Sandy Tolan
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan is a work of non-fiction chronicling the four-decade old friendship between Bashir Khairi, a Palestinian, and Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, an Israeli Jew. Sandy Tolan, a professor of Journalism, includes the history of the formation of Israel and its increasing encroachment on Palestinian land.
The book opens with Bashir and two of his cousins traveling from the Palestinian town of Ramallah to the Israeli town of Ramla to see their former homes now occupied by Israeli families. Completion of Bashir’s home, built decades ago by his father, was commemorated by the planting of a lemon tree in the back yard that has since grown and blossomed. Bashir knocks on the door and when Dalia opens it, he explains this was his family’s home and he asks permission to see it. Dalia graciously lets them in and allows the three men to look around. So begins an unlikely friendship between Dalia and Bashir.
Tolan gives an overview of world events, including the two world wars, that led to the formation of Israel and the partitioning of Palestinian land. He provides the backstories of the respective families. Bashir’s family was expelled from their homeland by the Israelis; Dalia’s family, who fled from Bulgaria to Israel during World War II, moved in to what they were told was an abandoned home. As Dalia and Bashir become friends, visit each other’s homes, and share their respective histories, Dalia realizes a terrible injustice has been perpetrated on the Palestinians. As her husband, Yehezkel, says, “ . . . you are the only ones who have a legitimate grievance against us. And deep down, even those who deny it know it.”
The tension between the two friends is palpable when describing their conflicting positions. Dalia recognizes the injustice while simultaneously trying to explain to Bashir what the land has meant to Jews for centuries. Bashir reminds her the land belonged to Palestinians for generations and insists that because it was stolen, it should be returned. He argues it is unjust to punish Palestinians for the atrocities committed against the Jews by the Europeans. Their relationship is interrupted when Bashir is suspected of being a terrorist and is beaten, tortured, and incarcerated in an Israeli jail for over a decade. Eventually, Dalia and Bashir agree on a compromise and turn the home into a school for Arab and Israeli children.
Sandy Tolan is to be commended for giving a human face to one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. Bashir and Dalia recognize they have a shared history of oppression and persecution. Both were forced to flee their homes to preserve their lives. Despite individual efforts, however, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far too complex for individuals to solve alone. The solution must come through the unbiased and fair-minded intervention of powerful people in positions of authority. The irony is that it was powerful people in positions of authority who generated the conflict in the first place through the decisions they imposed. Those same individuals are no longer alive to bear the brunt of pain, anguish, and suffering their actions have caused and continue to inflict on subsequent generations.