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

Sandy Tolan offers a thorough history of the struggle between Jews and Arabs for control of Israel. Under the British in 1936, the area now known as Israel was then called  Palestine. In 1947, the UN announced a partition plan, which created a Jewish state and an Arab state in the same area, and the next year Israel became a state, with Palestinian territories. Bashir Khairi was born in the Arab town of al-Ramla in 1942, but his family was re-settled in a town 20 miles away when the partition plan took effect. He returns to his hometown in 1967, now called Ramla, and meets Dalia Eshkenazi, the Jewish young woman now living in the same house. The two develop a relationship, which evolves over the years, and the history of Israel is reflected throughout their interactions. I found The Lemon Tree very enlightening and informative.