Translation of Arabic and Hebrew text on cover design:
أشهدُ أنْ لا إلهَ إلاَّ اللهُ وأشهدُ أنَّ محمّداً رسولُ الله I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God (Source: Quran and Hadith)
כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה; יְהוָה בְּחָרְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים For you are a holy people; the LORD has chosen you out of all the peoples (Source: Torah)
A Docu-Novel
Between Restless Jews and Weary Arabs
Uncovering the Hidden Roots of Middle Eastern Tragedies
A Love Story Inside a Life Story
Oh, blowing wind, what are you going to tell me that I have not already heard or seen?
About the book
Between Restless Jews and Weary Arabs
Why have Arabs, Muslims, and Jews, whose histories have been intimately linked for centuries, followed such different paths? Why have Jews achieved greater material success, and why has progress in the Arab world been more uneven?
To understand, I looked beneath the familiar stories to explore the forces that have shaped Arab, Muslim, and Jewish societies; digging deeper inside the home and asking difficult questions about tradition, religion, values, family (the building block of a nation), and the situation of women and children.
Could the roots of the unrest in the Middle East lie elsewhere than in wars, borders, politics or religion?
This is not an academic book.
This is a quest for knowledge intertwined with a love story within a life story, all told through vivid vignettes that unfold like scenes in a film.
‘Between Restless Jews and Weary Arabs’ is ultimately a search for what lies beneath the tragedies of the Middle East and the challenges faced by Arabs and Jews. What they may need to understand about themselves and each other before they can truly move forward, to avoid the considerable dangers that a refusal to change represents.
The docunovel’s fictional narrative draws on two real stories set in 1967 and 2013.
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Stories from the book
The following accounts explore certain Arab and Jewish mindsets crafted by culture. In some of these communities, deeply ingrained convictions may have shaped them into people who are strong, vulnerable, or problematic. This may have made them a danger to themselves and the wider world. These accounts are not intended to disparage either group; my goal is to shed light on the perils of excess.
An intense love story unfolds throughout the narrative.
An obligatory woman
I toured Yemen in 2005. It is a stunning country, one of the most beautiful I have ever visited.
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They got the whole country and its fish for free
During my visit to Israel, I ate with the hotel's owner, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, at a Jewish fishery restaurant on Lake Tiberias.
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As long as you stay in the village, they will call me the cuckold
My hands clasped in my pockets, my mind more confused than ever, I rang the doorbell at their home, not knowing in advance what I would say or what I would avoid.
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Proving ourselves by humiliating others
“Our neighbour in Aleppo (Syria) throws his clothes around. He lies on his back and asks his wife to bring him the socks, the pyjamas!”
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A self-fulfilling prophecy
Jews are heavily indoctrinated that non-Jews are coming after them and that Israel is their ultimate refuge and that they have to protect themselves.
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This is France!
The park was almost deserted. Tired, we sat on a bench in front of the lake.
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About the author
Dr. Camille Gedeon
My Lebanese heritage combined with a life spent at the heart of the region’s upheavals has given me the linguistic and cultural mastery as well as the emotional depth necessary to observe – and speak authoritatively – about the Arab world in particular, but also about the Jewish world.
For 40 years, I have worked in market research, and most recently, I managed a market research institute in Kuwait for 20 years, operating in almost all Arab countries. Furthermore, my search for answers led me to meet Muslim communities from Morocco to the Philippines, and from Albania and Iran to Yemen and Ethiopia, as well as Jewish communities in Israel. I also interacted with their migrant counterparts living in Europe and America.
I also hold a doctorate in geography and history from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Sorbonne University, Paris.
Get your copy
Between Restless Jews and Weary Arabs by Dr. Camille Gedeon is available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions.