The Yellow Wind

David Grossman’s The Yellow Wind: With a New Afterword by the Author is a series of short reports on life in the West Bank in the late 1980’s.   The author is an Israeli novelist who spent seven weeks in the West Bank interviewing Palestinians and Israelis.  I read the book on a break between histories to try to learn a little about the Palestinians in the West Bank.  The book is just as much about the Israelis though, and specifically about the author’s views on the effects of the West Bank on Israel.  The stories are tragic, every one of them.  Whether about the squalid conditions in a Palestinian kindergarten where the children hate Jews or a Jewish settlement where the Israelis hate Arabs, every story is disturbing.   I got ahead of myself in my history reading by jumping to this book, so I’ll refrain from any other comments.  Here is a critical review of the title and one that more thoroughly describes the author’s motivations and conclusions.