The Lemon Tree Analysis

The Lemon Tree composed by Sandy Tolan introduces a personal side to well known war between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Tolan is a very well educated man who attended both Harvard and UC Berkeley. He has made great contributions to research and documentary based media. In 1967 Bashir Khairi who at the time was a 25 year old Palestinian, took a trip to Israel to see his house that him and his family had fled 19 years earlier. Bashir had been waiting for this trip since he was 6 years old. When his house was found Bashir was greeted by a 19 year old college student named Dalia Eshkenazi Landau. Dalias family left Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. Little did these two know that their shared house would forge a friendship that would
Dalia’s family in Bulgaria was among the thousands that were set to be deported to concentrations. Despite the fact that the Bulgarian nation had allowed Jewish people into their country, when Nazi’s approached Bulgaria about deportation, they agreed to do it in secrecy. The secrecy didn't last long though. After the plan was leaked to the public the Bulgarian people came together to save 47 thousand of their fellow Jewish-Bulgarians. In 1941, King Boris joined the Axis powers salvaging Bulgaria from German occupation for 2 years. By 1943 the government had done a complete 180 degree turn and members that despised the Jews slowly came to power. The deportation of Jews was set to begin. Drastic measures were taken by the Bulgarian people, a small town called Kyustendil began to raise money to bribe the Vice President of Parliament (Dimiture Peshev) into saving the Jews. In the end their money was taken and their needs were not followed through with. Weeks later upon figuring out the Germans true plans for the Jews, Peshev called a meeting for Parliament and inevitably ruled that the Germans would receive no Jewish persons from Bulgaria. Peace was at the forefront of the Bulgarian people's minds. Thousands upon thousands of non-Jewish
A friendship that would last for the next 35 years and face a rollercoaster of up and downs. Following their initial meeting in Ramla, Bashir extends an invitation to Dalia to join him at his home in Ramallah. Amidst Bashir's peacefulness the conversation between the two turns political and shortly thereafter emotional. Both bond over their love for their homelands and the feelings of ownership towards the old stonehouse with the lemon tree in the back comes into question. Though the two are politically opposed and don't see eye to eye on their shared house, the two are friendly and connect well. As they progress further in their talks of the old house Bashir is accused of involvement pertaining to a bombing. He spends time in prison and isn't met again until 18 years later. It isn't until this time that Dalia expresses her dissatisfaction and disappointment that Bashir was involved. Dalia then expresses her thoughts about the house. Israeli law prevents her from selling or giving the house back to Bashir. Dalia offers to pay reparations but this idea doesn't sit well with Bashir. Instead, the two commit to turning the house into a school for Palestinian children. The two main characters of this novel clearly don't see eye to eye politically however the deeper notion and push for peace from both sides makes continuous fighting hard to maintain. Dalia and Bashir