The Lemon Tree

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For now, though, Palestinians would find themselves returning to their homes not in triumph, but simply to ask permission to peer inside. a. (RG1) The book opens with the journey of Bashir and his cousins on a bus to their childhood homes in al-Ramla. What must have been going through their minds during that time? Can you imagine the internal dialogue in their heads, as they rode the bus, then walked around their old hometown? How would you have felt if you were Bashir, approaching the old home, and pressing the bell? Three days later, on May 22, 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the closure of the Straits of Tiran, declaring, "The Jews threaten us with war and we say to them, ahlan wa sahlan [you are welcome]. We are ready!"

the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh | Goodreads As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh | Goodreads

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. In early 1998, I set out for Israel and the West Bank in search of a surprisingly elusive story. Despite the forests of newspaper stories and miles of videotape documenting the intractable conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, precious little light had fallen on the human side of the story, the common ground between enemies, and genuine hopes for co-existence. We are prepared, our sons are prepared, our army is prepared, and the entire Arab nation is prepared." To Bashir, Nasser's words meant the enemy would be vanquished and he could return home. Now the split in the Arab world became more obvious than ever: Egypt and its ally Syria stood in favor of "pan-Arab unity," while King Hussein was labeled a pro-Western "imperialist agent" and "ally of Zionism." In the spring of 1967, Syria called for Hussein's overthrow, and Nasser declared that the king was "ready to sell the Arab nation in the same manner as Abdullah [the king's late grandfather] sold it in 1948." Bashir, now 25 years old, stood firmly on the side of Nasser and the pan-Arab movement.On the evening of June 10, Solia was visiting with Dora and Stella in the addition that had been built onto the house for the two aunts. The women sat at the kitchen table, eating their traditional supper of garlic and Bulgarian cheese, when Dalia burst into the room. t. (RG8) In 1988, near the beginning of the intifada, Bashir was deported to Lebanon. On the eve of his deportation, Dalia wrote an open letter to Bashir that was published in the Jerusalem Post (pp 200-203). Weeks later, Bashir replied (pp. 216-220). Describe your reaction to both letters. If you like, two people from the group could read the letters for the entire group. In 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Arabs ventured into the town of Ramla, in Jewish Israel. They were on a pilgrimage to see their separate childhood homes, from which their families had been driven out nearly twenty years before during the Israeli war for independence. Only one was welcomed: Bashir Al-Khayri was greeted at the door by a young woman named Dalia. In Amman, the Samu raid had already provoked waves of violent protests against the king's regime. Palestinians accused the army of being weak and unprepared and demanded arms to fight Israel. A PLO broadcast from Cairo called upon the Jordanian army to overthrow the king. Riots broke out in Jordan and the West Bank, Jordanian troops fired at Palestinian demonstrators in Jerusalem, hundreds were arrested, and the king dissolved the parliament, imposed martial law, and secured additional military aid from the United States. it’s easy to lose hope… Then along comes Sandy Tolan’s new book, The Lemon Tree, and offers just a glimmer of possibility.”

The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan | Waterstones

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.

By late on June 6, Dalia knew that the war was won. She experienced it not with elation -- not yet, since the fighting was still going on -- but rather with a sense that a miracle was taking place in Israel. How could this have happened? she thought again and again. Did God save us? How can this be?

The Lemon Tree — SANDY TOLAN

x. (RG9) Bashir and Dalia finally meet again, in the midst of rising violence and political tensions, in Ramallah in 2004 (256-262). They find that their political differences are as great as ever, but that their personal relations are as warm as ever. How does one explain that? Across the West Bank and in exile, young men confronted their parents with their plans. Fathers demanded their sons seek the safety of higher education in Cairo or London; one son, a young man named Bassam Abu-Sharif, asked his father, "What is a Ph.D. when we have no country?" He did not want to be "an eternal foreigner, a landless, homeless, stateless, shamed, despised Palestinian refugee." Bassam, after joining the PFLP, would recall telling his angry father, "I would rather be in prison in my own country than be a free man in exile. I would rather be dead." Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal, to the anger of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, was a source of deep pride for Bashir and millions of others on the Arab streets. Nasser had become a leader, with Nehru of India and Tito of Yugoslavia, of the "non-aligned movement" that sought an independent, third path between the superpowers. Most important for Palestinians, Nasser's recent championing of their cause had stirred hopes in the diaspora for a great Arab rebirth to avenge the defeat of 1948. Unlike the U.N. and its resolutions on paper, Bashir believed, Nasser could end the long exile of the Palestinians by force of arms. As I finish this book, I have crossed over - perhaps just barely - from ignorance. The question is, as a Jew living in America, and as someone who is far from an expert on the region, what action do I take to avoid negligence? Unlike GreenRoad, the facts do not lead me to anything obvious. I still celebrate Israel and what it means to have a Jewish state. I know I will still feel it in my bones when I land in Tel Aviv. And I know that visiting Israel, even multiple times per year, is nothing like living there. So where does that leave me? your book vivified and humanized the Palestinian – Israeli situation as none has. It informed and fascinated me. Many, many thanks. Please write another.b. (RG2) Dalia’s very existence, and her arrival as an infant to Israel in November 1948, is the result of remarkable circumstances that combined to save some 47,000 Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust. What do you think the most important of these factors was? How much importance would you put on the actions of Dimitur Peshev, the parliamentarian, or Bishops Kiril and Stephan – and how much to other factors? Finally, the book (p. 43) describes Dalia as carrying “an extraordinary legacy” with her to Israel in 1948. What was that legacy? The king's fears of an Israeli occupation of the West Bank, however, were secondary to his worries at home. American officials in Amman had already warned Washington that "the monarchy itself is in jeopardy."

The Lemon Tree Café - Part One: A Cup of Ambition (Lemon Tree The Lemon Tree Café - Part One: A Cup of Ambition (Lemon Tree

non-fiction at its best. A well-written, objective historical review of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict leads to a story of how an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man become life long friends. ..While reading Dahlia’s letter, I felt as if I had written parts of it myself; her words expressed my own thoughts. …Thank you for The Lemon Tree. At times Dalia thought she should listen to her Western friends who insisted that the taunting voice from Cairo represented bravado and "Oriental exaggeration." She knew that the Israeli army was strong. Today, my neighborhood book club discussed the book. We all agreed that you presented information none of us had known before – such as the Bulgarians saving “their” Jews…. I thank you from my heart for this perspective … thank you, Sandy Tolan, for one of the BEST BOOKS I have ever read in my life. I am a 65-yr-old reader with a degree in English who never watches TV& reads a lot! This is a magnificent book. Unflinching, unsentimental, even brutal at times – but also tremendously uplifting.” After several weeks, I found my story. It was about two families who were connected by the same stone home in the Israeli town of Ramla. I learned that a Palestinian family, the Khairis, had built the house in 1936, and planted a lemon tree in the yard. They lived there until the war, when like almost all the families of that town, they were forced into exile by the arriving Israeli army. The eldest son of that family was Bashir, six years old, who vowed that some day, he would return home with the many other Arab families who were driven out of Palestine.On Monday morning, June 5, 1967, Bashir Khairi stood before a judge in civil court, arguing a case on behalf of his client, a Mr. al-Abed. Bashir was now 25 and a recent graduate of Cairo University Law School, specializing in labor matters. The court had convened in Ramallah in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank, the territory King Abdullah had annexed to his kingdom 17 years earlier. His grandson Hussein was now Jordan's king and head of state. Facilities include: En-suites in all rooms, free WiFi, flat screen TV, complimentary toiletries, free parking and 24hr access. On the morning of Wednesday, June 7, Bashir and his family woke up to a city under military occupation. Israeli soldiers in jeeps were shouting through bullhorns, demanding that white flags be hung outside houses, shops, and apartment buildings; already balconies and windows fluttered with T-shirts and handkerchiefs.