BOOK REVIEW - MORNINGS IN JENIN

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Published: 2011

Originally published as The Scar of David in 2006

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: Palestine (Palestine occupied territory/Israel)

Rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis:

Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. This is the Palestinian story, told as never before, through four generations of a single family.

The very precariousness of existence in the camps quickens life itself. Amal, the patriarch's bright granddaughter, feels this with certainty when she discovers the joys of young friendship and first love and especially when she loses her adored father, who read to her daily as a young girl in the quiet of the early dawn. Through Amal we get the stories of her twin brothers, one who is kidnapped by an Israeli soldier and raised Jewish; the other who sacrifices everything for the Palestinian cause. Amal’s own dramatic story threads between the major Palestinian-Israeli clashes of three decades; it is one of love and loss, of childhood, marriage, and parenthood, and finally of the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has.(Source: Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

“There are two sides to every story”

I have heard this statement regurgitated so many times every time the Israel-Palestine conflict and history is spoken about, and whilst I do not disagree with the statement in its entirety, I now approach it cautiously and question the intentions and underpinnings of those who so fondly use it. To be fair though, upon reflecting on my own understanding of the situation, largely shaped by the prevailing media narrative – Israel = Good/Chosen Ones and Palestine = Bad/Terrorists, I would understand why this is always the first line of argument. A defence strategy. Because the actual reality does not auger well with one’s beliefs, feelings and understanding, creating a level of cognitive dissonance.

What if, everything else I have been taught, know and hold dear is a lie?

Mornings in Jenin is a multigenerational/intergenerational story of a Palestinian family – the Abulhejas, living through Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The story begins in the 1940s in a Palestinian village of Ein Hod, a territory that would, in 1948, be ceased by the Jews (as with many other Palestinian territories) to pave way for the creation of the State of Israel. The Abulhejas are displaced from their land and forcibly and very violently moved to Jenin as refugees. We meet Amal, the central character, daughter of Dalia and Hussein, Granddaughter of Yeyha and Basima, sister of Yousef and David/Ismael, mother of Sara, wife of Majid, on the first page and years before she is born, reckoning with her imminent death. This sets the tone for the chain of events that lead up to this opening scene. From the onset, you can tell that this might not be one of those books with neatly tied, bow on top, driving off into the sunset happy endings we are conditioned to expect.

In Mornings in Jenin, Abulhawa expertly uses fiction and fact (none of the numbers in this books are fictitious) to tell this story of an occupation that has lasted decades while the world watches, either completely oblivious to it or completely shaped by propaganda that it removes you from considering the human faces and cost of this conflict. While Abulhawa tells this story from a Palestinian perspective, she is unbiased in showing the effects of this senseless hate and the human faces of both occupier and occupied, caught up in the war that in most cases, is far beyond their own understanding. But while she does manage to humanise both sides, make no mistake that Palestinians have always suffered the short end of the stick.

‘The Irony, which sank its bitter fangs into my mind, was that Mama, the mother who gave birth to David, also survived a slaughter that claimed nearly her entire family. Only the latter occurred because of the former, underscoring for me the inescapable truth that Palestinians paid the price for the Jewish holocaust. Jews killed my mother’s family because Germans had killed Jolanta’s”

Abulhawa’s characters are so well developed and multidimensional reaffirming the duality of the human spirit. Good can exist within evil. Love can exist within hate. Brothers can turn on each other and humanity can time and time again fail miserably.

I particularly love the use of alternating POVs and narration shifts from 3rd to 1st person throughout the course of the book. I found quite useful in not only rooting the reader in the narrative but also with the characters, their innermost thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes. Giving you a front row seat into their pain, their motivations and humanity.

Through the story Of David/Ismael, stolen from the arms of his Palestinian mother at 6 months old and raised as an Israeli to hate and hurt Palestinians, you question the senselessness of it all. Why do we teach children hate? And what if you ever find yourself wearing the other shoe?

Through Yousef who loves hard and loses even harder reveals the very thin line between love and hate. How loss, stripping of dignity and human value can fester a deep sated urge for vengeance and how that would play out if acted upon. How terrorists are born, bred and nurtured

Through Amal and Dalia, we are left to consider the effects of conflict and war on women who bear it’s brunt. Women are left to pick up the pieces time and time again coming at a hefty price – the price of hardened hearts. The price of mothers having to sneak around to kiss their children in the night because they cannot risk loving them too much. Unable to extend yourself further, to give in to emotion, show love or bask in your femininity.

“Whatever you feel, keep it inside.”

There is no happy ending here. But there is hope and there is testament to the resilience of the human spirit. There are a people trying to rebuild, and every morning, every dawn, brings with it new hope that maybe, just maybe, one day, Palestine will be free.

This book opened my eyes and I am so glad I read it.