Palestine

In an interview on Israel and Palestine in Art

You have also got a book by Karl Sabbagh, Palestine: A Personal History.

I read all these books and many others for research. Since I write historical novels I have to spend about one or two years reading books about that period so I can get the details right. I wanted to read a book written by a Palestinian person about his memories and the way he views the conflict. As a writer I write about people, not about politics. The political may be implied in the book but they are not part of the initial writing. And the thing about Sabbagh was the feelings and emotions he expressed about missing Palestine.

You know, Israel is for me the homeland and it is kind of strange to read a book by a Palestinian who sees the same piece of land as his homeland and has such similar feelings. I could identify with him and that felt awkward. So it was a bittersweet feeling.

When I was writing the book I met descendants of a family who had lived at that time, called the Dajani family. Now they live all over the world. It was kind of emotional as I was born in a hospital named after that family because it was built on land owned by that family. After the 48 War the land was taken from them by the Israeli government. And these people told me about the way they see Palestine – missing it, having been forced to live in other countries and being expelled. Their family history is similar to my personal history because my family grew up in the Jewish quarter of Damascus, Syria and they left the country and moved to Israel. They have a kind of Jewish biography, even though they are Muslims.