PoliGazette Contributer’s Book Published
Although I would announce this weeks ago already on PoliGazette I, sadly, did not have the time; I had to travel to Azerbaijan, after that to Turkey and then, when I got back, I found out that registering for the new semester had not gone well, so I had to fix that. The result; a delay of something beautiful.
What, then, was delayed? Occasional PoliGazette contributor Bert de Bruin has written a book called “Israel and Me.”
Bert is a Dutchman living in Israel. Some have described him as a progressive critical Zionist, adding that those do exist (contrary to popular belief). He not only writes for his own website and for PoliGazette, he also writes a regular column for the Dutch newspaper Friesch Dagblad.
“Israel and Me” is, at this moment, only available in Dutch; the title of the book in Dutch is Israel en ik – Vijftien bekende Nederlanders over hun verhouding met een zestigjarige. Bert interviewed fifteen more or less well known Dutchmen for his book, after which he wrote a compelling story about how they view Israel.
The PoliGazette contributor did not work alone. The CIDI, Center for Information and Documentation Israel, worked with him, in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary.
The result of the 15 interviews is a series of open and fascinating stories, in which aside from concern for Israel’s well being and criticism about its conduct especially the passion, love and and support for Israel these prominent Dutch(wo)men feel becomes clear. Israel en Ik makes clear that, to many Dutch, Israel is more than just another spot on the planet.
People who were interviewed for the book are: Barbara Barend, Frits Bolkestein, Bernard Bot, Samira Bouchibti, Jessica Durlacher, Elsbeth Etty, Bloeme Evers-Emden, Assad Jaber, Nausicaa Marbe, Dana Nechushtan, Karel Ornstein, Daniel de Ridder, André Rouvoet, Jacques Wallage, en Jan van Zanen.
If you’re interested, and I believe that anyone even remotely interested in Israel should be, you can order the book at every bookshop in the Netherlands, and online at bol.com. The price of the book is 17,95 Euros; a very affortable price, especially considering the books content.
As said, an English translation is not yet available but, who knows, perhaps Israel en Ik will be translated so that the millions of Israel supporters in the United States too can read this wonderful book.
