When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Mona Hatoum responded to the conflict with a performance piece called The Negotiating Table.The room is dark, lit only by a light bulb over a table on which the artist lies motionless. Empty chairs surround the table. Her body is bloodstained, covered with entrails, wrapped in plastic, and her head is firmly covered in surgical gauze. On the soundtrack news reports about civil war and speeches of Western leaders talking about peace can be heard. It was John Pilger's book Freedom Next Time (Bantam Press, 2006) that got me interested. A quick excerpt: When I saw [The Negotiating Table] twenty years later, I was reminded that the injustice done in her country was like a spectre: unmoving and watchful, regardless of the manipulations and deceit of the oppressors and their backers. The droning, insincere, incessant voices of Western broadcasters and politicians, one merging with the other, clip upon clip, produced an unforgettable heightened reality. Art succeeded where journalism had failed.