusalem Reveals About Life Occupied Palestine
The New York Times: At University of Arkansas, a State Law Stifles Pro-Palestinian Speakers
The New York Review of Books: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
Al Jazeera: Mapping Israeli occupation
The Guardian: It’s lonely being a Jewish critic of Israel’ – Nathan Thrall on his book about a Palestinian father’s tragedy
