Author clarifies views

Editor: According to Mr. Jack Chivo (Bulletin Letters, Feb. 7), I am not someone the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC), where I once worked, ought to be hosting. Mr. Chivo, whose misspelling of the title of my book assures me that he has not read it, nevertheless feels compelled to define me as an "openly pro-Arab propagandist." Such a serious charge would come as news to informed sources such as the Globe and Mail, which called my book "admirably nonjudgmental." Furthermore, in a review published in the Edmonton Jewish News, readers were told that This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land is an "unforgettable account of the Middle East juncture" that "doesn't just deserve to be read, it needs to be read."

Clearly, as I show in the book, viewpoints about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are far from homogeneous. Jewish readers are among those who write to thank me for giving voice to so many perspectives, for allowing them to see the situation from a variety of angles in a manner as colorful as the region itself. As the Edmonton Jewish News phrased it: "This Heated Place is a riveting non-fiction tale about the hardship and perils of life in Israel, where the author's candid, on-the-spot interviews with various segments of the population help to bring clarification to a situation often muddied by bias and misunderstanding." I look forward to doing the same on March 20 at the JCC, by invitation of the Peace Walker Society.

Deborah Campbell
Vancouver