Battle of the books: The first salvo

Balcony over Jerusalem by John Lyons

When we were choosing books for the Summer Reading package for parliamentarians, how could we go past John Lyons? He is one of Australia’s most respected journalists, winner of four Walkley awards and many more accolades. Lyons is known for his attention to evidence and fact. At an event earlier this year where he was speaking, the audience was impressed by his refusal to state that Israel was targeting journalists because, as he said, although it might seem that was the case, he had not seen any actual evidence to support it.

Lyons first published Balcony over Jerusalem as a memoir of his six-year stint as The Australian’s foreign correspondent in Jerusalem, but it draws on his three decades of reporting on the Middle East, where he interviewed a huge number of important players as well as ordinary citizens caught up in conflict. This updated edition gives more context to the current situation in Israel and Palestine. Lyons is a journalist of principle and honesty, and for that reason as well as his writing skill, experience and reputation, his book deserved a place on our list.

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

In discussing which histories we would include in our pack, we agreed that we needed academic historians with an accredited publishing track record and an eminent international reputation. Palestinian-American Rashid Khalidi is such a historian. Professor emeritus at Columbia University (retired 2024), he is widely praised for his meticulous archival research yet his prose is accessible and compelling, making his work suitable for the lay reader.