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RReettuurrnn ttoo HHaaiiffaa By Boaz Gaon

Adapted from the novella by Ghassan Kanafani Translated from the Hebrew by Margalit Rodgers and Anthony Berris

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About the Production……………………………………………………………………………..3 About the artists……………………………………………………………………………………..5 The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv……………………………………………………………....8 Characters in RETURN TO HAIFA……………………………………………………….…...9 Plot synopsis for RETURN TO HAIFA……………………………………………………….10 About the city of Haifa…………………………………………………………………….…….13 Images of Haifa……………………………………………………………………………………..14 Going Home: Law of Return and Right of Return………………………………...…17 A Timeline: A History of Israel and the Palestinian Territories………….…...20 Suggested reading………………………………………………………………………………...32

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AAbboouutt tthhee PPrroodduuccttiioonn In 2008, close to the date of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, the Cameri Theatre opened their production of RETURN TO HAIFA, adapted by Boaz Gaon from the novella by Ghassan Kanafani. The play was directed by Israeli director Sinai Peter, and starred many of Israel’s most prominent Israeli and Arab-Israeli actors. It played for audiences first in Jaffa, Israel, and then at the Cameri’s main theater in Tel Aviv.

RETURN TO HAIFA in Israel

The play instigated controversy from both sides of the political spectrum. "We had weeks of demonstrations with people dressed as Palestinians holding plastic guns," Gaon said, describing the protests initiated by Jewish Israelis who thought the play presented an overly-sympathetic view of the Palestinian cause. On the other hand, others argued that Gaon's Hebrew version, authorized by the Kanafani estate, depicted the Jewish couple as more compassionate than Kanafani intended. Gaon wrote about his decision to adapt the well-known Palestinian novel, explaining: “About ten years ago, in the fall of 2000, a short novella by Ghassan Kanafani came to my attention. Dr. Ami Elad Buskila, one of Israel’s leading experts on Arabic literature, then based in Oxford, introduced the novella to me…[he] was surprised: Had I really not heard of Ghassan Kanafani? And of “Return to Haifa” in particular, one of the most important texts in modern Arabic literature?...’Read it,’ said Ami. And I did. Ten years later, I can still recall my reaction. Simply put, I was shattered. What do you do, asked Kanafani, when there’s nothing to be done? What do you say, when nothing’s to be said? What happens when two people are violently thrown against each other and a reality produces itself which is so insoluble, so devastating, so plainly cruel and murderous that the words themselves become powerless? …And still, they speak. Sa’id to Miriam, Miriam to Saffiyeh, Saffiyeh to Sa’id and Saffiyeh to Miriam, with an urgency and desperation that only the tragic twins of history—the Jews of Israel and the Palestinians of Palestine—can fully understand.” Despite the controversy stirred up by RETURN TO HAIFA, the play has been a success both critically, and in the opinions of its audiences. The play will now travel to the United States, where Theater J in Washington, DC will present it to American audiences for the first time.

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Interestingly, another adaptation of RETURN TO HAIFA recently opened in Beirut, Lebanon in December 2010. Written and directed by Beirut-based artist Lina Abyad the play has proved very moving to audiences in Beirut, many of whom have personal histories as Palestinian transplants in Lebanon, that mirror those of the characters in the play.

From the Beirut production of RETURN TO HAIFA. In this

adaptation of the story, we meet Saffiyeh as a young bride.

Abyad described the experience of adapting this story as challenging. “With a text that is so difficult and so well known you have the impression that, no matter what you do, you are going to betray it in one way or another…It has been a very moving and difficult play to work on, because there is the personal level of [Said and Safiya]… and then it echoes in the political situation.” Questions for Discussion!

• Think of other examples of adaptations you’ve experienced (movies, television shows, or other plays). In what ways was the adaptation different than the original source material? In what ways was it similar?

• Based on what has been written about each of these

productions of RETURN TO HAIFA, it sounds like each writer has chosen to focus on different aspects of the story. In what ways might each of these story-tellers (Gaon and Abyad) have approached the material differently?

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Ghassan Kanafani

“After a little while he realized that he was driving the car through Haifa with the feeling that nothing in the streets had changed. He used to know Haifa stone by stone, intersection by intersection…Oh, he knew Haifa well, and now he felt as though he hadn’t been away for twenty years. He was driving his car just as he used to, as though he hadn’t been absent those twenty bitter years.” -Ghassan Kanafani, “Returning to Haifa”

Ghassan Kanafani, the famous Palestinian journalist, novelist, and short story writer, was born in Acre in the North of Palestine on April 9, 1936 and lived in Jaffa until May 1948. When the Arab-Israeli war started, Kanafani fled with his family first to Lebanon and then to Syria, where they settled as refugees. After finishing his secondary education he studied Arabic literature at the University of Damascus, during which time he joined the Arab Nationalist Party (later, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.) Kanafani worked as a teacher in Kuwait for a few years, then returned to Beirut in 1959 and became a spokesperson for his party, writing prolifically in both literature and journalism. He died in 1972 when his booby-trapped car exploded, killing him and his niece in Beirut. By the time of his untimely death, Kanafani had published eighteen books and written hundreds of articles on culture, politics, and the Palestinian people's struggle. His books were re-published posthumously in several editions in Arabic. His novels, short stories, plays and essays were also collected and published in four volumes. His writing has been translated into seventeen different languages and published in more than twenty countries; and has been adapted for film, radio plays and theatrical performances. His novella Men in the Sun (1962) was made into a film and translated into several languages, including English. The film was banned in many Arab countries for pointing an accusing finger at the treatment of the

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Palestinian refugees. Another of Kanafani’s novellas, All That’s Left to You, is considered one of the earliest and most successful modernist experiments in Arabic fiction.

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Boaz Gaon

Boaz Gaon received an Msc in Media and Communications from The London School of Economics and Political Science. He received his BA in Theatre Studies from Tel Aviv University. He is currently a Dramatic Writing professor at the Minshar Arts School, a Tel Aviv and Head of Drama and Story department at HSCC, a leading TV production company. His dramatic writing includes Traitor, an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of The People for the Be’er Sheva Theater; Mismatch, for the Haifa Theater and Branja at the Beit Lessin theater. He was the Winner of the 2009 festival for new Israeli plays. Gaon’s work has also been seen at The Odessa Branch Denver Arts Center, Theatrefest 2002. His play Dress Rehearsal, won the Best Play Award at Akka Israeli fringe Festival. He recently published the non fiction book Where America Ends – My Life as an Israeli in New York. Other work includes Gymax’s Yellow Bus, a novel.

Gaon’s comedy THE ISRAELI FAMILY takes a very different approach to writing about Israeli life, than his play RETURN TO HAIFA. THE ISRAELI FAMILY is a satire, meaning: A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit; whereas RETURN TO HAIFA is a drama, almost a tragedy. They are similar, however, in that they both examine the question of identity within the Middle East.

In THE ISRAELI FAMILY the following scene takes place when the Israeli daughter, Margalit, brings home her new boyfriend, Daoud, whom she believes to be Palestinian (in the end, in turns out that he is not). In this conversation Margalit and her parents view the founding of Israel from two different perspectives:

Sima: The pioneers built this land, Chaim. They left all corners of the earth, the riches of Europe, to come here and build something from nothing. Do you think they had time to wonder who they really were? They were busy, making the desert bloom. Margalit: What desert? People lived here. Daoud: Ahhh- Margalit: This was their homeland, and we threw them out.

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Daoud (laughs nervously): That's OK. Sima: Excuse me! We didn't throw anyone… "out". No one lived here. Maybe a camel or two, and a few Bedouins. Besides- Chaim: Pass the Zucchini. Sima: Besides, if it weren't for the pioneers, we'd all die in the Holocaust. Margalit: Oh, c'mon- Sima: Excuse me! Didn't you know that the pioneers saved us from the Nazis? Chaim: What Nazis? This was before the Nazis! This is when the Nazis were children! Sima (shocked): The Nazis were Children? Shame on you, Chaim, the way you talk- Questions for discussion!

• Can you think of other example where two works of art examine a similar issue, one as a comedy and one as a tragedy?

• How are these different approaches effective in their own

ways?

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TThhee CCaammeerrii TThheeaattrree ooff TTeell AAvviivv

The Cameri, Tel Aviv's Municipal Theatre, was founded in 1944. It is Israel's biggest theatre and one of the country's six public theatres. Each year The Cameri stages up to ten new productions, together with twenty productions from previous years; and performs for over 900,000 people in Tel Aviv, the rest of Israel and all over the world. So far, The Cameri has produced 500 productions on its various stages. The theatre's company includes eighty of Israel's finest actors, and its plays are directed by celebrated directors from Israel and abroad.

Three years ago, in a step almost unequalled for an institution of the arts, The Cameri Theatre was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel. Part of The Cameri Theatre is the Institute of Israeli Drama. The Institute, founded by the Cameri's director general - Noam Semel, aims to the advancement of Israeli drama in Israel and abroad, and the deepening of awareness to the importance of original drama for the emergent Israeli culture.

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Sa’id – A Palestinian, Sa’id lived with his wife and infant son in the house where he grew up in Haifa, until Haifa became a conflict zone between Arab-Palstinians and Jews in 1948. Sa’id fled with his wife to live in Ramallah, in East Jerusalem. Saffiyeh – A Palestinian, Sa’id’s wife. On the day her husband was fighting for control of Haifa, she went out to look for him but was swept away in the masses of Arabs fleeing the city. She could not return for her infant son, Khaldun, whom she left in the house. She and Sa’id had another son and daughter, in Ramallah. Miriam – A Polish-Jew, Miriam used to write for Hebrew newspapers. She moved to Israel after World War II, having lost her only son in the Holocaust. When she and her husband were granted the home in Haifa, they agreed to raise the child that officials found in the house as their own. Ephraim – A Polish-Jew, Miriam’s husband. Last name originally Gushinksy, it was changed to Goshen when the couple moved to Israel. Ephraim had worked as an accountant in Poland, but switched to farming in Poland. He is unaccustomed to working in the harsh sun in Israel, and dies before his wife. Artzi – an official at the Jewish Agency, he helped Ephraim and Miriam get a house in Haifa. He makes a deal with Ephraim, giving him a home in Haifa if he agrees to raise an abandoned child. Dov – Miriam and Ephraim’s 20-year-old adopted son, now a paratrooper in the Israeli Army. He was born “Khaldun” by his birth parents, renamed Dubinka by Ephraim and Miriam. Dov is a paratrooper in the Israeli army.

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Scene One The play opens in 1967 as a Palestinian couple, Sa’id and Saffiyeh, make their way from Ramallah to Haifa. They intend to visit the home they fled in 1948, just prior to the end of the British mandate and the start of the Arab-Israeli war. The couple is drawn by more than an abandoned house—in the chaos of escape they left behind their infant son, and do not know what happened to him. As they near their old home, the scene flashes back to April 1948. Polish Jew Ephraim Goshen meets with an official from the Jewish Agency at the same house, recently abandoned. Having fled Europe after the war and then spending seven months in a refugee camp with his wife Miriam, Ephraim pleads for a house of their own. The clerk, Artzi, explains that only families with children will be given a house and since Ephraim and Miriam are childless—their son died in the Holocaust—they won’t be approved. Ephraim persists, and Artzi admits he may have a solution.

Scene Two We return to 1967, as Saffiyeh and Sa’id arrive at the house. We return to 1948, as Ephraim is thrilled to show Miriam the house they have just been granted. She is overjoyed but anxious—what happens if the Jewish Agency changes their mind? As the couple begins to discuss possible renovations, a baby is heard crying upstairs. Ephraim struggles to explain to his distraught wife exactly what he agreed to in order to secure the house, and the scene flashes to 1967. Sa’id and Saffiyeh stand outside the door of their old home, hesitating to ring the bell.

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The scene returns to 1948, as Ephraim explains that to earn the house he agreed to care for the orphaned child, whose parents—he has been told—are dead. Miriam, still haunted by the loss of her own child, falters. Ephraim assures her that this is God’s way of asking their forgiveness. Miriam agrees to keep the child, but “only until the morning.”When light comes, they will have to decide what they will do. Ephraim heads to the market for supplies while Miriam sings a Polish lullaby to the sleeping infant.

Scene Three It is again 1967, and Sa’id and Saffiyeh remain on the doorstep. They discuss what has changed about the house and look for hints about its current residents. Finally, the door opens and Miri-am greets them. She tells them she knew they must be the house’s former residents; she could tell by the way they “stroked the soil.” Unable to resist any longer, Sa’id asks about their lost son, calling him by his original name—Khaldun. Miriam avoids the subject, and then lies about the boy’s fate, claiming he was killed by Arabs while serving in the IDF. Saffiyeh explains that they only want to see him, just once. They reach a standoff when Sa’id and Saffiyeh refuse to leave. Miriam retreats into the house and Miriam and Ephraim argue—each blaming the other for their current predicament. Finally Miriam invites Sa’id and Saffiyeh inside. She’s received worried calls from the neighbors and it’s getting dark. “We’ll all catch cold” she says. They will wait for her “Dubinka” inside.

Scene Four The scene begins in a flashback to 1954. Ephraim is searching for his young son, now named Dubinka. An argument between Miriam and “Dov” sent him fleeing to the woods surrounding their home, and Ephraim beseeches him to come home. “You’ve got a mother who loves you. And a father” he pleads, “And a home. Everything’s fine.” Back in 1967, Sa’id, Saffiyeh and Miriam await Dov’s return. Sa’id and Miriam argue about what really happened in 1948, while Saffiyeh longs to know more about “Khaldun.” The argument reaches a climax, and Sa’id retreats to the porch. The two women are left alone to talk about the child they have both loved. They hear someone outside. It is Artzi, from the Jewish Agency, who is now a senior official in the Haifa municipality. Miriam introduces the unknown couple as relatives of her gardener. Artzi reminds Miriam of the debt she owes for municipal taxes and encourages her to sell the house to a private contractor. She refuses, and he leaves in a huff claiming that “the house is killing her!” Sa’id storms outside again, still nursing his anger. Saffiyeh and Miriam, alone again, learn more about each other. Saffiyeh, for the first time in the play, shares with Miriam the events of that fateful day in 1948: she was putting “Khaldun” to sleep when the war erupted, unexpectedly. As she ran to the street to quiet the shouting horde, she was swept away by hundreds of people fleeing their homes in the direction of the water. At the docks she was reunited with Sa’id and they were forced onto a boat. When they reached Beirut they begged the Lebanese soldiers to let them go back for their child, and were told they could return when the war ended. But they weren’t allowed back, until now. When

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Saffiyeh finishes, Miriam tells her own heart-breaking tale, of losing her only son in the Holocaust. Sa’id returns, frantic. A soldier is approaching the house. A voice is heard from outside: “Mom! Ima, are you there?” Dov enters the house, dressed in his Israeli paratrooper uniform. Miriam tries to explain what has happened—to ease the shock. But Dov reacts with anger. He has grown to resent the biological parents who seemingly abandoned him, and accuses them of “taking the house keys, but the baby… me… you left behind.” Miriam is embarrassed by her son’s behavior and she reprimands him for his conduct. He is chastened by his mother’s firm words. The group sits down for tea and as they talk, it becomes clear to Sa’id and Saffiyeh that Dov’s place is in Haifa, not in Ramallah. Too much has changed for their “Khaldun” to return to them and live as a Palestinian. Sa’id asks if Dov will defend Israel in the next war. Dov answers that there will never be another war in the Middle East, but Sa’id speaks of a future filled with fighting. As they finally prepare to leave, Dov invites Sa’id and Saffiyeh to stay the night—a drive back to Ramallah, in the dark, would be a dangerous undertaking. He offers to drive them back himself, in the morning. Saffi-yeh and Miriam go to prepare an extra bed. Left alone, Sa’id breaks down, and begs Dov to come to him, just once. As they are about to embrace, Ephraim enters the stage. We are now both in 1954 and in 1967. Both fathers speak to the boy that is both Dov and Khal-dun, and he, as a child, answers. Both swear to love the child, and to quell his boyish fears. Dov, the child, begins to fall asleep just as Miryam and Safiyeh enter the stage. They all watch the boy try to sleep. The future remains an unanswered question.

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AAbboouutt tthhee cciittyy ooff HHaaiiffaa Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 265,000. The city’s name first appeared in 3rd-century Talmudic literature and, although its origin remains obscure, it’s been suggested that “Haifa” is related to the Hebrew words hof yafe, which mean ‘beautiful coast’. Haifa’s history has been set around its strategic location on a natural harbor on the Mediterranean Sea. Haifa’s historical roots can be traced back to the 4th century C.E when a small fishing and trading port was built there. The Persian occupation during the 6th century C.E accelerated the development of Haifa’s costal area. In 1099 the Crusaders laid siege of the city and sacked it, destroying the docks and shipyards. The city was later attacked again by the Mamluke invaders. Haifa flourished again under Ottoman rule in the 16th Century. By the early 19th century, Haifa’s Jewish community began to increase in tandem with the rise of Zionism. In 1898 Theodore Herzl visited Haifa and imagined what lay ahead for the fledgling city: “Huge liners rode at anchor…a serpentine road led up to Mt Carmel”, and “at the top of the mountain there were thousands of white homes and the mountain itself was crowned with imposing villas”. His predictions have proved amazingly accurate.

Haifa’s modern revival truly got under way with the construction of the Hejaz railway between Damascus and Medina in 1905, and the later development of lines to Acre and the south of the country. Land was reclaimed from the sea to create a neighborhood of offices and warehouses, and Haifa rapidly became the country’s shipping base, naval centre and oil terminal. Much of this development took place during the British Mandate – the British were the first to exploit Haifa’s naturally sheltered position as a harbor, bucking the ancient trend of favoring Caesarea and Acre. As the country’s major new port, Haifa was the first sight of Israel for shiploads of immigrating Jews. Prior to the British withdrawal from Palestine, Haifa became a Jewish stronghold and it was the first major area to be secured by the newly declared State of Israel in 1948. The city earned a reputation for liberalism, which, to a certain extent, it still maintains. The mostly secular Jewish community enjoys a better than average relationship with the local Arab population, who are mainly Christian. In recent years Haifa has shifted its economy from heavy industry to tech. This culminated in 2004 when two professors at Haifa’s Technion were awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry after describing the manner in which cells destroy unwanted proteins. IBM also maintains a strong presence here, with a research laboratory staffed by 600 people.

Source: Adapted from the Lonely Planet Guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories

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IImmaaggeess ooff HHaaiiffaa TTooddaayy

A view of the coast of Haifa.

The city of Haifa, lit up at night.

Questions for discussion!

• Haifa’s natural harbor has made it an important city throughout history. What advantages might this location have afforded?

• Looking at the images of Haifa, what words would you use to describe this city? Does it remind you of any other cities you have visite

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Arab refugees in Haifa waiting to be ferried to an Arab city

Destruction of the Old City in Haifa, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

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Jewish immigrants arriving in Haifa following World War II, late 1940s

View of Haifa from Mt. Carmel in June 1948. (Photographer: Frank Scherschel)

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One of the underlying questions at the heart of the play and novella RETURN TO HAIFA is the dilemma “Where is home for Sa’id and Saffiyeh?” Perhaps most poignant is the fact that this question remains as relevant now--in 2010--as it did when Kanafani wrote the novella in 1968. Two definitions are important when trying to understand this situation:

Haifa, 1945: Survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp, some still in their Buchenwald clothing, stand on the deck of a refugee immigration ship

Law of Return: The Law of Return was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Knesset (the unicameral parliament of Israel) on July 5, 1950. It gives any Jew the automatic right to enter and live in Israel. Since then, well over 2 million immigrants have come to Israel under its provisions, fulfilling, in no small measure, the ancient dream of the “ingathering of the exiles.” Right of Return: This refers to the Palestinian assertion that refugees who left Israel in 1948 and during later conflicts have a moral and legal right to return to what was once Palestine - including land which is now Israel. The Palestinians base their claim to the right to return on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 194, which was passed in 1948. It states that Palestinian "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date".

These two principles contribute to a question at the heart of RETURN TO HAIFA. To whom does the house in Haifa—the house that Sa’id and Saiffiyah fled; the same house that became a sanctuary for Miriam and Ephraim—belong?

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A BBC article, published in 2004, explained the conflicting viewpoints that fuel the debate. On the one hand: “The Palestinians have long asserted that the refugees have a moral and legal right to return to what was once Palestine - including land which is now Israel. Some of the refugees still retain old deeds and keys to homes now occupied by Israelis. …to many Palestinians, the right to return is an inalienable basic human right to each individual refugee, and is therefore not for Palestinian negotiators - or anyone else - to bargain with. The Palestinians base their claim to the right to return on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 194, which was passed in 1948. It states that Palestinian "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date". Further UNGA resolutions have since been passed, and arguments are also drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” These resolutions provide the foundation for the “Right of Return” argument. Those who challenge this assertion however, point out “that UNGA resolutions are not binding in the way that UN Security Resolutions are. They also question whether the language used in resolution 194 amounts to a "right" to return, and raise their own human rights fears that returnees would be hostile to Israel. There is also debate over the number of refugees who initially left in 1948, and whether it was Arabs or Jews who caused them to go.”

A more detailed explanation of these inconsistencies to the principle of “Right of Return” are provided by Ruth Lapidoth (Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Professor at the Law School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) in her 2002 paper, LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE QUESTION.

She states, “The first major UN resolution that refers to the Palestinian refugees is Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, adopted by the General Assembly. This resolution established a Conciliation Commission for Palestine and instructed it to "take steps to assist the Governments and authorities concerned to achieve a final settlement of all questions outstanding between them." Paragraph 11 deals with the refugees: The General Assembly...resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible...

Though the Arab states originally rejected the resolution, they later relied on it heavily and have considered it as recognition of a wholesale right of repatriation.

This interpretation, however, does not seem warranted: the paragraph does not recognize any "right," but recommends that the refugees "should" be "permitted" to return. Moreover, that permission is subject to two conditions - that the refugee wishes to return, and that he wishes to live at peace with his neighbors. The violence that erupted in September 2000 forecloses any hope for a peaceful co-existence between Israelis and masses of returning refugees. Moreover,

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the Palestinians have linked the request for return to a claim for self-determination. If returning refugees had a right to external self-determination, this would mean the end of the very existence of the State of Israel. Under the 1948 resolution, the return should take place only "at the earliest practicable date." The use of the term "should" with regard to the permission to return underlines that this is only a recommendation - it is hortatory. One should also remember that under the UN Charter the General Assembly is not authorized to adopt binding resolutions, except in budgetary matters and with regard to its own internal rules and regulations.

The debate surrounding this issue also includes the question of Arab departure in 1948. As Rex Brynen, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University and a participant in the Middle East Peace Process in 1994-1995 explains, “Why Palestinians fled in 1948, and why they have remained refugees since then, has long been a been a subject of political controversy. Israel has generally maintained that the refugees had fled of their own choice, or at the command of Arab leaders.

An Israeli statement on refugees, issued in 1992 stated ‘The Middle East refugee problem was created as a result of Arab and Palestinian rejection of the 1947 UN partition plan and their decision to declare war on the nascent Jewish state. On the day Israel declared its independence (May 15, 1948), five Arab armies invaded its territory....During the war, the Arab states called on the Palestinian Arabs to temporarily leave the country and to "return with the victorious Arab armies.’

In this view, not only are the Palestinians responsible for their flight from Palestine, but they are also responsible for failing to have resolved the issue by allowing themselves to be absorbed into their host countries. Finally, the Israeli government has argued that ‘Refugee movements and exchanges of populations are a common phenomena in world history,’ and that Israel itself absorbed nearly 600,000 Jews from Arab countries--thereby effectively cancelling out Palestinian claims.

While the legality and validity of the “Right of Return” remains contested, few would argue about the existence of a very real and urgent Palestinian refugee problem. Lapidoth provides the following statistics: According to various estimates, the number of refugees in 1949 was between 538,000 (Israeli sources), 720,000 (UN estimates), and 850,000 (Palestinian sources). By 2001, the number of refugees registered with and supported by UNRWA had grown to about 3.5 million, since also children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are registered …According to UNRWA, in 2000 there were about 550,000 refugees in the West Bank, some 800,000 in the Gaza Strip, 1,500,000 in Jordan, 350,000 in Lebanon, and 350,000 as well in Syria. Only part of them have lived in refugee camps. The situation of the refugees has been particularly severe in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon.

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AA TTiimmeelliinnee:: AA HHiissttoorryy ooff IIssrraaeell aanndd tthhee PPaalleessttiinniiaann TTeerrrriittoorriieess We’ve adapted this timeline from the BBC News Article: A History of Conflict, and from multiple other sources. Creating a comprehensive timeline that encompasses the history of this much-contested land is no easy task--here, even a timeline becomes a political statement. We’ve attempted to report the events as neutrally as possible, and to take into consideration the viewpoint of each group of people for whom this part of the world remains an indelible part of their history. For a comprehensive look at the way dual (and often conflicting) narratives surround this part of the world, check out this PBS “Point of View” timeline with both perspectives, side by side, here: http://www.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf

The land that now encompasses Israel and the Palestinian territories has been conquered and re-conquered throughout history. Details of the ancient Israelite states are derived for the most part from the first books of the Bible and classical history.

Some of the key events include:

A map of the recorded land of Canaan Biblical times

• 1250 BC: Israelites began to conquer and settle the land of Canaan on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

• 961-922 BC: Reign of King Solomon and construction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Solomon's reign was followed by the division of the land into two kingdoms.

• 586 BC: The southern kingdom, Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians, who drove its people, the Jews, into exile and destroyed Solomon's Temple. After 70 years the Jews began to return and Jerusalem and the temple were gradually rebuilt.

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A mosaic depicting Alexander the Great Classical period

• 333 BC: Alexander the Great's conquest brought the area under Greek rule.

• 165 BC: A revolt in Judea established the last independent Jewish state of ancient times.

• 63 BC: The Jewish state, Judea, was incorporated into the Roman province of Palestine

• 70 AD: A revolt against Roman rule was put down by the Emperor Titus and the Second Temple was destroyed. This marks the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora, or dispersion.

• 118-138 AD: During the Roman Emperor Hadrian's rule, Jews were initially allowed to

return to Jerusalem, but - after another Jewish revolt in 133 - the city was completely destroyed and its people banished and sold into slavery.

• 351 AD: Jewish revolt to end foreign rule; Roman Empire adopts Christianity

Ottoman Palestine Middle Ages

• 638 AD: Conquest by Arab Muslims ended Byzantine rule (the successor to Roman rule in the East). The second caliph of Islam, Omar, built a mosque at the site of what is now the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in the early years of the 8th Century. Apart from the age of the Crusaders (1099-1187), the region remained under Muslim rule until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th Century.

• 1517 AD: Following the Ottoman conquest in 1517, the Land was divided into four

districts, attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. At the outset of the Ottoman era, some 1,000 Jewish families lived in the country. The

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community was comprised of descendants of native Jews, as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe. Orderly government, until the death of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, brought improvements and stimulated Jewish immigration. Some newcomers settled in Jerusalem, but the majority went to Safed where, by the mid-16th century, the Jewish population had risen to about 10,000. The town had become a thriving textile center as well as the focus of intense intellectual activity.

An early Jewish settlement Modern Era

• 1799: Napoleon conquers Palestine, but is then defeated at Acre • 1858: Ottoman land reform creates a landowning, urban leadership that supplants tribal

leadership and ushers in the modern era in Palestine. • 1878: The first Zionist colony is founded near Jaffa. Thirty Zionist colonies would be

founded by 1914. At that time the Jewish population reached 80,000. Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, derives its name from the word "Zion", the traditional synonym for Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. The idea of Zionism - the redemption of the Jewish people in its ancestral homeland - is rooted in a deep attachment to the Land of Israel.

• 1882: First Aliyah (wave of Jewish Immigration to the region)

• 1903: Second Aliyah: Russian and Eastern European Jews flee pogroms

• 1908: The Palestinian journal Al-Karmil is founded in Haifa to oppose Zionist

developments

• 1909: Founding of the city of Tel Aviv

• 1908-1914: Friction grows between Istanbul and Arab Provinces as the government espouses Turkish nationalism. Arabs, including many Palestinians, form the Arab Nationalist movement to seek autonomy.

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Shifting sands

• 1914 August: World War I begins. At the time of World War I the area was ruled by the Turkish Ottoman empire. Turkish control ended when Arab forces backed by Britain drove out the Ottomans. Britain occupied the region at the end of the war in 1918 and was assigned as the mandatory power by the League of Nations on April 25, 1920. During this period of change, three key pledges were made:

o In 1916 the British Commissioner in Egypt promised the Arab leadership post-war independence for former Ottoman Arab provinces.

o However, at the same time, the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between war victors, Britain and France, divided the region under their joint control.

o Then in 1917, the British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour committed Britain to work towards "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", in a letter to leading Zionist Lord Rothschild. It became known as the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration promises a national home for the Jews in Palestine and protection of the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish inhabitants.

Babies born on a kibbutz in the 1920s Arab discontent

• 1922: a British census showed the Jewish population had risen to about 11% of Palestine's 750,000 inhabitants. More than 300,000 immigrants arrived in the next 15 years. Some 35,000 who came between 1919 and 1923, mainly from Russia, strongly influenced the community's character and organization. These immigrants laid the foundations of a comprehensive social and economic infrastructure, developed agriculture, established unique cooperative forms of rural settlement - the kibbutz and moshav - and provided the labor force for building houses and roads.

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• 1929: Jewish-Arab antagonism boiled over into violent clashes in August 1929 when 133

Jews were killed by Palestinians and 110 Palestinians died at the hands of the British police.

• 1936: Arab discontent again exploded into widespread civil disobedience during a

general strike in 1936. By this time, the Zionist group Irgun Zvai Leumi was targeting Palestinian and British sites with the aim of liberating Palestine and Transjordan (modern-day Jordan) by force.

• July 1937: Britain, in a Royal Commission headed by former Secretary of State for India,

Lord Peel, recommended partitioning the land into a Jewish state (about a third of British Mandate Palestine, including Galilee and the coastal plain) and an Arab one. Palestinian and Arab representatives rejected this and demanded an end to immigration. Violent opposition continued until 1938 when it was put down with reinforcements from the UK.

A map of the proposed partition of Palestine UN partition of Palestine

• 1947: Britain handed over responsibility for solving the Zionist-Arab situation to the United Nations in 1947. The territory was plagued with chronic unrest pitting the Arab population against the Jewish immigrants (who now made up about a third of the population). The situation had become more critical with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe. The UN recommended splitting the territory into separate Jewish and Palestinian states. Palestinian representatives, known as the Arab Higher Committee, rejected the proposal; their counterparts in the Jewish Agency accepted it. The partition plan gave 56.47% of Palestine to the Jewish

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state and 43.53% to the Arab state, with an international enclave around Jerusalem. In November 1947, 33 countries of the UN General Assembly voted for partition, 13 voted against and 10 abstained. The plan, which was rejected by the Palestinians, was never implemented.

• 1948: Britain announced its intention to terminate its Palestine mandate on May 15,

1948 but hostilities broke out before the date arrived. Both Arab and Jewish sides prepared for the coming confrontation by mobilizing forces.

Declaration of the State of Israel Establishment of Israel

• May 1948: The State of Israel was proclaimed at 16:00 on May 14, 1948 in Tel Aviv. The declaration came into effect the following day as the last British troops withdrew. Palestinians refer to May 15 as "al-Nakba", or the Catastrophe; Israelis generally refer to the day as the beginning of the Israeli War of Independence. The year had begun with Jewish and Arab armies each staging attacks on territory held by the other side. Jewish forces, backed by the Irgun and Lehi militant groups made more progress, seizing areas allotted to the Jewish state but also conquering territories allocated for the Palestinian one. Underground Zionist groups attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem on April 9. Word spread among Palestinians and hundreds of thousands fled to Lebanon, Egypt and the area now known as the West Bank. The day after the state of Israel was declared Arab armies from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq invaded Israel but were repulsed, and the Israeli army crushed pockets of resistance. Armistices established Israel's borders on the frontier of most of the earlier British Mandate Palestine. Egypt kept the Gaza Strip while Jordan annexed the area around East Jerusalem and the land now known as the West Bank.

PLO leader Yasser Arafat addressing Palestinian children

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Formation of the PLO • Post-1948: After 1948 there was fierce competition between neighboring states to lead

an Arab response to the creation of Israel. • January 1964: Arab governments - wanting to create a Palestinian organization that

would remain essentially under their control - voted to create a body called the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). But the Palestinians wanted a genuinely independent body. This was the goal of Yasser Arafat, who took over the chairmanship of the PLO in 1969. His Fatah organization was gaining notoriety with its armed operations against Israel. Fatah fighters inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops at Karameh in Jordan in 1968.

The Mandelbaum Gate separated East and West Jerusalem The 1967 War

• June 1967: Mounting tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors culminated in six days of hostilities starting on June 5, 1967 and ending on June 11 - six days which changed the face of the Middle East conflict. Israel seized Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt in the south and the Golan Heights from Syria in the north. It also pushed Jordanian forces out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Mandelbaum gate was the main passage between West Jerusalem (belonging to Israel) and East Jerusalem (belonging to Jordan). The gate was torn down by Israeli forces, thus reuniting Jerusalem. Borders were thus reopened; those who had been previously exiled were allowed to return to see their homeland.

• November 1967: The UN Security Council issued resolution 242, stressing "the

inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security". According to the UN, the six-day war displaced 500,000 Palestinians who fled to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

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Eleven Israeli athletes were killed at the Olympics in 1972 The 1970s: Continued Tensions

• 1972: Under Yasser Arafat's leadership, PLO factions and other militant Palestinian groups launched a series of attacks on Israeli and other targets. One such attack took place at the Munich Olympics in 1972 in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed. But while the PLO pursued the armed struggle to "liberate all of Palestine", in 1974, Arafat made a dramatic first appearance at the United Nations mooting a peaceful solution. He condemned the Zionist project, but concluded: "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

An Israeli soldier leads blindfolded Egyptian prisoners-of-war in the Sinai Desert during the Yom Kippur War. The Yom Kippur War

• 1973: Unable to regain the territory they had lost in 1967 by diplomatic means, Egypt and Syria launched major offensives against Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The clashes are also known as the Ramadan war. Initially, Egypt and Syria made advances in Sinai and the Golan Heights. These were reversed after three weeks of fighting. Israel eventually made gains beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines. Israeli forces pushed on into Syria beyond the Golan Heights, though they later gave up some of these gains. In Egypt, Israeli forces regained territory and advanced to the western side of the Suez Canal. The United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations all made diplomatic interventions to bring about ceasefire agreements. Egypt and Syria jointly lost an estimated 8,500 soldiers in the fighting, while Israel lost about 6,000. Soon after the war, Saudi Arabia led a petroleum embargo against states that supported Israel. The embargo, which caused a steep rises in gas prices and fuel shortages lasted until March 1974. In October 1973 the UN Security Council passed resolution 338 which called for the combatants "to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately... [and start] negotiations between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East".

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• 1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat stunned the world by flying to the Jewish state and making a speech to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem in November 1977. Sadat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel, only four years after launching the October 1973 war. Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David accords in September 1978 outlining "the framework for peace in the Middle East" which included partial autonomy for Palestinians. A bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed by Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in March 1979. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt. Arab states boycotted Egypt for breaking ranks and negotiating a separate treaty with Israel. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamist elements in the Egyptian army, who opposed peace with Israel, during national celebrations to mark the anniversary of the October war.

The intifada was meant to send a message to both the PLO and Israel The First Intifada

• 1987: A mass uprising - or intifada - against the Israeli occupation began in Gaza and quickly spread to the West Bank. Protest took the form of civil disobedience, general strikes, boycotts, graffiti, and barricades, but it was the stone-throwing demonstrations against the heavily-armed occupation troops that captured international attention. The Israeli Defense Forces responded and there was heavy loss of life. More than 1,000 died in clashes which lasted until 1993.

The famous handshake between the then PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, and Yitzhak Rabin, the then Israeli prime minister, at the Clinton White House in 1993.

The Oslo Peace Talks • January 1993: The election of the left-wing Labour government in June 1992, led by

Yitzhak Rabin, triggered a period of Israeli-Arab peacemaking in the mid-1990s. The government - including the "iron-fisted" Rabin and doves Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin - was uniquely placed to talk seriously about peace with the Palestinians. The PLO, meanwhile, wanted to make peace talks work because of the weakness of its position

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due to the Gulf War. The secret "Oslo track" - opened on 20 January 1993 in the Norwegian town of Sarpsborg - made unprecedented progress. The Palestinians consented to recognize Israel in return for the beginning of phased dismantling of Israel's occupation. Negotiations culminated in the Declaration of Principles, signed on the White House lawn and sealed with a historic first handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat watched by 400 million people around the world.

• May 1994: Israel and the PLO reached an agreement in Cairo on the initial

implementation of the 1993 Declaration of Principles. This specified Israel's military withdrawal from most of the Gaza Strip, excluding Jewish settlements, and from the Palestinian town of Jericho in the West Bank. Negotiations were almost derailed on February 25 when a Jewish settler in the West Bank town of Hebron fired on praying Muslims, killing 29 people. The agreement itself contained potential pitfalls. It outlined further withdrawals during a five-year interim period during which solutions to more challenging issues were to be negotiated - such as the establishment of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories and the fate of more than 3.5 million Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 upheavals. Many critics of the peace process were silenced on July 1 as jubilant crowds lined the streets of Gaza to cheer Yasser Arafat on his triumphal return to Palestinian territory. The returning Palestinian Liberation Army deployed in areas vacated by Israeli troops and Arafat became head of the new Palestinian National Authority (PA) in the autonomous areas. He was elected president of the Authority in January 1996.

The funeral of Yitzhak Rabin Oslo II and Rabin’s Assassination

• 1995: The first year of Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho was dogged by difficulties. Bomb attacks by Palestinian militants killed dozens of Israelis, while Israel blockaded the autonomous areas and assassinated militants. Settlement activity continued. The Palestinian Authority quelled unrest by mass detentions. Opposition to the peace process grew among right-wingers and religious nationalists in Israel. Against this background, peace talks were laborious and fell behind schedule. But on September 24 the so-called Oslo II agreement was signed in Taba in Egypt, and countersigned four days later in Washington. The agreement divided the West Bank into three zones, with 7% going to full Palestinian control; 21% under joint Israeli-Palestinian control; and the remaining territory staying in Israeli hands. Oslo II was greeted with little enthusiasm by

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Palestinians, while Israel's religious right was furious at the "surrender of Jewish land". Amid an incitement campaign against Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a Jewish religious extremist assassinated him on November 4, sending shock waves around the world. The dovish Shimon Peres, architect of the faltering peace process, became prime minister.

A scene from the Second Intifada The Second Intifada

• 2000: Initial optimism about the peacemaking prospects of a government led by Ehud Barak proved unfounded. Barak concentrated on peace with Syria - also unsuccessfully. But he did succeed in fulfilling a campaign pledge to end Israel's 21-year entanglement in Lebanon. After the withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, attention turned back to Yasser Arafat, who was under pressure from Barak and Bill Clinton to launch an all-out push for a final settlement at Camp David. Two weeks of talks failed to come up with acceptable solutions to the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. In the uncertainty of the ensuing impasse, Ariel Sharon, the veteran right-winger who succeeded Binyamin Netanyahu as Likud leader, toured the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on September 28. Sharon's critics saw it as a highly provocative move. Palestinian demonstrations followed, quickly developing into what became known as the al-Aqsa intifada, or uprising.

Gaza withdrawal

• 2005: By now, the former general Ariel Sharon was Israeli prime minister. In 2005 he abandoned the policy he had followed all his life--that of holding onto the West Bank and Gaza at all costs. Instead, he announced that Israel would leave the Gaza Strip and would build a wall and fence to defend itself against suicide bombers and separate the Palestinian territories from Israel. The withdrawal went ahead, but Gaza later became the scene of a power struggle between the Palestinian Authority, representing the old guard of the secular PLO, and the newer Islamic-inspired forces of Hamas. Hamas prevailed. The Oslo accord all but disappeared. At the end of 2005 Sharon suffered a massive stroke and went into a coma; he remains in this condition even today.

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Israelis lay flowers on the grave of a fallen soldier in April 2007 Lebanon War

• 2006: Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two captured by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a 33-day war in which Hezbollah fired a hail of rockets into Israel and the Israelis bombed Lebanese towns and infrastructure but made little headway in ground operations. The war ended inconclusively but with Hezbollah largely intact.

The Cameri Theatre and Tel Aviv Opera house Return to Haifa

• 2008: The spring of 2008 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the nation of Israel; this same season, the Cameri opened its production of RETURN TO HAIFA.

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BBiibblliiooggrraapphhyy Suggested reading related to the issues raised in RETURN TO HAIFA

Adult Nonfiction: Palestinians, Refugees, and the Middle East Peace Process By Don Peretz Examines the current conditions and future prospects of the Palestine refugees and the members of the Palestinian diaspora. Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace American Leadership in the Middle East By Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky The culmination of the work of the Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, convened by USIP in 2006–07. The group conducted confidential interviews in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East with 100-plus negotiators, political figures, and civil society leaders.

The Peace Process and Palestinian Refugee Claims Addressing Claims for Property Compensation and Restitution By Michael R. Fischbach The volume investigates U.S. and UN settlement proposals developed—behind closed doors—in the 1950s and ‘60s. The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader By Arthur Hertzberg This intellectual history of Zionism is an anthology of works by the major Zionists. A History of Israel By Ahron Bregman Israel's turbulent history from the first Zionist Congress in 1897 to the present day. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate By Tom Segev A detailed account of Palestine under British rule from 1917 to 1948, the critical period in the modern history of the region that led up to the creation of the state of Israel. The Jewish State: A Century Later By Alan Dowty Elucidates the broad cluster of cultural, historical, and ideological tenets which came to comprise Israel's contemporary political system. O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre

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An account of the bitter 1948 dispute between the Arabs and Jews over Jerusalem, the book highlights the role of the British as well as prominent individuals in the struggle. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman Captures the psychological mannerisms of the people of Lebanon and Israel--the first step to understanding some of the mysterious "why" that seems to elude the American public and government. The Iron Cage By Rashid Khalidi Historian Khalidi brings vital perspective to Palestinian attempts to achieve independence and statehood. The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims By Joan Chittister, OSB Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. The three co-authors, representing the three major Western faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), explain each religion's basis for a monotheistic multifaith movement by delving into ancient stories. The Much Too Promised Land; America's Elusive Search For Arab-Israeli Peace By Aaron Miller An account of 20 years on the front lines of Arab-Israeli peacemaking. THE YELLOW WIND By David Grossman A record, written by an accomplished Israeli novelist, of the devastation that two decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has wreaked on Palestinians and Israelis alike. Everywhere a Guest, Nowhere at Home: A New Vision of Israel and Palestine By Kim Chernin The title of this book is a phrase used to describe the Jewish people and invokes one of the central arguments for the creation of the state of Israel. This thoughtful collection of essays suggests that the Zionist struggle has left the Palestinian people in a similar predicament. The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace At Last By Bernard Avishai Addressing the state of Israel's democracy as well as security, Avishai presents a three-fold approach to obtaining long-term peace and security. The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace By Dennis Ross

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An insider's account of the roller-coaster ride of the Middle East peace process from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in 2001. The Israelis: Founders and Sons By Amos Elon Explores the many different aspects of Israeli society and history, while literally filling the book with incredible details of personal biographies, or of particular towns and events. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1948 By Benny Morris A seminal work on the evacuation of Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. Righteous Victims, a History of the Arab-Zionist Conflict 1881-2001 By Benny Morris An inclusive, dispassionate, and rigorous history of the conflict, from Zionism's birth in the wake of the Russian pogroms through to the uncertain prospects for peace in 1999. 1948, a History of the First Arab-Israeli War By Benny Morris A history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. Six Days of War By Michael Oren This is the most complete history to date of the Six Day War of 1967, in which Israel entered and began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched the Nation By Ruth Grubar This collection of Gruber's dispatches brings this history to life—beginning with the displaced persons camps, the author tells the story of the Exodus, one of several Haganah ships that tried to run the British blockade of Palestine. A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin An account of how the modern Middle East came into being after World War I, and why it is in upheaval today. Jerusalem in the 20th Century by Martin Gilbert A history of Jerusalem in the 20th century through the eyewitness accounts of those who lived through it.

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Memoirs and Biographies A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS by Amos Oz A memoir set mostly during the author's childhood in Jerusalem of the 1940s and '50s—but one that remains epic in scope. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East By Sandy Tolan To see in human scale the tragic collision of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, Tolan focuses on one small stone house in Ramla--once an Arab community but now Jewish. The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide By Susan Nathan A memoir by a Jewish woman living among Arab Israelis, giving her a keen awareness of their fortitude and courage in coping with the adversity imposed by Israeli policies and practices. SHARON AND MY MOTHER-IN-LAW: RAMALLAH DIARIES By Suad Amiry Amiry's parents were among the thousands of Palestinians who left their homes in 1948, and went to Jordan. Amiry later married and returned to the city where she writes about the life of a middle-class, Westernized woman in an occupied territory. My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness by Adina Hoffman A biography of Israeli Arab poet Taha Muhamad Ali, an iconic voice of the Palestinian consciousness. Taha and his family lost their home when the Israeli army captured their village, Saffuriyya, in 1948 NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM By Daphna Golan-Agnon At once a memoir and a plea for a better understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma, Golan-Agnon relates the tragic stories of several Palestinians and candidly shares her own heartbreak in having to raise her two children in a land ruled by fear and violence. exile in the promised land: a memoir By Marcia Freedman In 1967, realizing a long held dream, Freedman moved with her husband and young daughter from the United States to Israel. Within four years she became a founding member of Israel's women's movement.

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Fiction and Poetry APPLES FROM THE DESERT By Savyon Liebrecht In the stories of Israeli author Savyon Liebrecht, personal relationships can't help but become political. DEAREST ANNE By Judith Katzir. When Rivi Shenhar returns to Israel for a funeral, she unearths a collection of her childhood diaries kept decades before. A coming-of-age story set in Haifa in the 1970s. To the End of the Land David Grossman A powerful meditation on war, friendship, and family. Instead of celebrating her son Ofer’s discharge from the Israeli Army, Ora finds her life turned upside down and inside out when he reenlists and is sent back to the front for a major offensive. With an Iron Pen: Twenty Years of Hebrew Protest Poetry By Tal Nitzan and Rachel Tzvia Back A groundbreaking collection of forty-two Israeli poetic voices addressing the occupation of the West Bank. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories By Ghassan Kanafani In these stories, Kanafani experiments with various literary techniques that were ground-breaking in the world of literature at their time (1960s). Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories By Ghassan Kanafani A compilation of short stories which chronicles the political, social, and human realities that marked significant moments in the twentieth-century history of Palestine. In addition, in 2002 National Public Radio gathered NPR Host Neal Conan, bookseller Shannon Biggler, poet Ibtisam Barakat, and authors David Lesch and Adina Hoffman to discuss the most useful resources for understanding the crisis in the Middle East. The extremely comprehensive lists they compiled are here: http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2002/apr/mideast/ and here: http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2002/apr/mideast/usersbooks.index

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Books for younger readers: INHERITING THE HOLY LAND: An American's Search for Hope in the Holy Land By Jennifer Miller Appropriate for Grade 9-adult. Written by the daughter of one of the chief American negotiators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a longtime participant in the Seeds of Peace program, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian children. Miller explores with care and consideration the many different viewpoints and preconceptions of the people involved in the conflict, not excluding her own. Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak By Deborah Ellis Appropriate for Grades 5-12. In a series of interviews, Israeli and Palestinian children discuss their lives in their own words Samir and Yonatan By Daniella Carmi Appropriate for Grades 3 and up. This fictional story is about an Arab boy who has to have surgery in an Israeli hospital where he befriends a Jewish boy Checkpoints By Marilyn Levy Appropriate for Grades 9 and up. This is a story about two girls, one Israeli and the other is Arab, who find themselves friends with complex conflicts