For I’ll keep my humanity, though I did not keep my promises. . . . and Love shall not be wrested from my veins.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Although the characters in this book are fictitious, Palestine is not, nor are the historical events and figures in this story. To accurately render the settings and history, I relied on many written sources, which are cited as references and, in some instances, quoted in the text. I am grateful to these historians who have set and continue to set the record straight, often at high personal and professional costs.
Writing this story and getting it published has been a long journey that started in 2002. It was first published under the title The Scar of David by a small press that went out of business shortly thereafter. Two years after this original publication, Anna Soler-Pont, of Pontas Literary and Film Agency, became my agent and began breathing new life into it. As a result of her efforts, the story was translated into twenty languages and Bloomsbury offered to release it again in English. I am immensely grateful to Anna and to Bloomsbury for this second chance. In particular, I wish to thank Alexandra Pringle, who believed in this story enough to take it on under such unusual circumstances. And I wish to thank Anton Mueller, my editor, for the literary insight and expertise (and patience with me) that made this novel so much better. I wish to also thank Janet McDonald for her excellent copyediting.
The seed for this book came from Ghassan Kanafani’s short story about a Palestinian boy who was raised by the Jewish family that found him in the home they took over in 1948. In 2001, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi sent an e-mail to me after reading an essay that I had written about my childhood memories in Jerusalem. The e-mail read: “A very moving article—personal, Palestinian, and human. It sounds like you can write a first-rate biography. We need such a narrative. Have you thought about it?” So, to Dr. Ashrawi, I owe the initial confidence to write. A year later, I traveled to Jenin when I heard reports that a massacre was taking place in that refugee camp, which had been sealed off to the world, including reporters and aid workers, as a closed military zone. The horrors I witnessed there gave me the urgency to tell this story. The steadfastness, courage, and humanity of the people of Jenin were my inspiration.
An award from the Leeway Foundation gave me a cushion to absorb the financial difficulties that I encountered while writing. I’m thankful to this wonderful organization and to all similar institutions that value and seek to support artistic expression. The love and encouragement of friends assuaged my many episodes of self-doubt, particularly when debt and publishing rejection letters began to mount. I will always be indebted to Mark Miller for his friendship and support that never wavered, not even in my grumpiest hours. I am also grateful for the love and editorial help of many, especially Mame Lambeth, who read this manuscript three times at different stages of its development, and David Mowrey, for being the best friend I’ve ever had, and for all the Saturdays when he graciously accepted my arrival at obscenely early hours of the morning for breakfast.
A warm thank-you to the following individuals, whose generous spirits, advice, and encouragement had an impact on the creation or direction of this novel (whether they know it or not): Dr. Evalyn Segal, Gloria Delvecchio, Karen Kovalcik, Peter Ciampa, Yasmin Adib, Beverly Palucis, Martha Hughes, Nader Pakdaman, Anne Parrish, William Kowalski, Dr. Craig Miller, and Anan Zahr.
Although I met him only once in person, and briefly so, the late Dr. Edward Said influenced the making of this book in no small way. He lamented once that the Palestinian narrative was lacking in literature, and I incorporated his disappointment into my resolve. He championed the cause of Palestine with great intellect, moral fortitude, and a contagious passion that touched so many of us in many ways. To me, he was larger than life, and though we all knew he was sick, I also thought him larger than death. Alas, I was wrong. The sad loss of him, felt by many thousands of us, is echoed in the pages of this story.
My most profound gratitude is to Natalie. Being her mother has been my greatest joy, and the miracle of unconditional love that she gives and accepts is my heart’s sustenance.
GLOSSARY
Abla: teacher
Abu: father; father of
Adan: Muslim call to prayer
Aeeda: cooked sugar used as a depilatory
Ahlan: welcome
Ahsan: better
Ammo: paternal uncle
Al hamdulillah ala salama: Thanks to Him for your safe return
Allaho Akbar: God is bigger. Western press explains this phrase as meaning “God is great,” which is an erroneous translation that strips it of spirit and context. “Allaho akbar” is used in nearly every conceivable context among Arabs, and always as a humbling reminder that God is bigger than any event or circumstance and therefore faith in Him is the answer.
Ammoora: adorable
Amto: paternal aunt
Ana ismi: My name is
Areej: fragrance
Aroosa: bride
Ashhado an la ellaha ella Allah, Ashhado an Mohammadun rasool Allah: The shehadeh—the Muslim declaration of faith proclaiming the oneness of Allah and that Mohammad is his prophet
Aywa: yes
Baba: dad
Babboor: an open flame used for heating and cooking
Babel Amoud: Damascus Gate
Binti: my daughter
Bismillah: in the name of Allah
Bismillah arrahman arraheem: in the name of Allah, most Merciful, most Compassionate
Dabke: folkloric dance unique to Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan
Dal’Ouna: famous folk song and dance
Dinar: a Middle Eastern currency
Dishdashe: traditional long robe, worn by both men and women
Egal: a rope-style tie, usually black, used to hold a hatta in place on the head
El baeyeh fihayatik: a phrase of condolence that means “May your life be extended”
Ellahi: my Lord
Fadeeha: scandal
Fatayer: a type of baked bread with either cheese or zaatar and olive oil
Fatiha: the opening surah of the Quran
Fedayeen: resistance fighters
Fellaha: peasant woman
Fellaheen: peasants
Fils: coin currency
Fuul: a bean paste, typically eaten with bread
Habibi: my beloved (masculine)
Habibti: my beloved (feminine)
Haj: pilgrimage to Mecca; title of someone who made the pilgrimage to
Mecca (masculine)
Haje: title of someone who made the pilgrimage to Mecca (feminine)
Halaw: sweets
Hatikva: Israel’s national anthem
Hatta: male headdress
Hayo ala salat: flock to prayer (part of the adan)
Hayo alal falah: flock to your well-being (part of the adan)
Hijab: female head covering
Hisbiya Allah wa niamal wakeel: a phrase equivalent to putting a situation
in the capable hands of Allah
Hummus: a traditional Arab snack made of chickpeas and tahini
Ibn: son
Ibni: my son
Inshalla: God willing
Intifada: a rising up or uprising; a shaking off of oppression
IsmAllah: God’s name; used as praise and to ward away evil
Jibneh: cheese
Jiddo: grandfather
Jomaa: Friday
Kaak: a type of bread baked in long rolls with sesame
Kaffiyeh: Palestinian headdress, usually checkered black and white or red and white
Kahwe: coffee
Karaf: gross
Khalo: maternal uncle
Khalto: maternal aunt
Khan el Zeit: a street name in the Old City of Jerusalem
Khobz: bread
Kitab: book
Knafe: a cheese and pastry delicacy in syrup
Koosa: zucchini, usually stuffed
La ellaha ella Allah: There is but one God
La hawla wala quwatta ella
billah: There is neither might nor power but with Allah. It is a saying to express one’s powerlessness to reverse tragedy.
Maalesh: It’s okay
Makloobeh: Palestinian dish with lamb, rice, and eggplant in a cinnamon and cumin spice mixture
Manakeesh: bread baked with olive oil and zaatar
Muaasal: molasses tobacco
Mulukhiya: a stew of mulukhiya plant in chicken broth and garlic
Nye: ancient Middle Eastern flute
Oud: Middle Eastern instrument similar to the lute
Quirsh: a coin currency
Quirshean: two quirsh
Quran: Muslim holy book
Rahma: mercy
Rukaa: a unit of prayer
Sabr: patience; also the name of a tenacious cactus plant
Sahyouni: Zionist man
Salam alaykom: Peace be upon you—a common greeting
Salamat yakhti: Greetings, sister
Salat: prayer
Salata: salad
Sanasil: stone barriers that spiral up hills in Palestine to halt erosion
Shaheed: martyr
Shawerma: a sandwich of shredded rotisserie meat rolled into bread with salad and sauce toppings
Shehadeh: Muslim declaration of faith
Sheikh: a man of distinction in tribal traditions, usually by religious accomplishments
Sitti: my grandmother
Surah: chapter from the Quran
Tabla: small hand-held Middle Eastern drum
Taboon: large oven used for baking bread
Teta: grandma
Thobe: caftan
Thohr: noon
Um: mother of
UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency
Wahhid Allah: Proclaim the oneness of Allah
Wleidi: my son
Wudu: ablution before prayer
Ya: oh
Yaba: dad
Yahood: Jews
Yahoodi: Jewish man
Yihmeek: protect you
Yumma: mom
Zaatar: crushed thyme, turmeric, and sesame
Zaghareet: ululations
REFERENCES
Benvenisti, Meron. Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Chomsky, Noam. Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Updated edition. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999.
Finkelstein, Norman G. Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
New and revised edition. London: Verso, 2003.
——. The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A Personal Account of the Intifada Years.
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. New York: Nation Books, 2002.
Gibran, Khalil, The Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.
Imulkais of Kinda. The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East. Vol. 5, Ancient Arabia. Trans. F. E. Johnson with revisions by Sheikh Faizullah-bhai. New York and London: Parke, Austin and Lipscomb, 1917.
Karmi, Ghada. In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. London: Verso, 2002.
Khalidi, Walid. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2006.
——. Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991.
Palumbo, Michael. The Palestinian Catastrophe: The 1948 Expulsion of a People from Their Homeland. New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991.
Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Essential Rumi. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Said, Edward W. The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969–1994. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Slyomovics, Susan. The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the Six-Day War of 1967. As a teenager she moved to the United States, where she grew up in the foster care system of North Carolina. She graduated from Pfeiffer University then completed a master’s degree in neuroscience at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, Inc. (www .playgroundsforpalestine.org), an NGO that builds playgrounds for children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in refugee camps elsewhere. Abulhawa has contributed essays to the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications and anthologies.
Reading Group Guide
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group’s conversation about Mornings in Jenin, a powerful story of one family’s endurance through sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
About this book
Mornings in Jenin follows four generations of the Abulheja family through upheaval and violence in their homeland. The family has deep roots in Ein Hod, a tranquil village of olive farmers. When Israel declares statehood in 1948, the peace of Ein Hod is shattered forever: The entire community is forced to move to a refugee camp in Jenin. As the young mother Dalia Abulheja guides her sons through the caravan of chaos, an Israeli soldier snatches her baby, Ismael, from her arms. The soldier brings the Palestinian child home to his wife, a Holocaust survivor, founding a family based on a lie: Baby Ismael grows up as David, an Israeli who will unwittingly fight against his own people in wars to come.
In Jenin, the Abulheja family welcomes a daughter, Amal, who loves nothing more than listening to her doting father, Hasan, read Arabic verses. But in the war of 1967, Hasan disappears, Dalia loses her wits, and young Amal barely survives a week hiding in a bomb shelter. Amal must leave Jenin behind in order to fulfill her lost father’s wishes for her education. As Israeli-Palestinian tensions reach a crescendo in 1982, Amal loses almost everyone she loves in the Lebanon War. She must raise her newborn daughter, Sara, by herself in America, forever scarred by the loss of her homeland, her family, and her love. Only a visit from an Israeli named David—Amal’s long-lost brother, on a quest for his true identity— can shake Amal from her stoicism, inspiring a return trip to the Middle East with her daughter. Together, Amal and Sara rediscover a shattered homeland that may never be the same.
Mornings in Jenin unveils the humanity behind one of the most intractable political conflicts of our time, revealing the universal desire for a homeland, community, and safety.
For discussion
1 Mornings in Jenin opens with a prelude set in Jenin in 2002, as Amal faces an Israeli soldier’s gun. How does this prelude set the scene for the novel to come? Why does the novel open here, in contemporary Jenin, rather than at the beginning of the Abulheja family’s story? Why do you think the author wanted the reader to know in the prelude that the main character was “an American citizen”?
2 Discuss the dual traditions of land and learning in the Abulheja family. Which members of the family seem to value land over education, and vice versa? In which family members do these two traditions come together? What common values do all members of this family share? How do these values compare to the values of farmers or of those who in another way live “close to the earth” in other countries?
3 The boyhood friendship between Hasan and Ari Perlstein is “consolidated in the innocence of their twelve years, the poetic solitude of books, and their disinterest in politics” (9). What do Hasan and Ari learn from each other? Considering that Palestine had historically been a country where people of all three monotheistic religions lived in relative harmony, do you think such friendships between children like Ari and Hasan were unusual then? Could two children like Hasan and Ari have become friends in a later time period? Why or why not?
4 In Jenin, the early morning “was a time and place where the hope of returning home could be renewed” (41). What rituals take place in the early morning hours?
What is the significance of the title Mornings in Jenin?
5 Find scenes in the novel when family strife and political strife intersect. What are some problems that the Abulheja family faces day-to-day? Which family conflicts are caused by the political situation, and which seem common to families in all parts of the world?
6 Discuss the series of events that lead to Ismael’s new life as David. What connections can be drawn between Moshe’s kidnapping and Israel’s actions toward the Palestinian people? What wounds are healed when David discovers his real identity?
7 Hasan tells his daughter, “Amal, with the long vowel, means hopes, dreams, lots of them” (72). What hopes and dreams does Amal’s name suggest for the Abulheja family, and to what degree is she able to fulfill them? How do her hopes and dreams change when she calls herself “Amy” in America?
Mornings in Jenin Page 30