Sandy Tolan > Quotes

“understanding can only come from a recognition of each other's history.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The act of planting was thus an act of faith and patience.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“They are building the wall," said Nidal, "so they don't have to look into our eyes.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“they cried out desperately for help, for pity, for water, for air, for a scrap of humanity.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Other Zionists, like Albert Einstein and Martin Buber, advocated coexistence with the Arab population and opposed any transfer plans.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Out of the pain, something new is growing.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The Lemon Tree
Important to read for those who care about the conflict between Palistinians and jews”
― Sandy Tolan

“We can continue to fight. We can continue to kill—and continue to be killed. But we can also try to put a stop to this never-ending cycle of blood. We can also give peace a chance.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Generally, it can be said that any Arab house that survived the impact of the war . . . now shelters a Jewish family.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“If national interest comes before our common humanity," Dalia said, "then there is no hope for redemption, there is no hope for healing, there is no hope for transformation, there is no hope for anything!" One”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Dalia had long believed in Einstein's words—that "no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The "spectacular" operations of the PFLP, meanwhile, began to attract legions of young Europeans, who saw in the airline hijackings a willingness to risk everything to achieve liberation. This was a time not only of cold war, but of revolution, inspired in part by massive and worldwide street protests against”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The British had arrived in 1917, the same year of the historic Balfour Declaration, in which England pledged to help establish a "national homeland for the Jewish people" in Palestine.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The pain of our history.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Bashir walked toward a glass cabinet in the dining room. Dalia followed Bashir, and the two stood looking through the glass.
"Look at the cabinet and tell me what you see," Bashir said.
"Is this a test?"
"It is a test. Please tell me what you see in the cabinet."
Books, vases, a picture of Abdel Nasser. Maybe some things hiding behind. And a lemon."
"You won," Bashir said. "Do you remember the lemon?"
"What about it? Is there a story?"
"Do you remember when me and my brother came to visit?...Yes? Do you remember that Kamel asked you for something as we left? And do you remember what you gave him as a gift?"
Dalia was silent for a moment, Bashir would recall. "Oh, my God. It's one of those lemons from that visit. But why did you keep it? It has been almost four months now."
They walked from the cabinet and took their seats in the living room.
"To us, this lemon is more than fruit, Dalia," Bashir said slowly. "It is land and history. It is the window that we open to look at our history. A few days after we brought the lemons home, it was night, and I heard a movement in the house. I was asleep. I got up, and I was listening. We were so nervous when the occupation started. Even the movement of trees used to wake us. And left us worried. I heard the noise and I got up. The noise was coming from this room right here. Do you know what I saw? My father, who is nearly blind."
"Yes," said Dalia. She was listening intently.
"Dalia, I saw him holding the lemon with both hands. And he was pacing back and forth in the room, and the tears were running down his cheeks.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“This was partly why she believed what she had been told:”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“When someone sees his or her own history represented fairly, it opens up the mind and”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Our enemy is the only partner we have.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“deep red Queen Elizabeth roses,”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Strangely, though, in the midst of occupation and the utter failure of the Arab regimes, a sense of freedom was emerging: a notion that the Palestinians were suddenly free to think and act for themselves. In the weeks after the occupation, Bashir began to believe that his people would go back to their homeland only through the sweat and blood of Palestinian armed struggle. He was far from alone in this assessment.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Any mistakes that may remain are, of course, my responsibility.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Dalia was the only one in Israel who understood,” Bashir insisted.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Suleiman made al-Ramla the political capital of Palestine, and for a time it became more important than Jerusalem. The town lay halfway between Damascus and Cairo, and soon it was a stopover for camel caravans hauling leather, swords, buckets, walnuts,”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“I am indebted to the archivists”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“She appreciated that the entire Bulgarian Jewish choir had come on a boat together and that Bulgarians were playing in the new Israeli philharmonic. She loved to read Tolstoy and Chekhov, Victor Hugo, Thomas Mann, and Jack London. Most of all, she adored Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, her beloved, kindred soul whose work she considered profoundly sensitive and who, during the war, had lost faith in humanity and cut open his veins.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“The Ottomans, based in Istanbul, would rule Palestine for four hundred years. At its height, the empire stretched from the outskirts of Vienna through the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. From Istanbul, the Ottoman sultan bequeathed to Khair al-Din the productive waqflands that would sustain the family for centuries. By 1936, Palestine was under the rule of a new overseer, the British, who had arrived at the end of World War I as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. By”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“looking at the roots of the conflict.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Between 1922 and 1936, the Jewish population of Palestine quadrupled—from 84,000 to 352,000. During the same time, the Arab population had increased by about 36 percent, to 900,000.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“By now the dream of immediate return had transformed into the reality of long-term struggle. The Palestinians had begun to understand that their return would not come about through diplomatic pressure.”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

“Who would have believed that Israeli soldiers would kill hundreds of children and that the majority of Israelis would remain silent?”
― Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East