The Story of
Palestine's Stonemasons and the Building of Israel
"They demolish
our houses while we build theirs." This is how a Palestinian
stonemason, in line at a checkpoint outside a Jerusalem suburb,
described his life to Andrew Ross. Palestinian "stone men",
utilizing some of the best quality dolomitic limestone deposits in
the world and drawing on generations of artisanal knowledge, have
built almost every state in the Middle East except their own. Today
the business of quarrying, cutting, fabrication, and dressing is
Palestine's largest employer and generator of revenue, supplying the
construction industry in Israel, along with other Middle East
countries and even more overseas.
Drawing on hundreds
of interviews in Palestine and Israel, Ross's engrossing, surprising,
and gracefully written story of this fascinating, ancient trade shows
how the stones of Palestine, and Palestinian labor, have been used to
build out the state of Israel--in the process, constructing "facts
on the ground"--even while the industry is central to
Palestinians' own efforts to erect bulwarks against the Occupation.
For decades, the hands that built Israel's houses, schools, offices,
bridges, and even its separation barriers have been Palestinian.
Looking at the Palestine-Israel conflict in a new light, this book
asks how this record of achievement and labor can be recognized.
