Enemy in the Promised Land: An Egyptian Woman's Journey into Israel

by Sana Hasan

In 1974, as a 23-year-old graduate student at Harvard, Hasan (coauthor of Between A Compassionate Dialogue Between an Israeli & an Arab, daughter of a former Egyptian ambassador to the U.S., made an extended visit to Israel, an act considered traitorous less than a year after the Yom Kippur War. Although the immediacy of her risktaking wanes in light of the subsequent Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and Hasan is a bit too enamored with her celebrity as an Egyptian in Israel, this is, nonetheless, an absorbing account of her headstrong encounters with leading politicians, radical Socialist kibbutzniks, zealous converts to Judaism, Sephardic prostitutes and Israeli Arabs. The reader senses that Hasan's desire for peace is sincere, yet she presents only the Arab side of the dispute as factual history, missing the opportunity for effective dialogue about the Middle East.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

335 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kressel Housman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world political climate has only gotten worse since this book was written, but it’s still a welcome voice of peace. It’s about a young Egyptian woman who masquerades as Jew to experience life in Israel, going everywhere from the most left-wing kibbutzim to an Ultra-Orthodox kiruv family. Though she was not necessarily positive going in, she did come out that way. If the world were full of people like her, there really would be peace.

[Shawna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I left my copy in Jerusalem and regret it.

[Pippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compulsive reading, deeply felt, informative, sensitive. Description of a journey that must have taken huge courage. Well worth buying (and I actually did!) :)