Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

by Sandy Tolan

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  SOURCE NOTES

  The seed for this book was a forty-three-minute radio documentary I produced for National Public Radio's Fresh Air in 1998 on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. All else flowed from there. A radio program weaving two voices speaking to each other is one matter; transforming that pure narrative into a book rich with family stories and historical context is something else entirely. My challenge was to retain the simplicity and tone of the documentary while simultaneously writing a history book in disguise—and making it feel, all the while, like a novel.

  This book is entirely a work of nonfiction. While many of the events described happened decades ago, their retelling is based on interviews, archival documents, published and unpublished memoirs, newspaper clippings, and primary and secondary historical accounts.

  In rare cases, in chapters 2 and 3 only, I have described an event based on multiple interviews with family members who are recounting family oral history or who describe the customs of the family that would have led to the events described. The gathering of the Khairis to celebrate the finishing of the house is one such example, from chapter 2—and in each case that I rely on such family oral history, rather than actual eyewitnesses or documents, I have indicated so in the text or the source notes. Crucial, and more controversial, moments in each family's history rely strictly on the aforementioned documents and eyewitness accounts.

  In some cases old memories clash: Nuha Khairi, for example, specifically recalls Dalia being at the house in al-Ramla on the day her father, Ahmad, came to the door in 1969; Dalia is certain she was not there that day. In such cases I describe both the conflict in memory and the common ground of agreement. Dalia and Bashir also differ, and agree, on places and times each was present: Where there is difference in memory or argument, I either eliminated the portions that didn't match or noted them.

  Dalia and Bashir have reviewed the manuscript for accuracy, as have numerous scholars and experts, both Israeli and Palestinian. In addition, the manuscript has undergone a rigorous, months-long fact-checking process, overseen by Sarah Tuttle-Singer and me, in which thousands of facts were checked against interview transcripts, historical texts, memoirs, archival documents, and other material. Any mistakes that may remain are, of course, my responsibility.

  Chapter 1

  This chapter is based mainly on interviews with Bashir al-Khairi and Dalia Eshkenazi Landau in 1998, 2003, 2004, and 2005 and on Bashir's memoir, K'afagat Thakirq {Heartbeat of Memory), portions of which were translated from the Arabic by Nidal Rafa.

  Bashir's memoir describes him standing before a mirror but does not say where he stood. However, Ya'acov Haruzi, longtime worker for Egged, the Israeli national bus line, who worked in the Jerusalem terminal and has become an unofficial historian for the company, confirmed that the only mirrors in the station were in the restrooms and that there were porcelain basins there; and Bashir, in a fact-checking session in August 2005, corroborated this, as well as his action (nudging tie and so on) in front of the mirror.

  Bashir's questions to himself at the bus station, his comparison to visiting a long-lost lover, and his cousin's interjection ("The bus is leaving!") come from his memoir and interviews.

  The walk across the old boundary to the West Jerusalem bus station comes from interviews with Bashir and his cousin Ghiath Khairi.

  The description of the bus station comes from Haruzi. Dalia does not remember bars in the ticket windows in Jerusalem in 1967, but Haruzi insists they were there.

  The description of the bus comes from brochures in the Egged archives, corroborated with a tour of the Egged bus "museum," actually a big parking lot south of Tel Aviv, where helpful Egged employees led me to the type of bus that was used on the Jerusalem-Ramla line in 1967.

  The description of Dalia sitting at her table comes from her memory, as does her description of Ramla during this period, both before and after the Six Day War.

  The description of life for Dalia's parents, Moshe and Solia, during the 1940s in Bulgaria comes from numerous interviews and archival research in Sofia, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Queens, New York. See notes for chapters 3 and 5 for specific documentation.

  The description of how the Israelis described the departure of the Arabs from Ramla, in particular that they "ran away," comes from interviews with Dalia and with Sami Sela (in Rishon Letzion) and Esther Pardo, M. Levy, Mordechai Egenstein, and Michail Fanous (in Ramla). Specific language is cited in Elie Podeh's The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000.

  The description of Bashir's ride, where he and his cousins sat, and what he was thinking on the journey comes from his memoir and my interviews with him. Additional details and corroboration come from Ghiath Khairi.

  The route the bus took comes from Bashir's memory. One reader insisted that Israeli buses did not pass through Latrun in July 1967, and it is possible the route instead went through what is now the Israeli town of Modi'in, but Bashir specifically recalled passing through Latrun, so I left it in.

  The description of Abu Ghosh as a village that "collaborated with the enemy" is written through Bashir's eyes and memory as he rode toward Ramla. Further corroboration of the Arab attitude toward Abu Ghosh and the village supplying "small quantities of ammunition" to a nearby Jewish settlement can be found in Benny Morris's 1948 and After, p. 258.

  Description of the burned vehicles along the roadside comes from personal observation and interviews with Bashir and can be found in numerous printed and online accounts (see, for example, "The Road to Jerusalem" from the online site Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/vieroad.html). Dalia's memory of what she was doing and thinking that day comes from several interviews a
nd correspondences.

  The bus ride and the cousins' impressions of Ramla after they got off the bus, including the story of the butcher Abu Mohammad and the trips to cousin Yasser and cousin Ghiath's old homes, come from Bashir's memoir and from interviews with Ghiath and Bashir. N

  Bashir distinctly remembers pressing the bell. He described it in his memoir and in a 1998 interview with me.

  Chapter 2

  Dimensions and cut of the stone come from my own observation and measurements. Not all of the stones for the house were uniformly cut to the same size. Ahmad's attire as he stood in the field, his placing of the first stone, and his being accompanied by relatives and workers is described in interviews with his descendants, in particular Bashir's sisters Nuha and Khanom, who said their father would never venture outside without his fez and tie. The description of the house building comes from Bashir, Nuha, and Khanom and from a contemporary builder of traditional Palestinian stone homes, Ali Qumbar. "They cut it from the mountains here," Qumbar said in an interview. "Even though it's rough, it's soft to the touch. The whole idea of building a house like this—it's nice. It's optimistic. The land, the holy stone. It's coming from here."

  Qumbar also confirmed, as did Bashir and his cousin Ghiath, that it is customary for the owner of the house to lay the first stone before the other workers begin to build the rest of the house.

  Population figures for Ramla in 1936 are gleaned from A Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, p. 151. My figure of 11,000 is conservative. The population of Ramla in 1931 is given as 10,347, including five Jews, while the 1944 population was more than 15,000.

  The origin of Ramla's name comes from The Encyclopedia of Palestinian Cities, portions translated from the Arabic by Hatem Bazian; and from Shimon Gat, PhD, of the neighboring kibbutz of Na'an, whose doctoral dissertation in Hebrew is on the ancient history of Ramla.

  Crop and tonnage numbers come from A Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, p. 320; from the al-Ramla district section of All That Remains, pp. 355-426; and from hand-scrawled reports from the municipality of Ramla, provided by Yonatan Tubali, the longtime city manager of Ramla.

  The story of Khair al-Din is part of the Khairi family history, traced painstakingly on handwritten family trees and passed down through the generations. Bashir and Ghiath each told me the story of Khair al-Din. Dr. Sharif Kanaana, the Palestinian folklorist, confirmed the method of waqf land distribution.

  The Ramla quarter, the Khairis' life in it, and Ahmad's decision to build his house outside the quarter was described by Khanom Khairi, one of Bashir's older sisters, in an interview conducted by my colleague Mariam Shahin with questions submitted from me. (Khanom's married name is Salah, but for clarity in these notes, I continue to use Khairi.)

  Sheikh Mustafa Khairi's patriarch status is confirmed in interviews I did with numerous family members, including with his daughter-in-law Firdaws Taji Khairi in Ramallah. Her married name is Khairi, and she is mentioned hereafter as Firdaws Taji for the purpose of clarity. Sheikh Mustafa's standing with the British comes from colonial British records housed at the University of California at Berkeley. One set, Political Diaries of the Arab World, consists largely of confidential periodic reports sent by commissioners and subcommissioners in Palestine to His Majesty's government in London. The reports from the southern district commissioner in November 1938 {Political Diaries, Vol. 3, 1937-1938) refer to Sheikh Mustafa as the "very able mayor" of Ramla.

  Description of the restiveness among the British, the Arabs, and the Jews in the 1930s, and the subsequent Arab Rebellion (described later in the chapter), is based on multiple sources, including Ted Swedenburg's Memories of Revolt, Tom Segev's One Palestine, Complete, Khairi family interviews, and the aforementioned bound British records, upon which many of the details of the conflict are based. See the bibliography for other titles or the following text for specific citations.

  The text of the Balfour Declaration is online at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ mideast/balfour.htm. Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary, had seen the endorsement of a Jewish homeland as a "way to bring Jewish forces over to our side in America, the East, and elsewhere." As for the Arabs, Balfour would declare in 1919, "Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land." (Quotes in Morris, Righteous Victims, pp. 74-76).

  Ahmad's decision to consult with Sheikh Mustafa about the financing of the house is confirmed by Bashir and Ghiath as part of the family's oral history.

  The story of Mr. Solli comes from the interview with Khanom Khairi in Amman, as do the stories of Khairi and Ramla coexistence with surrounding Jewish communities at various times in the 1930s and 1940s. Another source for understanding such coexistence, sporadic as it was, is Zachary Lockman's Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906—1948. The British records also described relations between the Arab and Jewish communities, but usually as separate entities under British rule.

  The ancient history of the city, including its mosque and aqueduct, comes from the aforementioned Encyclopedia of Palestinian Cities, with additional material and confirmation from Dr. Gat. The content of the caravans was described by Dr. Hatem Bazian of UC-Berkeley, in an interview.

  The quote about Ramla by the early Islamic traveler Muqaddasi can be found in "Description of Syria, Including Palestine, Circa 985," p. 32, printed by the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society in London in 1896. Muqaddasi confirms that at the time, Ramla was the "capital of Palestine."

  The reference to British fox hunting, some 950 years after Muqaddasi traveled to Ramla, can be found in "Palestine: 1920-1923," by W. F. Stirling, in From Haven to Conquest, p. 230.

  Population and Jewish immigration figures are derived from A Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, p. 149 and p. 185. These are official figures; actual numbers, which would include all illegal immigration from Europe, may have been higher. In 1936, more than two-thirds of the immigrants were Polish and German.

  For an extensive analysis of land sales from Arabs to Jews, see Kenneth Stein's The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939. Stein points out that many of the land sales to Jews were by non-Palestinian Arabs, though many were not: During the 1920s and early 1930s, driven largely by economic need, many "notables" of Palestine sold land to Jews. These sales were a major factor in tensions that led to the Arab Rebellion, and that would ultimately weaken the nationalist movement of Palestine's Arabs. Stein, writes, "At a time of feverish anti-Zionist and anti-British sentiment, Palestinian Arab land sales to Zionists showed that individual priorities were equal to or more important than an emerging national movement." Nevertheless, as early as 1911, Arabs of Palestine were warning against land sales (see Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 62). Swedenburg, in Memories of Revolt, writes that land sales were"of such major concern to the national movement in the thirties, so serious in fact that the Mufti launched vigorous public campaigns against the notorious Palestinian land agents, and branded them as heretics. . . . " The estimate of thirty thousand landless peasant families (by 1931) comes from Doreen Warriner's Land and Poverty in the Middle East, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1948, pp. 61-2, as cited by Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch, p. 198 and p. 230. Hirst writes (p. 198), "They lived in squalor. In old Haifa there were 11,000 of them crammed into hovels built of petrol-tins, which had neither water-supply nor rudimentary sanitation. Others, without families, slept in the open. . . . It should be noted that despite the land sales by Arabs, the total land owned by Jews in Palestine on the eve of the war of 1948 was 7 percent (John Chappie, Jewish Land Settlement in Palestine, cited in Walid Khalidi's From Haven to Conquest, p. 843).

  Swedenburg's Memories of Revolt is an excellent source for the Arab Rebellion. See p. 78 on the arms-smuggling operation (also mentioned in A Survey of Palestine, p. 33). Details on Sheikh al-Qassam come from Segev, One Palestine Complete, pp. 359-363;
A Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, p. 33, and Vol II, pp. 594-95; Memories of Revolt, p. 12 and p. 104; and Palestine and Transjordan Administrative Reports, Vol. 6, p. 20. More than six decades later, Sheikh Qassam's martyrdom would be remembered by operatives of Hamas, who would build crude rockets in his name and fire them into Israeli settlements in Gaza.

  See Palestine and Transjordan Administrative Reports, Vol 6. pp. 19-39, for the sequence of events of the Arab Rebellion. Additional details from Memories of Revolt, pp. 30-32, 126, and 130. The account of the assault on the bathing British troops comes from Palestine and Transjordan Administrative Reports, Vol 6, p. 30. The importance of the keffiyeh, or traditional male Palestinian head scarf, is mentioned in Memories of Revolt, p. 30. The quote about "frequent detonations and crashes of falling masonry" is from a judgment by British justice Michael F. J. McDonnell and is quoted in "The Town Planning of Jaffa, 1936" (as cited in From Haven to Conquest, pp. 343 47). This appears to be the beginning of a policy of house demolitions against rebels and their families.

  Impressions of Zakia Khairi and the family's lifestyle, as well as the festival at Nabi (Prophet) Saleh, come largely from Khanom Khairi. Khanom and Firdaws Taji discussed the political pressure Sheikh Mustafa was under; additional details about that can be gleaned from the Political Diaries of the Arab World, Palestine and Jordan, Vol. 3, p. 394.