Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

One of the main themes of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is the importance of listening to one another’s stories. The book is presented as an Israeli explanation of the Jewish story, and Halevi makes no attempt to tell the Palestinian side—he reserves that right for them. While he does explain his frustration with frequent Palestinian misunderstandings of the Jewish story and his desire for Palestinian leaders to operate differently, toward both Israelis and their own people, Halevi leaves the job of explaining the Palestinian side to his future interlocutors, writing, “We need to respect each other’s right to tell our own stories. That’s why I am writing to you, neighbor: to tell you my story, not yours. If you choose to write in response, as I hope you will, you’ll tell me your understanding of your history” (70). He believes that only through an open and understanding dialogue can the two groups come to a mutual understanding.

Halevi’s use of the theme of stories goes beyond the mere necessity of hearing one another’s narratives, though. He sees stories as having the power to shape whole cultures, to give them their sense of coherence, belonging, and power: “My definition for the Jews is this: We are a story we tell ourselves about who we think we are” (76).