The Attack

It pains Amin to look at Yasser’s cowardly, distraught reaction as Yasser drives them back to Bethlehem. Yasser is too weak-willed and unreliable to be involved in a terrorist plot. Yasser parks his van in a garage, inside which Amin spots the cream-colored Mercedes that Navid linked to the attack. It belongs to Yasser’s son, Adel. Amin knows Adel as a “wheeler-dealer” (82) type, young but always operating a new money-making scheme. Unlike the rest of Amin’s family, Adel was a frequent visitor to Tel Aviv. Sihem and Adel had been close friends. Yasser leads Amin into the house as Amin’s mind races with questions. Sick in bed, Leila falls asleep and Amin asks to talk to Yasser’s grandson, who met and talked with Sihem. The boy arrives sick and his answers have been coached by his grandfather. He tells Amin that Sihem wrote a letter and met with a stranger. 

The next day, Amin visits the Grand Mosque. He introduces himself to a young man, who quickly realizes that Amin is Sihem’s husband and greets him warmly. The man promises Amin an appointment with Sheikh Marwan but returns with the news that the Sheikh is away. Amin offers to wait for his return and the young man uneasily accepts and leaves. Hours pass. Three young men arrive and unceremoniously ask Amin to leave, telling him that the Sheikh is sick. 

As Amin walks around the town, one of the three young men follows him. Amin sits in a busy café and drinks coffee until the prayer hour, when he returns to the mosque. However, he is barred from entering by the remaining two young men. Amin returns to Leila’s house and waits for the next prayer. On returning, he is barred once again. This time, a new person asks Amin to follow him. Amin listens as the man attempts to convince him to return home. Later, Amin returns for a third time. He is intercepted a block from the mosque and shoved into a carriage entrance. In a threatening manner, Amin is told that he is “about to bring down a shitstorm on the whole fucking town” (88). The Israelis, he is told, are looking for any excuse to put the Arabs into ghettos and Amin’s presence is an inflammatory gesture that cannot be tolerated. Contrary to everything Amin has heard, he is told that Sihem did not meet with Sheikh Marwan. In fact, Sheikh Marwan is not even in town and has not been for years; rumors of his presence are security theatre, designed to protect him from attack. He is also told that Sihem is a martyr, whose sacrifice has earned eternal gratitude. With that, Amin is told to return to Tel Aviv.

Amin returns to the apartment he is sharing with Kim. Having been worried all day, she begins to make dinner. They are interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. A big man wearing a yarmulke pushes his way into the apartment; he leaves quickly when he learns his neighbor Benjamin is not present. As they eat, Amin thinks about Jerusalem and his childhood memories of the city. He talks to Kim about his day; he lacks a plan but the trip to the Grand Mosque has made him feel better. She believes that they should return to Tel Aviv, but Amin cannot “mourn [his] wife until [he looks] into the eyes of the son of a bitch who stole her mind” (93). Kim tries to empathize with his position using her own memories. A police car pulls up outside; police officers enter the apartment, accompanied by the neighbor. Kim and Amin have to present their papers and assure the police that they know Benjamin. Satisfied, the police officers leave. 

Amin stays up all night thinking. In the morning, he slips out before Kim wakes and takes a taxi to Bethlehem. He enters the Grand Mosque before anyone can stop him. He crosses the prayer hall and enters the private area, finding a young Iman sitting and studying. The assistant arrives and tries to escort Amin out but the Iman motions for Amin to stay. When they are alone, the Iman tells Amin that he is not welcome at the mosque. He has not performed the correct adulations and they know that he is not a believer. Amin accuses the Iman of being a crackpot; the Iman believes that he is enlightened, charged with a divine mission. Amin is led out. 

Worried, Kim calls Amin. He invites her to Bethlehem and then to his foster sister’s home. Leila is still sick. While Kim treats her, Amin and Yasser talk. Yasser seems gravely disturbed. Later, Amin decides to return to the mosque but he is jumped in an alley by two men. They beat him, threatening him with worse if he ever returns. Amin blacks out and wakes up at night, surrounded by children. He staggers back to Leila’s house. Kim, who is horrified, treats his wounds and calls the police. Kim demands that Amin return to Tel Aviv but he refuses to leave Bethlehem. The next day, he returns to the mosque but finds no one. That evening, Yasser receives a telephone call to say that Amin will be collected soon for a meeting. Kim warns it is a trap but Amin does not care. A boy arrives, leading Amin to a teenager, who leads him to a man in a shop. From here, Amin is taken on a long, disorientating walk. Amin is made to change clothes and is blindfolded and taken in a van to a dark courtyard. Amin sees the silhouettes of armed men and worries that Kim was right. 

Finally, Amin is warmly welcomed by a tall man with a Lebanese accent. Amin is invited to sit and offered an apology for the beating. After a brief exchange, Amin gets to his point: He wants answers about his wife’s radicalization. Slightly taken about by Amin’s bluntness, the man informs him that Sihem was “not acting under our banner, but we appreciate what she did” (101) and tells Amin to return to Tel Aviv. He also denies that his people are Islamists (who seek a theocratic state) or fundamentalists (who seek to establish a global Islamic state). Instead, they are persecuted people who are fighting to recover their homeland. It was Sihem’s decision to exclude Amin from her reasoning, the man says, and he respects her decision. He criticizes Amin for picking his comfortable life and extricating himself from his people’s struggle. Amin stands up for himself, aggressively defending his decision to heal people rather than harm them. The man dismisses Amin, knowing that they could talk for months without coming to a mutual understanding.

Amin regrets not giving Sihem’s letter to Navid. He knows how lucky he has been to get as far as he has done, even if he has emerged empty-handed. To Kim’s relief, he has decided to return to Tel Aviv. She drives quickly and quietly, afraid that Amin will change his mind. As they arrive in Tel Aviv, Amin asks to be taken to his house, but Kim thinks it is too soon. Amin says that he needs “to be alone to think about the last few days” (108). Though she is anxious about Amin harming himself, Kim agrees. Amin promises to see a therapist at some point in the future but must reconstruct himself first. As soon as she leaves Amin in front of his house, he begins to miss her. 

He enters and begins to clean the disheveled home. He calls workmen to repair the damage to the house and Amin appreciates that the man does not mention his wife’s death. Next, Amin goes into the city to retrieve his car and then drives to the sea. He stays there until the early hours and returns home, falling asleep in an armchair fully-clothed. He wakes from a nightmare and wanders the house, finding a French window still open and clattering. The house begins to remind him overwhelmingly of Sihem; he sees memories of them everywhere, including a time they talked about having children. He turns on all the lights in the house to cast out her shadow and then returns to bed without turning the lights off. 

Amin awakes to find himself watching the sunset through an upstairs window. His neighbors ignore him as the workmen arrive. Just before noon, Navid calls Amin to invite him for dinner. Amin declines. Repairs done, the workmen leave and Amin has the house to himself again. He peruses photographs of his life with Sihem. He notices a photograph of Adel standing outside a mosque in Nazareth that Sihem also visited, her childhood mosque. There is a picture of Sihem, taken on the same day, outside the same mosque. Amin notices a red car in the background. He grows uneasy. All evening, Amin cannot help but think about the coincidence. 

Early the next morning, Amin leaves for Sihem’s grandmother’s house. He finds that her grandmother has been taken to hospital, accompanied by her nephew Abbas. There, Amin discovers that she has suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage. Amin talks to Abbas, who must soon return to the farm once he hears his grandmother’s condition is stable but her survival unlikely. Abbas admits to having seen Sihem and Adel together many times; much to Amin’s surprise, Sihem did not return to the farm after Abbas threatened Adel and did not spend the previous two Eids with her grandmother. Abbas never told Amin, he says, because Amin “didn’t ask me anything” (117). Shocked and furious, Amin speeds home, reflecting on how he might have missed something so devastating and yet obvious.