Mornings in Jenin

The narrative flashes back to before the attack on Jenin and is narrated in the first-person perspective by Yousef. He has been working in a school in Bethlehem for two years. When he hears of the attack on the camp, he returns immediately to Jenin.

After the war and the attack on Jenin, David’s friend says he saw a prisoner who looked like David. David goes to Ramla prison but denies any recognition of Yousef. However, he later tells his parents about their similar appearances. Jolanta reacts with panic and Moshe with consternation, as he uses alcohol to silence his guilt at the way things have turned out since he snatched the baby Ismael.

David visits Yousef in the hospital, his mind full of questions. Yousef recognizes Ismael in David before returning to unconsciousness.

In the first-person, Yousef describes how he returned to Jenin, was given a gun, and went to fight. He could not take a life, however, and instead, he surrendered. At one point, he saw David/Ismael and the recognition in his eyes. The horror of war and his friend Jamal’s murder destroy his happiness.

Yousef, delirious with pain in the hospital, dreams of his love, Fatima, and their sensual, forbidden courtship. He is sure that the soldier with a scar is his brother Ismael.

Back in Jenin, he searches to no avail for Fatima. He finds the strength to comfort Amal but misses his father sorely, wishing he could tell him about Ismael.

After Yousef has been back in Jenin for a while, he encounters David at a checkpoint. David beats Yousef unconscious, unable to deal with the confusion he feels when he looks at him. Yousef is wounded in the groin.

Yousef describes how he is damaged both physically and emotionally and is of no use to his family. His only urge is to fight.

The West Bank continues to be occupied. Yousef becomes a solitary, remote figure. He works in a local relief agency school and his garage but spends much time reading alone, in homage to his father. He is regularly beaten, tortured, and humiliated by Israeli soldiers. For many Palestinian refugees, death and martyrdom become their only chance at freedom. Yousef retains “a deep aching for life” (109) but remains aloof from his mother, Amal, Huda, and Fatima.

Dalia’s grip on reality is diminishing and her only companion is Um Abdullah. Amal and Huda remain friends, although Huda returns to live with her mother and sister.

One January day, the 12-year-old Amal and her family have an unusually light-hearted meal together with Yousef in a good mood. She and Huda deliver a letter from him to Fatima, which results in her crying inconsolably. On the way home, soldiers at a checkpoint beat up Osama, a 14-year-old boy they know. They help him home, and the physical proximity to an unfamiliar male excites Amal. When she reaches home, however, her mother tells her Yousef is leaving and then retreats back into her shell. Amal runs to the peach orchard, a place labeled out of bounds to Palestinians.

Amal describes her night alone in the orchard. She sleeps on the ground, and in the morning, she caresses her developing body while experiencing feelings of guilt. She realizes her first period has started. Infused with a little hope that Yousef will not really leave, she sets off for home but is caught by two Israeli soldiers. They let her go after seeing her papers, but as she runs away, a soldier from a watchtower shoots her in the abdomen.

In the hospital, Huda tells her Yousef left and gives her a letter from him. In it, he explains that he has to go and fight, otherwise, he will stay and die at the hands of the Israeli soldiers. He apologizes for not keeping his promise to their father to look after her and tells her he has left all his savings and half the garage to her, money he had been saving for his wedding to Fatima.

Yousef has joined Fateh, a Palestinian revolutionary group led by Yasser Arafat, whose base is in the refugee camp in Karameh, Jordan. The group becomes the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and their presence is the target of an Israeli invasion of the camp in March 1968. While Israel attacks with tanks and arms, the “fedayeen” (resistance fighters) fight back in hand-to-hand combat and with “suicide bombs,” forcing Israel to retreat. The unexpected victory for the Palestinians causes celebration worldwide, no less so in the Jenin camp. Amal and Huda celebrate along with the crowds as Yousef is declared a hero. The refugees gain hope as the PLO attracts more members in Jordan, and the girls dream of a return to Palestine again. However, the curfew continues for another month.

Dalia’s body and mind are impacted, and she becomes incontinent and very sick. Amal feels alone, guilty, and unlovable with her body, which carries the physical scars caused by the Israeli soldier who shot her. She takes to studying diligently, hoping to fulfill her father’s dream for her education. While Huda and Osama’s romance blossoms, Amal becomes known as indifferent to boys but an outstanding student.

Dalia dies, and Amal reflects on how her mother loved her despite being unable to show it. She recalls Dalia’s praise when Amal helped with a difficult birth, and she thinks this proved her love. After Dalia’s funeral, Jack O’Malley calls Amal to her uncle Darweesh’s house. There, her two aunts and uncle offer her homes with them, as she is now completely alone. Jack O’Malley tells her of an orphanage school in Jerusalem that would give her an excellent education. Haj Salem advises her to take the opportunity, as does Darweesh. Despite initially wishing to stay in Jenin, Amal is convinced by her uncle’s invocation of her father’s wishes, and she decides to go to the school.

Amal’s family and friends gather to say goodbye, full of emotions and blessings. Amal herself keeps her feelings locked away, as always. Jack O’Malley accompanies her to Jerusalem in a taxi. She recalls the family’s visit to the city in 1960, seven years before it became impossible for Palestinians to visit it; the Israelis occupied it, destroyed many homes, and exiled residents of several faiths. Amal feels an indestructible connection to the city as she considers its long and turbulent history, and she reflects that “its soil is the keeper of my roots, the bones of my ancestors” (140).

Amal meets the principal, Miss Haydar, and is given a cold and haughty welcome. The school history is explained: In 1948, a wealthy Jerusalemite, Miss Hind Husseini, offered homes to children who were orphaned in the Israeli massacres in Deir Yassin. Now there are day students of wealthy, paying parents, and the orphan boarders like Amal. Amal is greeted by the girls, some more friendly than others. She goes to sleep cradling her father’s olive-wood smoking pipe, which Jack O’Malley gave her when they parted.

Jack O’Malley/Ammo Jack dies in the camp two years later and is mourned by all who knew him.

Amal settles in at the orphanage and, in the second year, learns how her friend Muna’s father was brutally killed. Amal reflects that she does not know how her father died. She bonds with her group of friends over the scanty, bug-infested food they are served and the extremes of heat and cold they sleep and live in. The girls are daring and break rules while being secretly passed food by a nun who has taken to Layla, a motherly Columbian girl. Despite the harsh conditions, Amal has fond memories of the school and the deep friendships she formed there. Later in the chapter, she reminisces about those shared joys and sorrows again and how the thread that runs through them is Palestine.

Huda, married to Osama and pregnant, visits Amal once and expresses how much she has missed her with great emotion. Amal, however, remains cool. She realizes that she feels everything is temporary and will be lost, which prevents her from feeling and expressing attachments.

In 1973, Amal graduates with high honors and a scholarship to the US. Although she wishes to return to Jenin and is afraid to go to the US, she rationalizes that it is an opportunity she cannot refuse. It allows her to avoid a traditional marriage in the camp, which she fears due to her gunshot scars, and honor her father’s dream.

Amal returns for a last visit to the camp in Jenin. She visits Huda, Osama, and their baby girl. She reminisces about the happy times with her family and secretly observes Haj Salem.