Children's Books on Palestine

7/27/2019 Children's Books on Palestine

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BOOKS ABOUT

Contemporary Palestine or Children

BY KATHARINE DAVIES SAMWAY

Mami, Mami! Come and look!Children pulled their parents and older

siblings into the booth to look more care-

ully at the photo and talk with me about

it. Tey were horried that such a young

child had such a rightening experience.

alking with the children and their

amilies, I learned that they didnt know

much, i anything, about that part o the

Middle East. As I tried to explain some o

the key events that led to the photo, and

why it is important or Americans to beinormed, I realized that we had no in-

ormation written or children. I should

It was a beautiul all day or the Dia de los Muertos (Day

o the Dead) estival and I was volunteering at a boothdevoted to Palestine and the impact o the Israeli occupa-tion. Crowds o people passed by the booth and many othem stopped to look at the posters and pick up handouts.

But what really captured my attention were the children, 9 or10 years o age, who were riveted by one particular imageaphoto o an Israeli soldier pointing his gun at a Palestinian

child o about 5.

have brought some books and an anno-tated booklist to hand out, I acknowl-

edged to mysel. But I could think o less

than a handul o possibilities.

Maybe, I thought, there are good

books out there or K-8 learners that

Im not amiliar with, and so I began to

scour my local libraries. I ordered books

through interlibrary loan, read books rec-

ommended by riends, and reread books

that I already owned. What did I learn?

I discovered that there are severalnonction books about lie in ancient

Palestine. Tere are also many nonc-

tion books about modern-day Israel that

serve as propaganda or Israel and do not

treat the plight o Palestinians honestly

and comprehensively. Tese books tend

to be dense, with a lot o complex histori-

cal inormation jammed into a ew pages

and a sprinkling o photos.

____________________________________

Katharine Davies Samway is a recently

retired proessor o education specializing in

literacy learning and teaching, with a ocus

on multicultural childrens and young adult

literature. She is active in eorts to bring a

just peace to Palestine.

Tere arent many books available o

K-8 learners about lie in Palestine sinc1948. Tere are, however, a ew. Although

the quality o the writing varies, they ar

quite good overall and raise importan

questions about the Israeli occupation.

Nonfction

A Childs View o Gaza: Palestinia

Childrens Art and the Fight Agains

Censorship is equally compelling o

children, older students, and adults. Tcaptioned illustrations were created b

Palestinian children who lived throug

the Israeli bombardment o Gaza in

200809. Te pictures were drawn a

part o an eort to help children dea

with the horrors they had experienced

A Bay Area nonprot, Middle Eas

Childrens Alliance (MECA), arrange

to display a collection o these picture

at the Museum o Childrens Art in

Oakland, Caliornia. However, undepressure rom the Jewish Federation o

the East Bay and other organizations, th

museum backed out o the agreemen

at the last minute. MECA held an ar

exhibit as demonstration in ront o th

museum and then moved the exhibit to

nearby storeront.A Childs View o Gaz

includes a oreword by Alice Walker

Te childrens pictures are detailed


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Illustration from A Childs View from Gaza by Mona Atif

Hamdan, 11 years old


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colorul, and provide a matter-o-act

yet powerul window into the reality

o being a child under attack by planes,

bombs, and soldiers.

Another nonfction book that relies

on frsthand experience o the occupa-

tion is the picture bookOutside the Ark:

An Artists Journey in Occupied Palestine,

by Ellen OGrady, an artist-activist who

worked or six years in the occupied

West Bank and Gaza. OGrady tells thestories o Palestinians she knew, includ-

ing 8-year-old Mahmoud, who was

killed by Israeli bullets, and 69-year-old

Salwa, who is unable to see her daughter,

who lives in Jordan and is prohibited by

Israel rom returning to her village. Al-

though this is a picture book, teachers

may fnd that it is most appropriate or

older elementary students. I sometimes

ound the handwritten cursive text dis-

tracting, but the content and illustrations

are poweruleach double page merits

its own intensive discussion.

Picture Books

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning

poet whose ather was a Palestinian re-

ugeeas a teenager her lie was divided

between Jerusalem and San Antonio,Texas. In Sittis Secrets, Mona, who lives

in America, goes to visit her grand-

mother in a Palestinian village in the oc-

cupied West Bank. Although Mona does

not speak a shared language with her

grandmother (Sitti in Arabic), they are

able to communicate through gestures,

music, and actions. It is a beautiully

written and illustrated book about a lov-

ing relationship between a child and he

grandmother.

Amahl Bisharas Te Boy and th

Wall, written in English and Arabic, i

about lie in Aida, a Palestinian reuge

camp near Bethlehem, where the lives o

Palestinians were turned upside down

when Israel built a huge concrete separa

tion wall (called an apartheidwall by or

mer President Jimmy Carter and Arch

bishop Desmond Tutu, among others)In a rhythmic speak-and-respond struc

ture modeled on Margaret Wise Brown

Te Runaway Bunny, a Palestinian chil

talks with his mother about what he can

do to help his community overcome th

impact o the wall and all that it brings

including soldiers with guns and tea

gas canisters. His mothers responses un

derscore her love or him and Palestinian

Collage from The Boy and the Wallby the children of the Lajee Center.


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traditions and culture, and the resilience

o Palestinians under occupation. For ex-

ample, when the boy says, Or maybe I

will become a mountain so that I can be

bigger than the wall, and see over it, his

mother replies, I you become a moun-

tain and become bigger than the wall . . . I

will become a armer and plant olive trees

and tend to you and live rom the olivesyou bear.

An introduction provides inorma-

tion about the Aida Reugee Camp and

lie under occupation, including the

impact on Palestinians o the apartheid

wall (e.g., separating Palestinians rom

their amily members and riends, their

land, their work, medical care, religious

sites, and open land where children can

play). Te illustrations are by children

rom Aida.

Novels

Elizabeth LairdsA Little Piece o Ground

is particularly good. It is set in Ramallah,

just north o Jerusalem in the occupied

West Bank. Aer a bombing in Israel,

Ramallah is under a strict Israeli curew

and people are prevented rom leaving

their homes or days at a time. Te main

character, Karim, is a 12-year-old boyrom a Muslim amily who lives in town

and is crazy about soccer. His best riend,

Joni, is rom a Christian amily and is

also crazy about soccer. While kicking a

soccer ball against his apartment build-

ing during one o the ew breaks in the

curew, Karim meets Hopper, who lives

close to a reugee camp across town.

Hopper takes Karim to a vacant piece o

ground near the reugee camp. It is lled

with the rubble o demolished buildings,

but they think they can convert it into a

soccer eld. Te three boys do exactly

that by hauling rocks and rusty machin-

ery to one side o the plot o land. Tey

discover a car buried under the rub-

ble and convert it into a den. One day,

while the three boys are playing soccer

with boys rom the reugee camp, Israeli

tanks roll into their soccer eld and the

boys take o or saety. However, Karim

sprains his ankle and is unable to escape;

he ends up hiding inside the abandoned

car, where he is trapped or several days.

Te author, a well-known British writer

o books or young adults who lived in

Ramallah while doing research or this

book, does a particularly good job o

conveying the riendship and shared in-terests o the boys and the tension that is

created or Palestinians by lie under the

Israeli occupation.

Canadian author Anne Laurel Cart-

er wrote Te Shepherds Granddaughter

aer living in both Israel and Palestine.

Amani is a young girl who lives with her

extended amily in a West Bank village

and wants to ollow in the ootsteps o

her grandather and become a shepherd.

She and her amily experience terriyingsituations when a group o illegal Jew-

ish settlers occupy a hill overlooking the

village. Under the protective eyes o Is-

raeli soldiers, the settlers poison Amanis

sheep; destroy her amilys ancient olive,

g, and lemon trees; appropriate their

land and water sources; and threaten

villagers with death i they do not leavetheir land. Amani observes the demoli-

tion o her house by an armored Cater-

pillar bulldozer and the arrests o two

close amily members: her ather, when

he returns home to nd his house being

demolished, and her uncle, when he and

other villagers are demonstrating peace-

ully against the building o a settler road

on their land that only Jewish Israelis will

Reading books about contemporary Palestine and the

Israeli occupation may raise conficting points o view,

but that is part o supporting students to become

critical readers, thinkers, and, hopeully, activists in

support o justice and peace.

be allowed to use. When Amanis mother

returns to Palestine rom visiting her dy-

ing mother in Canada, she is repeatedly

denied re-entry at the Jordanian border.

It is only aer several days o this intimi-

dation that she is allowed back to her

home and amily.

A subplot ocuses on Jonathan, a

16-year-old Jewish American who liveswith his ather on the illegal settlement,

hates what his people are doing to Pales-

tinians, and returns to New York City to

become an anti-occupation activist.

Tis book does a good job o por-

traying lie under occupation rom the

perspective o a plucky young Palestin-

ian girl. Amani witnesses disagreements

within her extended amily around

whether to trust Israelis who oppose

the occupation and whether to engagein peaceul or armed struggle, which

creates an additional context or critical

thinking and discussion among students.

Where the Streets Had a Name, by

Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian o

Palestinian and Egyptian heritage, tells

the story o 13-year-old Hayaat, who

lives with her amily in a cramped apart-

ment in Bethlehem in the occupied West

Bank. Hayaats elderly grandmother is

rom Jerusalem, but was orced out in

1948 when the state o Israel was de-

clared, and has not been allowed to re-

turn. When she becomes sick, Hayaat

is convinced that bringing a handul

o earth rom their ancestral home will

help her grandmother get well. Tis sets


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in place a dramatic journey or Hayaat

and her best riend, Samy, a ree-spirited

young Palestinian boy. Although their

journey is short in distance, it is intermi-

nable because o checkpoints

and a curew. Te story, told

through Hayaats eyes, pro-

vides readers with a clear win-

dow into a young teens lieunder the Israeli occupation.

Memoir

Ibtisam Barakats memoir,

asting the Sky: A Palestinian

Childhood, evocatively

conveys what it is like

to be orced by war

out o ones home and

amiliar lie into lieas a reugee. Barakat

was 3 when her amily

became reugees dur-

ing the 1967 war. Tey

joined about 200,000

other Palestinians who

fed Israeli orces that

invaded East Jerusa-

lem, the West Bank,

and Gaza. Barakat and her amily lived

or several months in Jordan beore be-ing able to return to their home in the

West Bank, which was then occupied by

Israel.

Te rst part o the book is set in

1981. Te author is 17, traveling on

a bus in the West Bank rom Birzeit,

where she has gone to check on mail

rom international pen pals, to her

home in Ramallah. Her bus is stopped

at a checkpoint and all the passengers

are taken to a military detention center,

where they are kept in custody or no

reason and harassed or hours by Israeli

police beore being allowed to continue

on their journey.

Te second section o the book o-

cuses on Barakats memories o lie as a

reugee and then under occupation rom

the age o 3 to 7. Presumably she drew

on amily members recollections to aug-

ment her own early childhood memo

ries because the descriptions are ver

detailed. She describes how rightenin

the war is and what it was like to fe

rom her home and be separated rom

her amily or a while. She describes he

amilys lie in a reugee camp in Jordan

and their return to their home on a hil

near Ramallah in the West Bank. Because it is in the center o an Israeli train

ing ground, they are not allowed to leav

the house during the day. Araid or he

childrens saety, Barakats mother take

her children to live in an orphanage

where she nds work.

Poetry

Nye has written or edited several anthol

ogies o poetry ocused on the MiddlEast. In her collection 19 Varieties o Ga

zelle: Poems o the Middle East, she write

about being Arab American, about bein

Palestinian American, about her amily

and about living in the West Bank. T

poems are beautiully craed and evoca

tive. For example, towards the end o

the poem Going to the Spring, abou

women collecting water in a traditiona

way, she writes:

Tese eet write history on the

dirt road

and no one reads it, unless you

are here

to read it, unless you are thirsty

and cup your hands where the

women

tell you to hold them,

throwing your head back

or the long sweet draf.

Nye edited Flag o Childhood: Poem

rom the Middle East. Te poems in thi

volume, written by poets rom 14 coun

tries, including Palestinians and Jew

ish Israelis, explore and honor daily li

in the Middle East, and lie or Middl

Eastern immigrants and their children

in North America. Te collection oer

readers a beautiully worked window


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into what Nye reers to in the introduc-

tion as a complicated center o dramatic

cultural and religious history.

Te revered Palestinian writer and

prolic poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote

primarily or adults. However, his compel-

ling poetry captures lie or Palestinians,

rom their orced dislocation when the

state o Israel was ormed, through exile

and occupation, and many o his poemscan be shared with intermediate grade

readers. One example is Identity Card;

the penultimate stanza captures the losses

that Palestinians have experienced:

Write down!

I am an Arab

You have stolen the orchards o

my ancestors

And the land which I cultivated

Along with my childrenAnd you lef nothing or us

Except or these rocks.

So will the State take them

As it has been said?!

Some Final Thoughts

U.S. media coverage o the Middle East

is requently Israel-centric and does not

explore the enormous nancial support

that the United States provides each year

to Israel and its occupation o Palestine.

When this is coupled with a sometimes

virulent anti-Muslim and anti-Arab eel-

ing in many parts o the country, it is

incumbent on educators to take a role

in unpeeling these biases and encour-

aging students to think critically about

human rights in Palestine/Israel. Tereis no question that reading books about

contemporary Palestine and the Israeli

occupation may raise conficting points

o view, but that is part o supporting stu-

dents to become critical readers, think-

ers, and, hopeully, activists in support o

justice and peace.n

____________________________________

RESOURCES

Books

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Where the Streets Had

a Name. New York City: Scholastic Press,

2010.

Barakat, Ibtisam. asting the Sky: A

Palestinian Childhood. New York City:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Bishara, Amahl. Te Boy and the Wall.

Illustrations by youth rom the Lajee Centre.

Illustration romA Childs View of Gaza by Salih Ayman Saf, 12 years old.

Ramallah, Palestine: Lajee Centre. Available

in North America rom Nidal Al-Azraq at

[email protected], 2005.

Carter, Anne Laurel. Te Shepherds

Granddaughter. oronto, Canada: Ground-

wood Books/House o Anansi Press, 2008.

Laird, Elizabeth.A Little Piece o Ground.

Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books, 2006.

Middle East Childrens Alliance.A Childs

View rom Gaza: Palestinian Childrens Art

and the Fight Against Censorship. Berkeley,

Cali.: Pacic View Press, 2012.

Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. Te Flag o Childhood:

Poems rom the Middle East. New York City:

Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties o Gazelle:

Poems o the Middle East. New York City:

Greenwillow Books, 2002.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Sittis Secrets.

Illustrations by Nancy Carpenter. New York:

Simon & Schuster, 1994.

OGrady, Ellen. Outside the Ark: An Artists

Journey in Occupied Palestine. Durham,

N.C.: 55 Books. Available rom P.O. Box

542, 305E Chapel Hill Street, Durham, N.C.

27702, 2005.

Internet Resources

Te Electronic Intiada (electronicintiada.

net) is an online news source that ocuses on

Palestine.

Mondoweiss (mondoweiss.net) is a news

website that covers U.S. oreign policy in

the Middle East rom a progressive Jewish

perspective.

Jewish Voice or Peaces website

(jewishvoiceorpeace.org) includes an FAQ

ormat to answer questions about the Israeli/

Palestinian confict.

Videos

Alatar, Mohammed, dir.Jerusalem: East Side

Story: Dispossession, Occupation, and theChallenge to Survive. Palestinian Agricultural

Relie Committees, 2007 (eastsidestory.ps).

Omeish, Suyan, and Omeish, Abdallah,

dirs. Occupation 101: Voices o the Silenced

Majority. ripolii Productions, 2007

(occupation101.com).

Shamir, Yoav, dir. Checkpoint. Amit Breuer

Amythos Films, 2003.
http://www.electronicintifada.com/http://www.electronicintifada.com/http://www.electronicintifada.com/http://www.mondoweiss.net/http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/http://www.eastsidestory.ps/http://www.eastsidestory.ps/http://www.occupation101.com/http://www.occupation101.com/http://www.eastsidestory.ps/http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/http://www.mondoweiss.net/http://www.electronicintifada.com/

Documents

Children's Books on Palestine