Occupation: Happy Birthday to You

At the close of the 50th year since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza and applied military rule over the people residing there, Gershon Shafir publishes a new book that not only documents the occupation in all its facets, but also how Israelis and Palestinians experience it. The former group lives as subjects of a colonial system, in Shafir's view, while the latter, he argues, lives in their own state - one he terms "denialism." This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.