Joost Hiltermann
Writer & Researcher
About Joost
Joost Hiltermann is a Dutch researcher and writer. He was the Programme Director for the Middle East & North Africa at the International Crisis Group and was previously at Human Rights Watch. Joost holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written for The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs and other publications.
Joost has published two books: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (Cambridge, 2007) and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton, 1991). The Resurrected is his debut novel. Joost was one of the main researchers of the genocide against the Kurds for Human Rights Watch in the 1990s, culminating in his fictionized retelling of the case. He has remained in close contact with the two (real) survivors and their families to this day.
Publications
The Resurrected (Afsana Press, 2026)
A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (Cambridge, 2007)
Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton, 1991)