To gain a thorough understanding of the contemporary Palestinian struggle, this book is an essential resource, providing critical insights into the essence of Palestinian suffering under colonial regimes. Through an anthropological lens, Lori Allen explores the Palestinians' struggle, particularly highlighting how various national commissions since the 20th century have been used as tools to suppress the Palestinian resistance movement. By extensively employing ethnographic research, Allen offers a profound analytical reflection on the global political matrix. She asserts, “for a hundred years, international law has been a black hole: the massive weight of its mechanisms, both ideological and institutional, have pulled energies and actors, ideas and motivations deep within it, suffocating their vitality.” (251)

The author meticulously analyzes the Palestinians' engagement with commissions of inquiry that have investigated Palestine over the decades. She provides a detailed account of how these commissions, far from supporting Palestinian liberation, have often played a role in perpetuating their suffering. Allen exposes the complicity of Western powers, particularly the United Kingdom, in creating and sustaining the conditions that have led to the ongoing plight of the Palestinians, with the United States continuing to suppress their right to self-determination.

The first chapter of her book outlines the Palestinians' initial hopes and expectations towards international law. It highlights their early efforts to secure political independence and establish a polity grounded in liberal values. Allen begins with the King-Crane Commission of 1919, which she describes as the first instance in a recurring pattern of Palestinian self-representation, investigation, and subsequent disregard by international bodies (70).

In the second chapter, Allen examines the Arab Revolt (1936-1939), a significant Palestinian uprising against British colonial rule aimed at halting Jewish immigration and achieving national independence. The revolt resulted in over five thousand Palestinian deaths and nearly fifteen thousand injuries. In response, the British government established the Peel Commission, which Allen discusses in detail, particularly focusing on the Palestinians' attempts to boycott it. She notes that this boycott was one of the few examples in Palestinian history of collective resistance to the mechanisms of international law. Despite initial resistance, Palestinian leaders ultimately engaged with the commission, which recommended the partition of Palestine—a proposal that sparked widespread protests across the Middle East (99).

The third chapter explores the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, focusing on how it leveraged the humanitarian politics of Jewish suffering. Allen discusses how Palestinians recognized early on the political use Zionists made of Western sympathy for Jews in Europe, particularly after World War II. She critiques the committee for sidestepping the fundamental question of why the resolution of Jewish suffering should come at the expense of Palestinians, rather than being addressed in Europe, where the persecution originated. The committee's work, like others before it, failed to resolve the Palestine issue but succeeded in entrenching humanitarian sympathy for Jews as a political-moral value, sidelining Palestinian demands for a democratic solution (143).

In the fourth chapter, Allen examines the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and the broader context of third-world solidarity at the UN General Assembly in 1947. UNSCOP recommended partitioning Palestine, allocating 57 percent of the land to Jews despite their significantly smaller population and limited land ownership. This decision, Allen argues, epitomized the failures of previous British commissions and marked a pivotal moment in Palestinian history, as the Palestinian leadership fully boycotted this commission.

Allen continues by discussing the aftermath of the British mandate in 1948, which culminated in the Nakba, the expulsion of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Israel's establishment as a state and subsequent recognition by the United Nations, while Jordan and Egypt took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, respectively, is analyzed through the lens of Palestinian engagement with the UN. Allen emphasizes that despite their investment in the UN's proclaimed universal principles, the Palestinian struggle has often been met with international law's limitations, reinforcing its authority as a tool of governmentality without effecting real change in their political reality (140).

In the fifth chapter, Allen explores the Mitchell Committee (2000), which aimed to investigate the causes of the Second Intifada and recommend a path towards peace negotiations. She describes the committee's report as a blend of diplomatic and technocratic approaches, infused with the human rights rhetoric that has become central to UN commissions. However, like its predecessors, the report ultimately became irrelevant in the face of ongoing political shifts.

The final chapter discusses subsequent UN missions and the Palestinians' waning trust in international law. Despite renewed efforts, such as the "road map" of 2003, which sought to outline a path towards a permanent status agreement, these initiatives failed to achieve their goals, leaving Palestinians increasingly disillusioned with international investigations, as evidenced by the lukewarm reception of later UN missions in Gaza.

In conclusion, Lori Allen's book successfully takes the reader into the historical context of the Palestinians and their enduring hope for liberation through engagement with international law and humanitarian discourse. Although the commissions ultimately failed, Palestinians consistently emphasized their right to liberation grounded in international principles. Despite the international community's inability to enforce the law and bring an end to decades of colonization, Palestinian efforts have been recognized globally, affirming their right to liberation. The author in her work was aware of everyone who contribute to the knowledge she is prodcuing in a very profound way:

“I have tried to become familiar with these people, their “faces and pains, emotions and the authorities created to control them” in order to articulate the past historically and, in Walter Benjamin’s words, seize hold of memory “as it flashes up at a moment of danger.” And like any anthropologist, out of respect and gratitude to those who have shared something of the dangers of their lives, even those who have done so without consent from the grave, I have been anxious to prevent any imposition of meaning upon them, and eager to allow their sense and sensibilities—including those I found objectionable—to come through, not without interpretation, but by some humble facilitation. In attempting this, the obverse of a magician’s trick, I have included many long quotes of speeches and interchanges between Palestinians and their interrogators, investigators, and sympathizers. It is from a sense of humility, respect, conviction, and mission that I have attempted to smuggle them past the editor’s scythe.” (240-241)

At the end, if you want to understand the current Palestinian struggle, this book will offer you a deep insights of the knowledge you are seeking.