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57 pages 1 hour read

Sandy Tolan

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2006

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Essay Topics

1.

What are the similarities in the experiences of Dalia’s family and Bashir’s family?

2.

Does Tolan support the idea that individuals can make a difference in bringing about justice? If so, how? If not, why not?

3.

Why was Moshe Eshkenazi so eager to start his life over again in Israel?

4.

How did the schools Bashir and Dalia attended give them different perspectives about the birth of Israel and the removal of the Palestinians? What were these different perspectives?

5.

How and why did Dalia begin to doubt the story of the Israeli occupation of Ramla that she was taught in school?

6.

Why did Dalia decide to turn her parents’ house into a kindergarten for Arab children and later into a center for Jewish-Arab dialogue called Open House?

7.

What did the lemon tree and the lemons symbolize to Bashir and his family? Do they symbolize the same in The Lemon Tree writ large?

8.

How did Bashir’s time in jail affect his father, Ahmad?

9.

What does the incident in which Bashir’s hand is blown off symbolize to him?

10.

Why does Dalia choose to replant the lemon tree at the end of the book? What is her hope for the future?

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