In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story

This is an excellent and thoughtful book that takes the reader through the events that led to the destruction of Palestine and forced hundreds of thousands of people, like Fatima and her family from their homes. For many Palestinians, reading this book relives memories of a tragedy that so many of us have suffered and so little of the American public knows. I highly recommend it as an introduction to Palestine and the origin of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel. The second half of the book which deals with the protagonist's search for identity in England is also very characteristic of what the Palestinian families who were forced to emigrate to different countries all over the world have to face: complete assimilation versus living in the injury done to us by the creation of the Israeli state. There is no need for "the other viewpoint" in this book. This is the personal story of a Palestinian in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Ms. Karmi does not need to justify the Israeli's feelings, although I think she actually tried.

G. Karmi's book presents a side of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict that is seldom seen. Through the eyes of this little girl (8-9 years of age) we see the tragedy that has been inflicted on the stateless Palestinian people through no fault of their own. Ghada writes of her family's terrifying escape from Jerusalem under Israeli gunfire--leaving their home and possessions behind. 50 years later, Ghada does return to what is now Israel--and toher city of Jerusalem. Briefly, she is able to visit her childhood home, now occupied by Jewish immigrants. She and her family were never compensated in any way for theirloss of home, possessions and country. The author presents many insights about the culture in Jerusalem before the Israeli takeover. She describes the open, social interactions between Jews, Christians and Muslims at that earlier time. She and her family are Muslim.

This book is probably one of the best to reflect the true impact of what happened in Palestine in the 1940s and what it has meant for millions of Palestinians to grow up in exile. People tend to focus on the everyday violence, the blood shed and the lives that are lost, and while this is a true tragedy, we have to remember that the real tragedy is the loss of a whole people's citizenship, homes, past and future of generations who have been forced to abandon their land, and homes and with them their culture, and their sense of identity. The real tragedy is to know you have a home and that someone else is living in it.

are you interested in knowing the truth? read this book.. it tells you a lot in an easy narrate.. Ghada Karmi did well, we needed such a book. Thank you Ghada.

It is a wonderful integration of history, psychology, and culture all backed strongly by Karmi's extroadinary literary abilitis.