New Book: Apartheid is a Crime, Palestinian life under occupation

Portraits of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. Author Mats Svensson documents Palestinian street scenes, conveying the mannerisms and customs of daily life under military occupation in his new book “Apartheid is a Crime” released by Cune Press.

Mats Svensson documents Palestinian street scenes, conveying the mannerisms and customs of daily life under military occupation in his new book “Apartheid is a Crime” released by Cune Press.

Apartheid is a Crime shows the precursors and aftermath of violence in photos that, taken together, are as charged as the war photos of David Douglas Duncan.

Svensson shows us occupation, expropriation, arrest, and immense concrete barriers encroaching on daily life. Americans will recognize this use of images and words in the long tradition of protest and politically committed photojournalism.

Apartheid is a Crime is a cry for social justice that recalls the effort of Walker Evans and James Agee to depict the plight of the rural south at the height of the Depression in their book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

Book: Apartheid is a Crime by Mats Svensson from Cune Press

Mats Svensson took 60,000 photos in the occupied Palestinian territories from which he selected the 92 perceptive, nuanced, and ultimately heart-rending images in this volume.

The photos are accompanied by pithy and surprising commentary from a wide variety of Palestinian and Israeli figures as well as international voices from Barack Obama and George W. Bush to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Also included: an Israeli soldier named Nahal, Philip Giraldi (a retired CIA operative), and the Israeli journalist Ilan Pappe.

“A rendering of the Palestinian ordeal… amazing photographs plus striking and evocative language of the victims … an extraordinary contribution,” said Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories.

“Apartheid is a Crime is a journey in which the photographer Mats Svensson discovers the marginalized truth, capably delivers it to readers, and equips us to begin our own journey, reading between the lines … Mats Svensson’s patient visual documentation of Palestine slowly morphs into a moral realization of tremendous force.” said the author of Searching Jenin.

Mats Svensson, author of "Apartheid is a Crime" by Cune Press — Mats Svensson, author of “Apartheid is a Crime” by Cune Press

Mats Svensson is a Swedish photographer, diplomat, and teacher, who has a master’s degree in Social Sciences. Since 1974 he has been a development worker and also has served with the Swedish government. He has worked in Congo–Brazzaville, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Zambia, as well as working for shorter periods in Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.

Apartheid is a Crime is available on Amazon, at bookstores, and from www.cunepress.com.

Distributed world-wide by Publishers Group West/Ingram

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