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

“It was the breath, the currency, the bread of his family, of nearly every family he knew. It was what everyone talked about, all the time: return. In exile, there was little else worth dreaming of.” 

Bashir and his friends and family dream only of returning to their house in Ramla. Living in exile, they have a kind of half-life. Their minds are always focused on return to old Palestine. 

“Dalia believed God had a hand in Israel’s survival and compared her own feeling of awe and wonder with the feeling she imagined her ancestors had when witnessing the parting of the Red Sea.” 

Dalia believes that divine intervention helped the Jews return to Israel after centuries of exile. She believes that God has played a role in their return and that Israel is their destiny.

“Why, she thought, would You allow Israel to be saved during the Six Day War, yet not prevent genocide during the Holocaust?” 

Dalia finds it difficult to reconcile her faith in God with the occurrences during the Holocaust. Later, when Israel wins the Six Day War, she can’t understand why God allowed so many Jews to be killed during the Holocaust. She has a questioning nature even as a child.