Haunting Memory of Traumatic Childhood: A Biographical Study of Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin and Gadda Karmi’s In Search of Fatima By Shah Al Mamun Sarkar

Abstract: Gadda Karmi (1939- ) and Susan Abulhawa (1970- ) are the Palestinian diaspora writers who have spent their childhood in the war-inflicted Palestine; and experienced the traumatic life there which haunts them throughout their life after. Ghada Karmi who was born in Jerusalem and forced to leave her home with her family as a result of the creation of Israel in 1948. The family moved to England in 1949, where she grew up and educated. In Search of Fatima (2002) is a compelling and beautifully written narrative which is more than a personal memoir that enables the reader to understand and empathize with the psychological dislocation of exile which set against the backdrop of the major political events around 1948. It is an intimate account of her life: her childhood in Palestine, the flight to Britain after the catastrophe of 1948, and coming of age in the coffee bars of Golders Green, the middleclass Jewish quarter in North London. The intimacy of the book is set against the continuing crisis in the Middle East. In her case it is not an account of physical hardships and abuse. Although, her immediate family was lucky, but as she grew older, memories of the lost homeland began to haunt her. The Mornings in Jenin (2006) by Susan Abulhawa is a story which follows four generations of the Palestinian Abulhaja family and their friends. It begins in the 1940's when they were first driven from their ancestral lands in Ein Hod, continues through the war of 1967 and the Lebanon War of 1982, and concludes with the Israeli bulldozing and massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Theirs is a life of perpetual loss, perpetual grieving, and constant uncertainty which cause the traumatic memory that always haunt the writer. The present article aims at theorizing how the childhood trauma affects and haunts people all through the life.

Keywords: Exile, Haunting Childhood Memory, Childhood Trauma, Gadda Karmi, Susan Abulhawa

Introduction: Happy moments in life are very transient in nature but the traumatic moments stay (in the memory) for the longer period of time. Trauma generally refers to the distressing, disturbing, hurting, painful, shocking, troubling, upsetting experiences that occur in the life. Trauma is always a personal way of reacting to the events. Therefore, “a trauma to one person may not be a trauma to another. And some people can cope with the trauma and move forward quickly. Others, though, may not be able to cope (“Causes of Trauma”, n.p.)”. The childhood trauma denotes to the traumatic experiences that occur to the young children. The reactions of the infant

1 and the young children may differ from the older children because they may not be able to express their reactions to the threatening events; which many people assume that young age protects themselves from the impact of traumatic experiences as they are too young to understand or witness the traumatic event(s). However, young children, as found in research, are affected by traumatic events, even though they may not understand what had happened. Not only the young children but also “the infants may be affected by events that threaten their safety or the safety of their parents/caregivers. These traumas can be the result of intentional violence—such as child physical or sexual abuse, or domestic violence—or the result of natural disaster, accidents, or war” (“Early Childhood Trauma”, n.p.). And, if the trauma of loosing the homeland, home, the most of the fellow beings, neighbours and everything in a blink of eyes or has to shift to a refugee camp or take shelter in some unknown place as a refugee from a peaceful/gleeful/happy life, it always intensifies the effect of trauma and last for life long. They always feel themselves to be in a state of exile or dispossession or displacement which can be termed as ‘refugee trauma’. Many refugees, especially children, have often experience trauma related to war or persecution that may affect their mental and physical health long after the events have occurred. These traumatic events may occur while the refugees are in their country of origin, during displacement from their country of origin, or in the resettlement process in some other countries. According to some researches, refugee children may have experienced traumatic events or hardships in their country of origin including violence (as witnesses, victims, and/or offenders); war; lack of food, water, and shelter; physical injuries, infections, and diseases; torture, forced labor, sexual assault; lack of medical care, loss of loved ones, disruption in or lack of access to schooling. While during displacement, refugee children often face many of the same types of traumatic events or hardships that they faced in their country of origin, as well as new experiences such as: living in refugee camps, separation from family, loss of community, uncertainty about the future, harassment by local authorities, traveling long distances by foot, detention and many more. Further, the refugee children may feel relieved when they are resettled in some other country; however, the difficulties they face do not end upon their arrival. Once resettled in the new country, the refugees may face stressors in four major categories: traumatic stress (e.g. community violence), acculturation stress (e.g., new school environments),

2 resettlement stress (e.g., financial hardship), and isolation (e.g., discrimination) ("Refugees and the Refugee Experience", n.p.). The events that refugees have experienced related to war or persecution can all be called ‘traumatic events’. It is important to note that children are very resilient and can often cope with difficult experiences and events in healthy and productive ways. Such children may not display any symptoms and may not need service providers to intervene. However, for some children, exposure to traumatic events has a profound and lasting effect on their daily functioning. According to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the impact of exposure to traumatic events on children may be varying with the age and stage of development of the child. There are some signs of distress as a result of exposure to traumatic events that are specific to a child’s developmental stage. For example: Pre-school children may experience:  Bed wetting  Thumb sucking  Acting younger than their age  Trouble separating from their parents  Temper tantrums (outbursts)  Aggressive behavior like hitting, kicking, throwing things, or biting  Not playing with other kids of their age  Repetitive playing out of events related to trauma exposure Elementary school children may experience:  Changes in their behavior such as aggression, anger, irritability, withdrawal from others, and sadness  Trouble at school  Trouble with peers  Fear of separation from parents  Fear of something bad happening Middle school and high school aged youth may experience:  A sense of responsibility or guilt for the bad things that have happened  Feelings of shame or embarrassment  Feelings of helplessness

3  Changes in how they think about the world  Loss of faith  Problems in relationships including peers, family, and teachers  Conduct problems (Source: "Refugees and Trauma", n.p.)

Analysis: Both the Palestinian Diaspora writers, Ghada Karmi (1939— ) and Susan Abulhawa (1970 — ), have faced the similar kind of traumatic refugee life. Although in different span of time, they were dislocated and displaced from their homeland, Palestine, in their childhood and (forced) grew up in Western culture (mostly with hostile neighbours). Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem who was forced to leave her home with her family as a result of the creation Israel in 1948. The family moved to England in 1949, where she grew up, educated, got married, and separated, and finally returned to Palestine to serve at the refugee camps. In Search of Fatima (2002) is a compelling and beautifully written narrative which is more than a personal memoir of Ghada Karmi that enables the reader to understand and empathize with the psychological dislocation of exile which set against the backdrop of the catastrophic creation of Israel around 1948. It is an intimate account of her life: her childhood in Palestine, the flight to Britain after the catastrophe of 1948, and coming of age in the coffee bars of Golders Green, the middleclass Jewish quarter in North London. The intimacy of the book is set against the continuing crisis in the Middle East. In her case it is not an account of physical hardships and abuse. Although, her immediate family was lucky, but as she grew older, memories of the lost homeland began to haunt her. Whereas, Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the Six-Day War of 1967, when her family's land was seized and Israel captured what remained of Palestine, including Jerusalem. As a teenager she moved to the United States, where she grew up in the foster care system of North Carolina. She graduated from Pfeiffer University then completed her masters in neuroscience in the School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina. She is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO that builds playgrounds for Palestinian children in the occupied territories and in refugee camps elsewhere. The Mornings in Jenin (2006) is her first novel. The story of which revolves around the four generations of the Palestinian Abulhaja family and their friends. It begins in the 1940's when they were first driven from their ancestral

4 lands in Ein Hod, continues through the war of 1967 and the Lebanon War of 1982, and concludes with the Israeli bulldozing and massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in April, 2002. Theirs is a life of perpetual loss, perpetual grieving, and constant uncertainty which cause the traumatic memory that always haunt the writer (“Susan Abulhawa”, n.p.). Both these writers choose to write memoir to write the history of Palestine as the western media discarded even in displaying/depicting the real catastrophe of Palestinians. Israel Government, further, put ‘sanction’ upon those institutions which observe the creation of Israel as the ‘sad day’ that caused a mass killings and mass exodus more than past history. Like the family of Ghada Karmi or Susan Abulhawa, people all over from Palestine have to move from their homeland to live either in some unknown places or to live life in a refugee camp. The present article aims at theorizing how the childhood trauma affects and haunts people all through the life. In Search of Fatima is a memoir of violent uprooting and dislocation, presented in an intimate and very personal way. The memoir started in the mid-night of 4th January, 1948, just few months before the proclamation of the creation of the State of Israel by the British mandate over Palestine which officially terminated at midnight, May 14, 1948; David Ben-Gurion became its first prime minister and the longtime advocate of Zionism in Britain, Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) became Israel's first president; while on May 15, the United States recognized the State of Israel and the Soviet Union soon followed suit ( “Creation of the State of Israel”, n.p.). Before the date, the country was peaceful. Ghada Karmi as a child slept as usual along with her governess Fatima. But, in the middle of night (of January 4, 1948), all of a sudden, she woke up from a deep sleep and found herself in the middle of a nightmare crashing with thunder and lightning. For a few seconds, she could not distinguish dream from reality. The bedroom seemed to be full of strangers until she realized that they were her parents. But, there was a tremendous noise of shattering glass, shootings and explosions which seemed to be coming from our back garden. Rex, her pet dog, was barking wildly. Immediately, her mother dragged her off the bed and sat her up with Ziyad, brother to her, against the bedroom wall. She could not able to make out the situation. Everything seemed confusing. It seemed to her the breaking of the dawn, but it was due to bombarding. She found her parents in trembling in tension and sitting squeezed together against the wall in the fear of another explosion. They all stared ahead and Fatima was intoning in a whisper the words of the Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Quran, over and over again:

5 In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to the God of the worlds, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Lord of the Day of Judgement. You do we worship and to You do we turn for help. Guide us to the true path, the path of those whom You have favoured. Not those who have incurred Your wrath. Nor those who have strayed. Amen. (Karmi 87) Muslims recites the chapter whenever they find themselves in a dangerous situation from which nobody but Allah can save them. A shattering bang shook the windows as a great clap of thunder exploded overhead. And then I knew that I was afraid, more afraid than I had ever been in my life before. As Ziyad turned his face towards the window, I saw that his eyes were enormous but he never made a sound. After who knows how long, the noise outside began to abate. And with that, my mother started to move forward. "Stop!" my father hissed. "There may be another explosion." He made us wait a little longer until the sky stopped being so red. It now had a far-away glow, like the embers in our charcoal stove. My leg was numb and the palm of my hand hurt where I had pressed it against the floor. We got up and groped our way out into the liwan. It was about two o'clock in the morning. Torrential rain lashed against the shutters. Fatima made coffee, but neither I nor Ziyad wanted anything, and our mother made us go back to bed. Siham followed soon after, but I don't think our parents slept at all the rest of that night. (Karmi 87) In next morning, when they got up jaded and tired, they found no one in the house and the street looked deserted. The Karmis were one of the wealthy Palestinian families of Jerusalem who overnight became penniless (in 1948 during the political creation of the State of Israel) and left their home complete with furniture, pictures, food, everything – at that time Jewish families literally walked down the street and picked out the homes that they wanted. And, the Palestinians were forcefully moved to the refugee camps. All Ghada knew that “neither of us could take in the enormity of what we had just seen; to us this was an opportunity for play and mischief. But the images would remain to haunt us one day” (Karmi 88). The Karmi family was well off, therefore, ended up in the UK leaving Fatima and the family dog, Rex, there among the others, may be in refugee camps or God knows where about. They never saw her again nor ever got opportunity to find her. For the Karmi family, she was much-loved governess or nanny to Ghada Karmi, whom she always missed a lot. Although, she found no spare time to find her, unless until she broke

6 free from her marriage and returned to Palestine again. The trauma of loss of loving and caring people often haunted her all through her life. But, Ghada wanted to become fully assimilated with her school friends in UK who were Jewish. She tried mingling with the Jewish friend and began going to the friend’s house in many occasions such as a bar- mitzvah or wedding or something. But, she witnessed the family raising the Israeli flag and sings Zionist songs which recalled her childhood traumatic days of dislocation during the creation of Israel in her own land. She was very shocked and found everything very strange to see these people whom she loved are raising the flag that flew over the demise of her family and country (Abulhawa, “Palestinian Writers” n.p.). Although, she tried her best to cope up with the exiled life in England, in different culture and most importantly in a locality where there were full of Jewish people, she tried to adopt these all. But, one way or the other, she has to get discriminated either in school, once she was rejected the award for becoming first in her schooling days because she was not English. But, still she tried hard to adopt the English culture discarding her own culture of home. She also married an English doctor after becoming herself a doctor too. Unfortunately, their marriage did not last for long. Ironically enough, or because of the love for the homeland where she had traumatic memories which haunted through her life, she got separated from her husband who was supporting and justifying the Israeli cruelty and forceful war in 1967. Thereafter, she moved to the middle-east region and serving in the refugee camps. She tries to find Fatima among the refugees whom they left alone in the war-inflicted dangerous environment. It is, perhaps, due to her childhood memory which forces to recall the guilty or sense of huge loss. Although, Ghada Karmi never tried to find Fatima, perhaps, she knew that is not possible to find her governess, Fatima, therefore, she tried to find Fatima among the helpless refugees who had no other options to stay back at the camps and to spend their life in severe trauma. Mornings in Jenin is about a family saga of a Palestinian family which was suffering during 60 years of Israeli occupation. In 1948, Yehya Abulheja, prosperous farmer and patriarch of a family that for 40 generations has occupied Ein Hod, a village near Mount Carmel (in Haifa region), spending their happy and simple lives; who worries only about the coming olive harvest and his son Hasan’s marriage to an unsuitable Bedouin girl, Dalia. All is forgiven when Dalia bears sons Yousef and Ismael. However, the British-led partition of Israel/Palestine then occurs,

7 and unrest begins. Dismissing rumours that Jewish immigrants plan to establish their own state, annexing Palestinian lands. It is never quite explained why, but the Israelis attack the Palestinians and drive them out of their homes, and into refugee camps. The Abulhejas are stunned when Ein Hod is shelled and its residents herded into a refugee camp at Jenin. During the forceful expulsion, baby Ismael was snatched by an Israeli soldier who was desperate to help his despondent wife, “a Holocaust survivor rendered sterile after repeated rapes by the SS”. The couple renamed the child as David. Hasan and Dalia’s daughter Amal, Abulhawa’s protagonist, is born in Jenin refugee camp. Ismael’s kidnapping has cost Dalia her sanity; Yehya is shot for trespassing on his former land; and Hasan disappears during the Six Day War in 1967. Yousef encounters David, an Israeli soldier whose facial scar resembles Ismael’s. After repeated beatings and torture by Israeli soldiers, including David, Yousef joins the PLO resistance fighters. Following the death of her mother, Amal, a sweet girl who survives the most horrible experiences, follows her father's dreams for her to become educated and she ends up in the United States. But, she never quite separates from her home, who frequently returns for visits in Palestine and Lebanon. Later, she reunites with Yousef, his bride Fatima and their daughter Falasteen in Shatila, a Lebanese refugee enclave, where she teaches Palestinian children. She also marries Majid, a young doctor, and gives birth of a daughter, Sara. As Israel’s attacks on Lebanon mount, Amal returns to the United States, intending to arrange for her family to follow. Soon, Majid perishes in the bombardment of Beirut and Fatima and Falasteen are slaughtered by the invaders. Yousef is declared a suspected terrorist, and is vanished away. In a fog of grief, Amal struggles to nurture her infant daughter, Sara. It is only when David reaches out in remorse to Amal, a precarious healing begins in her life (“Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa”, n.p.). Abdullah Khan views that The creation of Israel, for Jews, was the fulfilment of 3000 years of yearnings for a Jewish homeland. For Palestinians, it was El Nakba, the catastrophe, which rendered them homeless and forced them, to live in perpetual misery. The Jewish version of the Israel-Palestine story has found a place in English fiction umpteen times; the most popular being Exodus by Leon Uris, a book that generated a huge wave of sympathy in the U.S. for the state of Israel. But there was no novel of mass appeal originally written in English, on this issue from the Palestinian perspective until Susan Abulhawa decided to write one. (Khan, n.p.).

8 Conclusion: Both the books are dealing with the childhood trauma which forces the writers to return in the refugee camps and serve the refugees. Susan realizes that it is not anybody who are going to help the Palestinian refugees but they themselves as the western media are afraid of showing the struggles of the Palestinians because of the fear of ‘Sanction’ for the Zionists organizations especially the Rothschild Groups which control the funding to many. Therefore, she attempted in writhing the traumatic history of Palestinian exodus and refugee struggles. But Ghada Karmi, after her the unfortunate break up from her married life with an English doctor, becomes the source of realization that it is themselves whom to represent their own trauma. Ironically enough, or because of the love for the homeland where she had traumatic memories which haunted through her life, she got separated from her husband who was supporting and justifying the Israeli cruelty and forceful war in 1967. Thereafter, she moved to the middle-east region and serving in the refugee camps. She tries to find Fatima among the refugees whom they left alone in the war-inflicted dangerous environment. It is, perhaps, due to her childhood memory which forces to recall the guilty or sense of huge loss. Although, Ghada Karmi never tried to find Fatima, perhaps, she knew that is not possible to find her governess, Fatima. Therefore, she chooses to find Fatima among the helpless refugees who have no other options to stay back at the camps and spend their life in severe trauma. Karen Armstrong believes that “Ghada Karmi's compelling and beautifully written narrative is more than a personal memoir. It enables the reader to understand and to empathize with the psychological dislocation of exile that continues to fuel the Palestinian cause. . .” (Armstrong, n.p.). While, Edward W. said believes that Karmi’s stunning memoir is remarkable. Extraordinarily well written, it is the amazingly honest story of a Palestinian woman of exceptional selfawareness. Hers is a story of exile and displacement… rich in detail and human experience. Karmi is excellent on the quality of family and even communal life in Mandatory Palestine… she also has a wonderfully subtle way of showing how in thousands of different ways the political and the personal intermesh, and this she does with a skill and insight that could be a novelist's envy… (Said qtd in “In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story”).

9 References: Abulhawa, Susan. Mornings in Jenin: A Novel. (2010). London, Berlin, New York: Bloomsbury. ___. (May 15, 2010). “Palestinian Writers”. fivebooks.com. Retrieved January 23, 2016 from http://fivebooks.com/interview/susan-abulhawa-on-palestinian-writing/ Amazon Customer. (December 28, 2009). “A Family Saga with a Consciousness-raising Agenda”. Amazon.com. Retrieved January 23, 2016 from http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer- reviews/R2DIEO5H115FHU/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt? ie=UTF8&ASIN=1408809486#R2DIEO5H115FHU Anonymous. “Causes of Trauma”.Childhood Trauma. Retrieved January 25, 2016 from http://www.recognizetrauma.org/causes.php ___.“Creation of the state of Israel”. ADL: Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved January 24, 2016 from http://archive.adl.org/israel/record/creation.html ___.“Early Childhood Trauma”. NCTSN. Retrieved January 24, 2016 from http://www.nctsn.org/trauma-types/early-childhood-trauma ___. (2007). “In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story”. Ghada Karmi. Retrieved January 22, 2016 from http://www.karmi.org/Books/searchoffatima.htm ___. “MORNINGS IN JENIN by Susan Abulhawa”. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved January 23, 2016 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susan-abulhawa/mornings-in-jenin/ ___. “Refugees and the Refugee Experience”. NCTSN. Retrieved January 25, 2016 from http://nctsn.org/trauma-types/refugee-trauma/learn-about-refugee-experience ___. “Refugees and Trauma”. NCTSN. Retrieved January 25, 2016 from http://nctsn.org/trauma- types/refugee-trauma ___."Susan Abulhawa." Bloomsbury.com. Retrieved January 24, 2016 from http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/susan-abulhawa/ Armstrong, Karen. (December 14, 2002). “In Search of Fatima: a Palestinian story by Ghada Karmi”. Independent. Retrieved January 24, 2016 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/in-search-of-fatima-a- palestinian-story-by-ghada-karmi-135926.html Karmi, Ghada. (2009). In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. London, New York: Verso Books.

10 Khan, Abdullah. “Ther Side of the Story”. Thehindu.com. Retrieved January 23, 2016 from http://www.thehindu.com/books/article418876.ece

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr Shah Al Mamun Sarkar is a PhD Scholar at the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India. His areas of interest include Children’s Literature, SF, Bhasha Literature, Indian English Literature, and Colonial and Postcolonial Theory. His address for correspondence is Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Pin- 826004. Jharkhand, India. Email: [email protected].

DECLARATION I, Shah Al Mamun Sarkar, hereby declare that the research article entitled “Haunting Memory of Traumatic Childhood: A Biographical Study of Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin and Gadda Karmi’s In Search of Fatima” is an original and unpublished work prepared solely by me. I also read and agree with the terms and condition of the journal regarding copyright.

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