Ok... here are a few suggestions:
Blaming the Victim, edited by Edward Said
Iron Gate, Rashid Khalidi (history)
Palestine, James Gelvin (current situation)
History of Palestine, Gudrun Kramer (general history)
Palestine Twilight: The Murder of Dr. Alber Glock and the Archeology of the Holy Land, Edward Fox (not hisotry exactly but informative)
And Institute for Palestine Studies (www.palestine-studies.org) has other recommendations for books on Palestine.
i hope you and the French dude find one of these books useful.
