Mornings in Jenin

“Every November, the harvest week brought renewed vigor to Ein Hod, and Yehya, Abu Hasan, could feel it in his bones.”

Here, the importance of the rhythm of nature and the seasons, and the vital connection between the patriarch, Yehya, and his land and trees, are portrayed. Ein Hod refers to the village as a community, and the impression is that they are united, one entity, working together. The term Abu Hasan (father of Hasan) highlights the importance of family and being a father.

“To the villagers, Dalia was like a wild gypsy, born of Bedouin poetry and colors instead of flesh and blood. Some thought the child had an aspect of the devil and convinced Dalia’s mother to bring a sheikh to read Quranic verses over her.”

One of the central characters, Dalia, is introduced. Her wild and colorful spirit as a free and innocent child contrasts starkly with how her character ends up after the Israeli atrocities. At this point in the book, her Bedouin origins are seen as suspicious by the settled Arabs, and she is considered a threat to their peaceful, god-fearing ways. Thus, the theme of Interfaith and Intercultural Relationships arises through the girl’s relationship with Hasan, the son of the respected Yehya.

“The physical remnant of that day was a distinctive scar that would mark Ismael’s face forever and eventually lead him to his truth.”

As baby Ismael is dropped by his brother, Yousef, on a nail on his crib, his face is wounded and will scar. The reference to the scar that will “eventually lead him to his truth” sets up a mystery in the reader’s mind and foreshadows later developments in the story. Since Ismael also symbolizes Israel/Palestine in his transition to David, his scar represents the partition of the land and the permanent harm and trauma caused by the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The Irgun, Haganah, and Stern Gang. The British called them terrorists. The Arabs called them Yahood, Jews, Zionists, Dogs, Sons of Whores, Filth. The recent Jewish population called them Freedom Fighters, Soldiers of God, Saviors, Fathers, Brothers.”

This listing of the different names applied to the Jewish militia groups who attacked the Palestinian villages from 1947 shows the different perceptions of the conflict of those involved and the powerful emotions that accompany them. In other contexts, Palestinians have been called terrorists and freedom fighters depending on the perspective.

“They repulsed attacks and called for a truce, wanting only to live on their land as they always had. For they had endured many masters—Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Ottomans, British—and nationalism was inconsequential. Attachment to God, land, and family was the core of their being and that is what they defended and sought to keep.”

The villagers of Ein Hod and the other villages in the unconquered triangle manage to hold out against the Jewish incursions. The Palestinian villagers’ character, history, and values are highlighted here. Their nature is portrayed as resilient, unaggressive, and peace-seeking. The truce that they call for and are supposedly granted is betrayed, and the subsequent attacks are even more devastating.

“‘Ibni! Ibni!’ My son, my son, Dalia screamed, her eyes bulging in search of her son. Dust at her face, cactus at her feet. ‘Ibni! Ibni!’ She scanned the ground, looked up, and Hasan’s tall figure was not there.”

Dalia screams for Ismael after he is taken by Moshe. This powerful image encapsulates the pain of losing one’s children. Dalia is the first to lose a child in the Zionist incursions, but many more will be lost throughout the book and the occupation. The dust and cacti of the territory as the villagers move away from their homes contrast with the green and fertile images of Palestinian land.

“The old folks of Ein Hod would die refugees in the camp, bequeathing to their heirs the large iron keys to their ancestral homes, the crumbling land registers issued by the Ottomans, the deeds from the British mandate, their memories and love of the land, and the dauntless will not to leave the spirit of forty generations trapped beneath the subversion of thieves.”

As the Jewish state is declared in 1948, the Palestinians are moved to refugee camps, like Jenin. This extract highlights that the legal owners are the Palestinians, as they hold the historical ownership documents, but that their homes have been stolen from them. The keys being passed down through families symbolize the eternal hope and fight for the right of return and the “dauntless will” of the Palestinians, who never give up on that hope.

“Jolanta had suffered so much; how could God deny her the elemental gift of motherhood while granting so many healthy children to Arabs, who were already so numerous? The injustice of it all solidified in him a resolve to take— by force if necessary—whatever was needed.”

Moshe considers his wife’s longing for a child and thinks about taking one from the Palestinian woman, Dalia, he has seen at the village feast. In this extract, insight is given into the mindset of those who commit heinous crimes. Racist ideas, appeals to religion, feelings of persecution, and love for his wife all combine to push Moshe to kidnap Ismael. In this way, the author avoids painting a black-and-white picture of the conflict, instead focusing on individual suffering and motivations.

“Baba said: ‘The land and everything on it can be taken away, but no one can take away your knowledge of the degrees you earn.’”

During one of the many early morning sessions with her father in Jenin, Amal enjoys the closeness, poetry, and lessons they share. These mornings stay in her memory forever and are a motif in the book. Hasan transfers his love of poetry and reading and the importance of education to Amal.

“I looked down at Aisha. She was sleeping. Her face was calm. Seraphic. Her sweet little rosy lips were slightly parted, almost in a smile. I did not understand. My tears landed on her face, streaking the filth on her cheek. Her abdomen was a gaping hole cradling a small piece of shrapnel.”

In 1967, Amal is 11 when the refugee camp she was born in is attacked during the Israeli-Palestinian war. Huda and Amal are hidden in a hole in the kitchen floor for days and then given the orphaned baby, Aisha, to look after. This harrowing image of a beautiful, innocent child being horribly wounded highlights the evil and atrocious nature of armed conflict. The shock of the description of the injury after the angelic images of the baby’s face reflects the traumatic effect the war had on Amal.

“Do it. You are no different from Nazis who stood in my way when I cared for Jews in the Second World War.”

This quote is from Sister Marianne, the Christian nun, when she faces up to the Israeli soldier who wants to deny Huda and Amal access to medical care. He threatens to shoot the nun, but she is unperturbed. Her words reveal her faith in God but also in her own strength and the compassion she has shown to people of different faiths in different wars. She stands as a truly religious person, willing to help all in need, regardless of their faith or nationality. In this way, she is contrasted with those on each side of the conflict. Her words also reflect that war and division continue, history repeats itself, and people don’t seem to learn from it.

“The war changed us, Mama most of all. It withered Mama. Her essential fiber unraveled, leaving her body a mere shell that often filled with hallucination. Following the occupation and the disappearance of my brother and father, Mama hardly left her prayer mat.”

Amal describes the start of Dalia’s mental and physical state being impacted as the Israeli atrocities take their toll on her. She no longer feels or acts like the once vibrant and strong Bedouin girl. Dalia is one stark example of the effects of long-term conflict on individuals, a key theme of the book. Dalia also closes in on herself and is no longer able to show physical and verbal love to Amal, leaving her deprived of an affectionate maternal model.

“In the days that follow, I am once again surrounded by fire and fleeing souls. My fear coiled around rage. I fire my weapon, but in the moment of truth, when the test of my courage looks me in the eyes, I cannot take the life of another. I am afraid of violating life. Afraid of losing mine.”

Yousef and Hasan take their rifles and go to fight against Israeli forces in 1967. Yousef, however, cannot kill and surrenders, only to be tortured and beaten before being returned to Jenin. This extract exposes the complex feelings inside a young man on the path toward becoming a freedom fighter/terrorist: a mixture of anger and fear. Later events drive him further along the path to vengeance, but at this point, he is still not able to shoot in cold blood.

“I can explain this, but it would break

  the glass cover on your heart,

  and there’s no fixing that.”

This extract from the poem “Shadow and Light Source Both” by the Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi appears several times during the story. Here, Yousef, in prison, remembers his father reading it aloud to him, as does Amal later in the book. Other poetic excerpts are included in the story, all of which are beloved by Hasan and now his children. The power of poetry to soothe and enlighten is indicated by these inclusions. Here, Yousef tells his father, in his mind, what he has learned: Ismael is fighting for Israel.

“Toughness found fertile soil in the heart of the Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability. They learned to celebrate martyrdom. Only martyrdom offered freedom. Only in death were they at last invulnerable to Israel.”

As the Palestinians endure life in the refugee camps and the consistent cruelties and injustices inflicted upon them over the years, this quote describes the effects on many of them. Yousef is, at this point, a regular target of beatings and torture, some inflicted by his brother, David. Dalia is slowly but steadily losing her will to live. The author does not flinch from acknowledging that the idea of martyrdom, or dying while resisting the oppressor, is a concept accepted by some Palestinians, such is their desperation and defiance.

“We all crawled from the pits of dispossession and tried to survive as best we could under Israeli occupation. Our greatest pleasures were moments of normalcy […] The bond we forged was molded from an unspoken commitment to our collective survival. It reached through history, straddled continents and held our collective and individual tragedies and triumphs. […] Our bond was Palestine. It was a language we dismantled to construct a home.”

Amal reflects with nostalgia, years later, on her time at the orphanage in Jerusalem. There, she found a family to replace the one she lost in Palestine but with Palestine as their common thread. This quote reinforces the concept of Palestinian identity and community and how important it is to those in the diaspora to find a home among each other.

“Amy. Amal of the steadfast refugees and tragic beginnings was now Amy in the land of privilege and plenitude. The country that flowed on the surface of life, supine beneath unwavering skies. But no matter what façade I bought, I forever belonged to that Palestinian nation of the banished to no place, no man, no honor.”

Amal is in America, doing graduate studies after five years there. She has tried to shake off her Arab past and become American but has not managed it; her Palestinian roots are too deep. This image implies that the US is a superficial place where people enjoy life, uncaring or unaware of the rest of the world.

“It is the kind of love you can know only if you have felt the intense hunger that makes your body eat itself at night. The kind you know only after life shields you from falling bombs or bullets passing through your body. It is the love that dives naked toward infinity’s reach. I think it is where God lives.”

In Lebanon, Fatima, now married to Yousef and mother to their baby daughter, after a long separation and much sacrifice, tells Amal about their deep and total love while encouraging her to date Majid. Her words evoke the horrors the Palestinians have lived through and their unwavering faith in God, despite all that has happened to them. That they, including Yousef, can still be loving and tender after what they have experienced is a miracle. At this point in her life, Amal seems ready for love, too.

“I have given my life to the resistance and sworn many an oath to the struggle. I thought my heart was too full of pledges and responsibilities to make another promise. But you have touched my heart in places I had not known were there. And I am compelled to one more promise, and it is this: If you will have me, I will love you and protect you for all my days.”

Majid expresses his feelings for Amal in a letter. Letters are a frequent element in the book and a device for revealing messages and emotions otherwise difficult to transmit. Thus, Amal and Majid’s love story develops, and Amal believes she will finally have the home, safety, future, and family she always wished for. Hope returns to her life in the shape of Majid.

“By August, the results were 17,500 civilians killed, 40,000 wounded, 400,000 homeless, and 100,000 without shelter. Prostrate, Lebanon lay devastated and raped, with no infrastructure for food or water. Israel claimed it had been forced to invade for peace. ‘We are here for peace. This is a peacekeeping mission.’”

These figures describe the casualties of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent two months of attacks as they sought to force out the PLO. Susan Abulhawa uses several strategies to convey the severity and scale of the violence. While the story is told from the point of view of several individuals and their harrowing experiences, she also includes facts and figures to drive home the message. At the same time, she personifies Lebanon as a woman, devastated and raped by war. This metaphor parallels the actual treatment of many women in war. The author does not shy from political comment either, juxtaposing the Israeli authorities’ claims that they were acting in “peace” with these facts and graphic images.

“Yousef called me, screaming. Screaming. Even through the telephone wires, there was enough agony in his voice to break the sky. I can still hear it shatter the wind when I walk.”

When Yousef hears that his wife and baby have been killed in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacre, he feels broken. This is the event that drives him back to the fight with the PLO. Amal is tortured by the memory of Yousef’s suffering. This is a counterpoint to the blissful scenes of family love that she witnessed in the camp a few months previously. There are several occasions when characters scream in the book: Dalia when she loses Ismael, is one of them, and Huda screams at Amal’s burial.

“Forgive me, Amal. It is time they taste a small dose of the heaps of the heaps they have fed us all our lives—Yousef.”

These few words, sent by Yousef in a letter to Amal that reached the CIA before it did her, form the incriminating evidence that has him named the US Embassy bomber. They also lead the reader to believe that Yousef is capable of and may have carried out the bombing, as his words imply an act of revenge. This literary device sets the reader up for the surprise at the end of the book.

“You and I are the remains of an unfulfilled legacy, heirs to a kingdom of stolen identities and ragged confusion. In the complicity of siblinghood, of aloneness and unrootedness, Amal loved David instinctively, despite herself and despite who he had become.”

As David and Amal get to know each other in the US, deep and complex feelings and reactions emerge. Amal seeks to understand David’s past and how he could have carried out the violence he did, even to his own brother, Yousef. David seeks Amal’s forgiveness, and both seek reconciliation and acceptance from their sibling. Here, the message is that family ties can be more powerful than roles and behaviors we have not chosen to play out, especially in a context of war, dispossession, and stolen identity.