Why a Booktrail?
1948: A young girl, born in a refugee camp tells the story of how her family came to be there and how this is where she was born
Mornings in Jenin
What you need to know before your trail
Palestine, 1948. A mother clutches her six-month-old son as Israeli soldiers march through the village of Ein Hod. In a split second, her son is snatched from her arms and the fate of the Abulheja family is changed forever. Forced into a refugee camp in Jenin and exiled from the ancient village that is their lifeblood, the family struggles to rebuild their world. Their stories unfold through the eyes of the youngest sibling, Amal, the daughter born in the camp who will eventually find herself alone in the United States; the eldest son who loses everything in the struggle for freedom; the stolen son who grows up as an Israeli, becoming an enemy soldier to his own brother.
Locations
Reset- Israel/Palestine
- A: Ein Hod
- B: Mount Carmel
- C: Jenin
- D: Jenin courthouse
- E: Jerusalem - Damascus Gate
Travel Guide
Israel, Palestine, Jenin
Jenin
The town where the refugee camp and the violence is. The horrors illustrated by the innocence of a child: “Amal wanted a closer look into the soldier’s eyes by the muzzle of his automatic rifle, pressed against her forehead, would not allow it”
Ein Hod
In a distant time, before history marched over the hills and shattered present and d future, before wind grabbed the land at one corner and shook it of its name and character, before Amal was born, a small village east of Haifa lived quietly on figs and olives open frontiers and sunshine.
A simple village and community with olive farms, a predawn orchestra of all sorts of animals, harvests and sunshine. They go to Haifa for supplies and to market and are unwilling to go to Jerusalem for fear of meeting Brits or Zionists of some description.
Author note
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. The horrors of the Jenin camps forced her and gave her the courage to tell this story
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Mornings in Jenin
Destination: Palestine, Ein Hod, Jenin Author/Guide: Susan Abulhawa Departure Time: 1948
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