Wednesday, March 12, 7 pm Palestine time
Nathan Thrall, author and journalist, 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
Title: Palestinian Life Under Occupation, American Complicity, and Prospects for International Accountability
Abstract: Join us for a conversation between Nathan Thrall and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man on “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama”, a heart-wrenching portrait of Palestinian life under occupation told through the story of a tragic bus accident that took the lives of six Palestinian kindergartners. Situating the personal narrative in the context of structural forces, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” elucidates the daily injustices faced by the roughly 3.2 million Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank. Author Nathan Thrall will be in a conversation with Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Director of Research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. The two will discuss American complicity in Israeli crimes against humanity and the prospects for international accountability.
Bios:
Nathan Thrall is an American writer living in Jerusalem. In 2024, he received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama”. An international bestseller, it was translated into more than two dozen languages, selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and named a best book of the year by over twenty publications, including The New Yorker, The Economist, and Time. He is also the author of “The Only Language They
Understand”. His reporting, essays, and criticism have appeared in the London Review of Books, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Review of Books. He spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, where he was director of the Arab-Israeli Project, and has taught at Bard College.
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man is director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. Michael’s work focuses on accountability of Israeli officials and entities via U.S. and international mechanisms, including filing complaints to the ICC, and extensive work on settler violence sanctions in the United States. Michael worked as a journalist in Israel-Palestine for over a dozen years, including as editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. He is the co-author of an upcoming book, to be published in 2025 by UC Press, exploring practical policy frameworks for dismantling apartheid and occupation.