Conscience: On Israel and Palestine
A Jewish writer breaks his personal boycott of Israel to document the reality of Palestine’s occupation
Part travelogue, part moral memoir, this isn’t just another book explaining the conflict in the Middle East, but the personal quest of an Amsterdammer whose grandparents were murdered in Sobibor. In late 2024, De Bruijn received an invitation from an NGO fighting against the oppression of Palestinians to join a delegation of other activists to observe and write about the occupation on the ground. He hesitated, he’d vowed never to visit Israel again after the events of 7th October 2023. A sense of duty prevails, and he decides to ‘look the beast in the mouth.’
Stella Rieck
Cossee
rieck@cossee.com
Conscience is a personal account of the interconnected histories of the Palestinian people and his own history as a Jewish Dutchman and descendant of a family torn apart by the Holocaust. The first half of the book explores his own experiences and thoughts about Israel and Zionism, and the second half charts his dangerous journey to Israel and Gaza where he witnesses IDF patrols, terrorism, colonists and expulsions and the lack of human rights afforded to Palestinians. His tears are no help and his grandparents would have been horrified. How can this reality be reconciled with the discourse back home?
In this accessibly-written book about one of the most degrading disasters of the 21st century, De Bruijn weaves the different threads into a story that can be read as an appeal to the reader not to hide behind ignorance. He offers no clear-cut solutions but a moral judgement: Israel’s political course is ‘a sacrilegious road that much be condemned and challenged’. It is searing personal reckoning with identity, history, and the cost of silence.
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Proceeds from the book are being donated to a Palestine food agency
Boekenbon Prize longlist
Maurits de Bruijn writes because he has to – out of conscience, out of love, out of responsibility. Beautiful, personal, moving.
Nadia Bouras, Radio 1
'Conscience' is a profound, multifaceted story that stirs up more than just hearts and hateful reactions, about one of the most degrading disasters of the 21st century.
Hebban
