BOOKS ABOUT Contemporary Palestine for Children

BY KATHARINE DAVIES SAMWAY

t was a beautiful fall day for the Dia de los Muertos (Day There aren’t many books available for of the Dead) festival and I was volunteering at a booth K-8 learners about life in Palestine since 1948. There are, however, a few. Although devoted to Palestine and the impact of the Israeli occupa- the quality of the writing varies, they are tion. Crowds of people passed by the booth and many of quite good overall and raise important them stopped to look at the posters and pick up handouts. questions about the Israeli occupation. But what really captured my attention were the children, 9 or I Nonfiction 10 years of age, who were riveted by one particular image—a photo of an Israeli soldier pointing his gun at a Palestinian A Child’s View of Gaza: Palestinian child of about 5. Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship is equally compelling for “Mami, Mami! Come and look!” have brought some books and an anno- children, older students, and adults. The Children pulled their parents and older tated booklist to hand out, I acknowl- captioned illustrations were created by siblings into the booth to look more care- edged to myself. But I could think of less Palestinian children who lived through fully at the photo and talk with me about than a handful of possibilities. the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in it. They were horrified that such a young Maybe, I thought, there are good 2008–09. The pictures were drawn as child had such a frightening experience. books out there for K-8 learners that part of an effort to help children deal Talking with the children and their I’m not familiar with, and so I began to with the horrors they had experienced. families, I learned that they didn’t know scour my local libraries. I ordered books A Bay Area nonprofit, Middle East much, if anything, about that part of the through interlibrary loan, read books rec- Children’s Alliance (MECA), arranged Middle East. As I tried to explain some of ommended by friends, and reread books to display a collection of these pictures the key events that led to the photo, and that I already owned. What did I learn? at the Museum of Children’s Art in why it is important for Americans to be I discovered that there are several Oakland, California. However, under informed, I realized that we had no in- nonfiction books about life in ancient pressure from the Jewish Federation of formation written for children. I should Palestine. There are also many nonfic- the East Bay and other organizations, the tion books about modern-day Israel that museum backed out of the agreement ______serve as propaganda for Israel and do not at the last minute. MECA held an “art Katharine Davies Samway is a recently treat the plight of honestly exhibit as demonstration” in front of the retired professor of education specializing in and comprehensively. These books tend museum and then moved the exhibit to a literacy learning and teaching, with a focus on multicultural children’s and young adult to be dense, with a lot of complex histori- nearby storefront. A Child’s View of Gaza literature. She is active in efforts to bring a cal information jammed into a few pages includes a foreword by Alice Walker. just peace to Palestine. and a sprinkling of photos. The children’s pictures are detailed,

52 > WINTER 2012–2013 Illustration from A Child’s View from Gaza by Mona Atif Hamdan, 11 years old

RETHINKING SCHOOLS > 53 Collage from The Boy and the Wall by the children of the Lajee Center. colorful, and provide a matter-of-fact found the handwritten cursive text dis- ing relationship between a child and her yet powerful window into the reality tracting, but the content and illustrations grandmother. of being a child under attack by planes, are powerful—each double page merits Amahl Bishara’s The Boy and the bombs, and soldiers. its own intensive discussion. Wall, written in English and Arabic, is Another nonfiction book that relies about life in Aida, a Palestinian refugee on firsthand experience of the occupa- Picture Books camp near Bethlehem, where the lives of tion is the picture book Outside the Ark: Palestinians were turned upside down An Artist’s Journey in Occupied Palestine, Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning when Israel built a huge concrete separa- by Ellen O’Grady, an artist-activist who poet whose father was a Palestinian ref- tion wall (called an apartheid wall by for- worked for six years in the occupied ugee—as a teenager her life was divided mer President Jimmy Carter and Arch- and Gaza. O’Grady tells the between Jerusalem and , bishop Desmond Tutu, among others). stories of Palestinians she knew, includ- . In Sitti’s Secrets, Mona, who lives In a rhythmic speak-and-respond struc- ing 8-year-old Mahmoud, who was in America, goes to visit her grand- ture modeled on Margaret Wise Brown’s killed by Israeli bullets, and 69-year-old mother in a Palestinian village in the oc- The Runaway Bunny, a Palestinian child Salwa, who is unable to see her daughter, cupied West Bank. Although Mona does talks with his mother about what he can who lives in Jordan and is prohibited by not speak a shared language with her do to help his community overcome the Israel from returning to her village. Al- grandmother (Sitti in Arabic), they are impact of the wall and all that it brings, though this is a picture book, teachers able to communicate through gestures, including soldiers with guns and tear may find that it is most appropriate for music, and actions. It is a beautifully gas canisters. His mother’s responses un- older elementary students. I sometimes written and illustrated book about a lov- derscore her love for him and Palestinian

54 > WINTER 2012–2013 traditions and culture, and the resilience boys take off for safety. However, Karim be allowed to use. When Amani’s mother of Palestinians under occupation. For ex- sprains his ankle and is unable to escape; returns to Palestine from visiting her dy- ample, when the boy says, “Or maybe I he ends up hiding inside the abandoned ing mother in Canada, she is repeatedly will become a mountain so that I can be car, where he is trapped for several days. denied re-entry at the Jordanian border. bigger than the wall, and see over it,” his The author, a well-known British writer It is only after several days of this intimi- mother replies, “If you become a moun- of books for young adults who lived in dation that she is allowed back to her tain and become bigger than the wall . . . I Ramallah while doing research for this home and family. will become a farmer and plant olive trees book, does a particularly good job of A subplot focuses on Jonathan, a and tend to you and live from the olives conveying the friendship and shared in- 16-year-old Jewish American who lives y ou b e ar.” terests of the boys and the tension that is with his father on the illegal settlement, An introduction provides informa- created for Palestinians by life under the hates what his people are doing to Pales- tion about the Aida Refugee Camp and Israeli occupation. tinians, and returns to New York City to life under occupation, including the Canadian author Anne Laurel Cart- become an anti-occupation activist. impact on Palestinians of the apartheid er wrote The Shepherd’s Granddaughter This book does a good job of por- wall (e.g., separating Palestinians from after living in both Israel and Palestine. traying life under occupation from the their family members and friends, their Amani is a young girl who lives with her perspective of a plucky young Palestin- land, their work, medical care, religious extended family in a West Bank village ian girl. Amani witnesses disagreements sites, and open land where children can and wants to follow in the footsteps of within her extended family around play). The illustrations are by children her grandfather and become a shepherd. whether to trust Israelis who oppose from Aida. She and her family experience terrifying the occupation and whether to engage situations when a group of illegal Jew- in peaceful or armed struggle, which Novels ish settlers occupy a hill overlooking the creates an additional context for critical village. Under the protective eyes of Is- thinking and discussion among students. Elizabeth Laird’s A Little Piece of Ground raeli soldiers, the settlers poison Amani’s Where the Streets Had a Name, by is particularly good. It is set in Ramallah, sheep; destroy her family’s ancient olive, Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian of just north of Jerusalem in the occupied fig, and lemon trees; appropriate their Palestinian and Egyptian heritage, tells West Bank. After a bombing in Israel, land and water sources; and threaten the story of 13-year-old Hayaat, who Ramallah is under a strict Israeli curfew and people are prevented from leaving their homes for days at a time. The main character, Karim, is a 12-year-old boy Reading books about contemporary Palestine and the from a Muslim family who lives in town Israeli occupation may raise conflicting points of view, and is crazy about soccer. His best friend, but that is part of supporting students to become Joni, is from a Christian family and is also crazy about soccer. While kicking a critical readers, thinkers, and, hopefully, activists in soccer ball against his apartment build- support of justice and peace. ing during one of the few breaks in the curfew, Karim meets Hopper, who lives close to a refugee camp across town. Hopper takes Karim to a vacant piece of ground near the refugee camp. It is filled with the rubble of demolished buildings, villagers with death if they do not leave lives with her family in a cramped apart- but they think they can convert it into a their land. Amani observes the demoli- ment in Bethlehem in the occupied West soccer field. The three boys do exactly tion of her house by an armored Cater- Bank. Hayaat’s elderly grandmother is that by hauling rocks and rusty machin- pillar bulldozer and the arrests of two from Jerusalem, but was forced out in ery to one side of the plot of land. They close family members: her father, when 1948 when the state of Israel was de- discover a car buried under the rub- he returns home to find his house being clared, and has not been allowed to re- ble and convert it into a den. One day, demolished, and her uncle, when he and turn. When she becomes sick, Hayaat while the three boys are playing soccer other villagers are demonstrating peace- is convinced that bringing a handful with boys from the refugee camp, Israeli fully against the building of a settler road of earth from their ancestral home will tanks roll into their soccer field and the on their land that only Jewish Israelis will help her grandmother get well. This sets

RETHINKING SCHOOLS > 55 in place a dramatic journey for Hayaat ment her own early childhood memo- and her best friend, Samy, a free-spirited ries because the descriptions are very young Palestinian boy. Although their detailed. She describes how frightening journey is short in distance, it is intermi- the war is and what it was like to flee nable because of checkpoints from her home and be separated from and a curfew. The story, told her family for a while. She describes her through Hayaat’s eyes, pro- family’s life in a refugee camp in Jordan vides readers with a clear win- and their return to their home on a hill dow into a young teen’s life near Ramallah in the West Bank. Be- under the Israeli occupation. cause it is in the center of an Israeli train- ing ground, they are not allowed to leave Memoir the house during the day. Afraid for her children’s safety, Barakat’s mother takes Ibtisam Barakat’s memoir, her children to live in an orphanage, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian where she finds work. Childhood, evocatively conveys what it is like Poetry to be forced by war out of one’s home and Nye has written or edited several anthol- familiar life into life ogies of poetry focused on the Middle as a refugee. Barakat East. In her collection 19 Varieties of Ga- was 3 when her family zelle: Poems of the Middle East, she writes became refugees dur- about being Arab American, about being ing the 1967 war. They Palestinian American, about her family, joined about 200,000 and about living in the West Bank. The other Palestinians who poems are beautifully crafted and evoca- fled Israeli forces that tive. For example, towards the end of invaded East Jerusa- the poem “Going to the Spring,” about lem, the West Bank, women collecting water in a traditional and Gaza. Barakat and her family lived way, she writes: for several months in Jordan before be- ing able to return to their home in the These feet write history on the West Bank, which was then occupied by dirt road Israel. and no one reads it, unless you The first part of the book is set in are here 1981. The author is 17, traveling on to read it, unless you are thirsty a bus in the West Bank from Birzeit, and cup your hands where the where she has gone to check on mail women from international pen pals, to her tell you to hold them, home in Ramallah. Her bus is stopped throwing your head back at a checkpoint and all the passengers for the long sweet draft. are taken to a military detention center, where they are kept in custody for no Nye edited Flag of Childhood: Poems reason and harassed for hours by Israeli from the Middle East. The poems in this police before being allowed to continue volume, written by poets from 14 coun- on their journey. tries, including Palestinians and Jew- The second section of the book fo- ish Israelis, explore and honor daily life cuses on Barakat’s memories of life as a in the Middle East, and life for Middle refugee and then under occupation from Eastern immigrants and their children the age of 3 to 7. Presumably she drew in North America. The collection offers on family members’ recollections to aug- readers a beautifully worked window

56 > WINTER 2012–2013 Ramallah, Palestine: Lajee Centre. Available in North America from Nidal Al-Azraq at [email protected], 2005. Carter, Anne Laurel. The Shepherd’s Granddaughter. Toronto, Canada: Ground- wood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2008. Laird, Elizabeth. A Little Piece of Ground. Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books, 2006. Middle East Children’s Alliance. A Child’s View from Gaza: Palestinian Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship. Berkeley, Calif.: Pacific View Press, 2012. Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. The Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East. New York City: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002. Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York City: Greenwillow Books, 2002. Nye, Naomi Shihab. Sitti’s Secrets. Illustration from A Child’s View of Gaza by Salih Ayman Safi, 12 years old. Illustrations by Nancy Carpenter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. into what Nye refers to in the introduc- explore the enormous financial support tion as “a complicated center of dramatic that the provides each year O’Grady, Ellen. Outside the Ark: An Artist’s Journey in Occupied Palestine. Durham, cultural and religious history.” to Israel and its occupation of Palestine. N.C.: 55 Books. Available from P.O. Box The revered Palestinian writer and When this is coupled with a sometimes 542, 305E Chapel Hill Street, Durham, N.C. prolific poet wrote virulent anti-Muslim and anti-Arab feel- 27702, 2005. primarily for adults. However, his compel- ing in many parts of the country, it is ling poetry captures life for Palestinians, incumbent on educators to take a role Internet Resources from their forced dislocation when the in unpeeling these biases and encour- The Electronic Intifada (electronicintifada. state of Israel was formed, through exile aging students to think critically about net) is an online news source that focuses on and occupation, and many of his poems human rights in Palestine/Israel. There Palestine. can be shared with intermediate grade is no question that reading books about Mondoweiss (mondoweiss.net) is a news readers. One example is “Identity Card”; contemporary Palestine and the Israeli website that covers U.S. foreign policy in the penultimate stanza captures the losses occupation may raise conflicting points the Middle East from a progressive Jewish that Palestinians have experienced: of view, but that is part of supporting stu- perspective. dents to become critical readers, think- Jewish Voice for Peace’s website Write down! ers, and, hopefully, activists in support of (jewishvoiceforpeace.org) includes an FAQ I am an Arab justice and peace. n format to answer questions about the Israeli/ You have stolen the orchards of Palestinian conflict. my ancestors ______Videos And the land which I cultivated RESOURCES Alatar, Mohammed, dir. Jerusalem: East Side Along with my children Story: Dispossession, Occupation, and the And you left nothing for us Books Challenge to Survive. Palestinian Agricultural Except for these rocks. Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Where the Streets Had Relief Committees, 2007 (eastsidestory.ps). So will the State take them a Name. New York City: Scholastic Press, 2010. Omeish, Sufyan, and Omeish, Abdallah, As it has been said?! dirs. Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Barakat, Ibtisam. Tasting the Sky: A Majority. Trip’ol’ii Productions, 2007 Some Final Thoughts Palestinian Childhood. New York City: (occupation101.com). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Shamir, Yoav, dir. Checkpoint. Amit Breuer U.S. media coverage of the Middle East Bishara, Amahl. The Boy and the Wall. Amythos Films, 2003. is frequently Israel-centric and does not Illustrations by youth from the Lajee Centre.

RETHINKING SCHOOLS > 57