El-Tahri, Jihan

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EL-TAHRI, Jihan

PERSONAL: Born in Beirut, Lebanon. Education: American University in Cairo.

ADDRESSES: Home—Paris, France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, TV Books, 1619 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Author, journalist, and film director. Former news correspondent for U.S. News and World Report and Reuters news agency; director of documentary films The Koran and Kalashnikov, The House of Saud, and The Fifty Years' War: Israel and the Arabs.

WRITINGS:

(With Christophe Boltanski) Les sept vies de Yasser

Arafat (title means "The Seven Lives of Yasser Arafat"), B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1997.

(With Ahron Bregman) Israël et les arabes: La guerre de cinquante ans (based on authors' film of the same name), Arte Editions/Editions Mille et Une Nuits (Paris, France), 1998, translation by Peggy Frankston and Jean Guiloineau published as The Fifty Years' War: Israel and the Arabs, TV Books (New York, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Jihan el-Tahri has worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is also the coauthor of two books focusing on the Middle East. Her first book, Les sept vies de Yasser Arafat, was written with Christophe Boltanski and is a biography of the Palestinian leader who died in November 2004. El-Tahri also co-wrote The Fifty Years' War: Israel and the Arabs with Ahron Bregman, creating a companion guide based on the PBS series of the same name that el-Tahri directed. The 1999 book and film focus on the longtime conflict between Jews and Arabs that intensified in 1948 when the Jewish state of Israel was created. The authors write about the early years of Israel and delve into the history of the Middle East region, where the religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have played an integral role in the many hostilities of the area. Included in the book are comments about the conflict from such leaders as Jordan's King Hussein and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, as well as accounts from the Central Intelligence Agency, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and other organization representatives who have dealt with the region's problems firsthand.

Writing in Booklist, Vanessa Bush called the book an "involving look at one of the bloodiest and longest of world conflicts." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented, "This is a cleanly written book that any reader will learn from, but it should be read with an eye toward its subtle prejudices."