The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas

Lihi Ben Shitrit is the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies and the Henry Taub Associate Professor of Israel Studies at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. She is also an Associate Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia. She is the author of Righteous Transgressions: Women's Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2015) and Women and the Holy City: The Struggle over Jerusalem's Sacred Space (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

"This is a very timely book that presents reflections, personal and professional, of Israelis following what is arguably the most traumatic event in the history of modern-day Israel. The voices come from those who are typically peace-seekers, which moves us away from the polarizing binary and opens up a surprising diversity of thought and reflections. It is certainly a shift away from the drums-of-war kind of approach that has dominated popular and academic discussion thus far." - Oded Haklai, Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity at Queen's University and Editor of Israel Studies Review.

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"The Gates of Gaza captures an essential snapshot of diverse Israeli voices reacting to the murderous Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023, and the horrific violence against Gazans and Palestinians writ large that it generated. While individual authors diverge in their understanding of root causes and horizons of justice-oriented peace, the book illuminates the possibility of holding complex thoughts amid sloganeering and zero-sum accounts of history, grief, ethical outrage, and visions of the future." - Atalia Omer, Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies at Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies/Sociology, author of Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

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"Since the nightmare that began on October 7, one of few things that has given me hope are those voices from Israel-few though they are- who hold the agony of that day and yet resist a war that only brings more death, rage and despair. I'm so grateful to have their humanity and courage collected in one place." - Peter Beinart, Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the University of New York, author of The Crisis of Zionism (Times Books, 2012).