cover image Confession from a Jericho Jail

Confession from a Jericho Jail

Stephen Langfur. Grove/Atlantic, $21.95 (259pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-1482-2

Langfur, an American Jew who settled in Jerusalem in 1979, here recounts how his refusal to serve military duty on the West Bank prompted the Israeli army to jail him for two weeks in 1989. He enriches the journal he kept of his prison experiences with biblical allusions, accounts of humorous incidents and portrayals of his jailers and fellow inmates. Despite his expressed revulsion at atrocities and the dehumanization he witnessed, Langfur appraises with exemplary fair-mindedness the historical background and the racial and political issues involved in the tragic conflict between Jews and Palestinians. The moral choices that obsess participants on both sides are the subject of his deeply felt commentary and philosophical musings. ``In killing Palestinian children,'' he warns, ``we condemn our grandchildren. (June)