Mornings in Jenin

The years 1987 to 1994 mark the duration of the first Intifada, or uprising, by Palestinians in protest of decades of Israeli occupation. The Palestinians use sticks and stones to show their anger, and Israel retaliates with “might, force and beatings” (249) as directed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Amal includes a long extract from Norman Finkelstein’s The Rise and Fall of Palestine, detailing the kidnapping, detention, torture, and brutal beatings of many Palestinian children by Israeli forces. Their parents are often asked to pay ransoms for their return.

This is the case of Huda and Osama’s youngest son, six-year-old Mansour, who is held for a week until his parents can find him and pay the ransom. The boy never speaks again. Huda sings him to sleep thereafter and is listened to by her other three children and Osama. She begs her other children not to join the stone-throwers, but at the age of 12, her twins, Jamal and Jamil, cannot resist, and Jamal is shot.

In the United States, Amal continues to survive with her anger, sadness, and fear bottled up inside her. She thinks of her lost family in Palestine and of Ismael/David. David also thinks about Amal after his father tells him his true history on his deathbed. His personal torment and guilt grow, and he tells his wife, who cannot accept that he is Arab and leaves him. Their son, Uri, a staunch Zionist, stays with his mother, but the other son, Jacob, chooses his father. David’s mother, Jolanta, offers to help him find his Palestinian family, and they eventually track down Amal in Philadelphia.

Amal is cooking a traditional Palestinian dish for Sara, who is home from college for the holidays, when she receives a phone call from David. After stammered introductions, they arrange to meet two days later when David is in the US. Amal tells Sara about the call and then shares a lot of details about their family that she hid from her. However, she continues to lie and say Yousef died in a car accident.

David arrives while Sara is out, and he and Amal talk awkwardly until David sees a photo of Yousef and says he looks just like him. Amal asks David: “Did you hurt him?” (265). David admits that he did, and Amal sees that he is tortured by this. Amal wants more information and to hear David’s regret so she can reconcile having a brother who fought for Israel. David explains that the thrill of power combined with the anger he felt at not being sure of his ancestry made him beat Yousef at the crossing, but he didn’t torture him in prison.

Amal tells David about Yousef and Fatima’s love affair and the day that Yousef was beaten at the crossing. He had been on the way to ask Fatima to marry him. When he returned, beaten, to his family home, Amal heard him tell his friend that he was beaten by his brother at the checkpoint. It was the first time she had heard that Ismael might still be alive.

Amal senses David’s loneliness and pain, which he tries to assuage by drinking. She wishes she could comfort him and herself.

Amal shows David Yousef’s letter from 1968, which she has kept hidden from everyone, even the FBI and CIA agents. David cries. He talks about his mother, Jolanta, and her devoted attention to him while she harbored the lie. He asks about Dalia, and Amal tells him her mother’s story and lets him touch the remnants of Dalia’s clothing that she has kept safe. Amal comes to the conclusion that Dalia was as good a mother as she could be, given her loss and pain.

David describes how his father, Moshe, was tormented by guilt for snatching him, and he confessed to the atrocities committed by Israel 53 years earlier. David says Moshe was a good person who loved him, despite being a terrorist. Amal says she understands, thinking of Yousef’s actions. Sara arrives, and Amal introduces David as her brother.