Review of Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine by Jennifer Lynn Kelly.

This review discusses Jennifer Lynn Kelly's recent study of tourism in Palestine/Israel, Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine. The central actors in Kelly's book are the tour guides that lead internationals on trips that traverse temporal and spatial boundaries in Palestine/Israel. Each of Kelly's seven chapters describe how tour guides navigate the layers of occupation, and in doing so, express an anti-colonial praxis. The strongest provocation Kelly presents to the reader is in challenging why international tourists have to 'see it to believe it' in Palestine/Israel. Kelly interrogates why, despite the tremendous amount of work done by Palestinians about their own condition, international tourists still need to see the occupation for themselves to believe what Palestinians have already said. However, the book could have benefitted from more explanation of Kelly's own position in her research. The book opens and closes with the dual invitation guides present to tourists: 'Welcome to Palestine/Your Work Is Not Here'. How Kelly navigated the tension of this dual invitation herself, considering her work was very much 'there', is not answered. Nonetheless, Invited to Witness is a welcome and important addition to literature on global phenomena in Palestine.