This is a synopsis of my new novel which I have been trying for three years to find somebody to help me publish it but to no avail so far. I wish somebody could and would help and I'll be very thankful and grateful before despair and frustration eat me up
-------------------
-------------------
Naji, a Palestinian boy meets Tamar, an Israeli Jewish girl, during a school visit initiated by Mrs. Levi, an Israeli Jewish teacher and Mr. Sodqi, a Palestinian teacher. The visit is postponed several times due to the opposition of Israeli and Palestinian extremists. However, the two teachers manage to carry out the visit as planed. Having so many things in common, Naji and Tamar feel so close to each other. They both are reluctant or even afraid to admit that they are in love. They know that it will be disastrous for both of them to fall in love. Their love isn’t only forbidden but also doomed to fail. Both of them are peace loving people and are ready to do everything they can to bring the two hostile peoples together. They are so troubled by the on going conflict and wish so hard that peace between the two belligerent peoples will be finally achieved. Of course each one is attached to his and her people. However, this doesn’t prevent him or her from accepting the other side and believing in its right to live in peace each in its independent state. Yet they often find themselves in conflict with each other especially when they talk about symbols that have different significance to each on of them. Although they are the most peace loving people that can ever exist, they sometimes accuse each other of being extreme and irrational. The novel is titled “Love in Conflict’ and it demonstrates different levels and aspects of conflict. First, their love is so unique and unpractical in such a hostile environment. Second, their conflicting ideas and opinions about certain matters pertaining their different cultures and background sometimes widen the gap between them. Third, both of them are in conflict with their families and communities. As a matter of fact they know that they can’t be the modern version of Romeo and Juliet though in the end Naji dies.
Naji likes to write poetry and Tamar likes to paint and later she begins to write poetry encouraged by Naji. Naji’s poetry always deals with his own experiences as a Palestinian living under the Israeli occupation and continuous siege and wishes so hard that all those manifestation of hatred and hostility would cease and his generation and Tamar’s would eventually live in peace and be able to lead a normal life. The main thing that characterizes them both is the fact that they both hate violence and are greatly frustrated by the on going terror activities on both sides. Naji’s personality is very unique and problematic at the same time. He can’t accept any kind of violence whatever the reason is. There’s no justification for any act of violence against innocent people. That’s the reason for his constant opposition to belong to any of the military or fundamental Palestinian groups. However, he acknowledges the right of every nation under foreign occupation to resist and fight for its freedom and independence. On the other hand, he doesn’t accept the corruption of the other political parties. Therefore, he always feels detached and wants to be independent though it’s not acceptable in the Palestinian community. In order to move ahead and prosper one must belong to a group so that they can take care of him and his family.
Tamar on the other hand has to deal with her Zionist mother and her brother’s militant views. The latter is a soldier in the Israeli army and like his mother he has very extreme political views. In contrast her father is more understanding having hired and dealt with many Arab merchants who used to buy crops from him.
Their second meeting takes place at the Oasis of Peace a mixed community village half Arabs half Jews close to Jerusalem. The Palestinian and Israeli students meet there in a seminar that helps them deal with the most difficult issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Naji and Tamar have a good opportunity to meet and confess their love despite the hard arguments they both have during the classes and the breaks. Nevertheless, they get along despite the opposition of the Palestinian and Israeli students as well. The Israeli students reject Tamar’s relationship with Naji. They think that he’s only sexually interested in her, while the Palestinian students think that Naji abandons them for the sake of an Israeli girl. Naji and Tamar agree to meet in the evening and as they talk the Jewish students suddenly appear carrying torches and begin to dance all round calling mockingly “Romeo, Juliet.” Naji leaves the Oasis of Peace first thing in the morning.
A few weeks later Tamar invites Naji to visit her and he has to get illegally into Israel. The infiltration procedure is very dangerous. He may be killed at the spot once he is spotted by an Israeli patrol. Nevertheless he’s determined to go on. He can’t withdraw; he is so eager to see Tamar. Finally he arrives at her house and after sometime Tamar takes him to the beach especially after he reads her a poem expressing his wish to go t the beach. As they take the bus, Naji is very frightened. He fears that he may be arrested once an Israeli soldier gets on the bus and wants to see his ID. Ironically when that happens, the soldier doesn’t suspect him because he sits next to a beautiful girl who keeps talking to him affectionately, besides, he doesn’t look any different from any Israeli youth. He’s handsome and athletic. Instead the soldier asks an Israeli young man who happens to have left his ID at home. Since he has oriental features, the soldier suspects him to be an Arab and consequently has to take him to the police station in spite of his repeated claims that he’s a Jew. After they spend some time on the beach an explosion takes place nearby and Tamar meets Menashi a soldier who’s a friend of her brother’s. He tells her to leave the beach and Tamar has to divert his attention so as not to talk to Naji and find out his true identity. Menashi who has a crush on Tamar has to drive away due to the urgent matter at hand. Naji is afraid to stay on the beach. He wants to leave immediately, but Tamar convinces him that it will be very dangerous to leave right away. They stay on the beach for some time until Naji can’t stay any more. Tamar complies and they walk toward the exit where hundreds of extreme Jews shout the usual ‘death to the Arabs’ slogan. As they walk out they also see hundreds of soldiers and policemen blocking the area looking for the Palestinians responsible for the explosion. All along the way, Naji sees hundreds of Palestinian workers already detained and tied up and left on the sidewalks until they are taken to prison. Naji is determined to go home despite the danger to his life, but Tamar once again manages to convince him to come with her to her place and hide there until things have settled down. She hides him in the attic above her room almost caught by her brother who comes back home most unexpectedly.
A few months later after Tamar almost gives up any hope of seeing Naji, they are asked to participate in another seminar somewhere near the town of Haifa. They meet and as it rains heavily they have to find shelter in a cabin in the neighboring wood. They lit a fire and Tamar takes off her clothes to dry them and ask Naji to take his as well. It’s important to indicate that Tamar being so liberal wants Naji very much but his reserve always stops her and makes her stop encouraging him to have sex with her. At that cabin she feels that the moment finally comes but instead he gets up and gets dressed.
Four months later the two lovers meet and they drive into a wood not far from the sea where they make love for the first time. Since then they meet regularly and enjoy each other’s company despite the hazards that often pop here and there. It’s worth while to indicate that the wall which Israel has been building for many years as well as the continuous siege and curfews have a great impact on their relationship and many of Naji’s poems deal with these issues. Tamar herself reveals that she once joined a demonstration against building the wall and was also beaten by an Israeli soldier.
One day Rachel, Tamar’s mother, tells her that she’s interested in meeting Naji. As she drives them to her sister’s house in one of the settlements built on Palestinian confiscated lands, they have a hard argument about each one’s ideology. Tamar doesn’t like the argument from the very beginning and wants her mother to stop, but she insists and Naji let’s her speak up although he doesn’t agree with her beliefs. She believes that the Jews have the right to settle wherever they want and that she doesn’t hate the Palestinians and that she stands for peace. Naji doesn’t see how these views can serve the cause of peace.
To make things even worse for the two lovers, Dan, Tamar’s brother is wounded while many other Israelis are either killed or injured when a Palestinian militant blows himself up in a railway station. At the hospital, his mother mentions Naji and he has to ask Tamar about him. They have a fierce argument which continues at home when he accuses his sister of sleeping with a Palestinian while he faces death every day. When Israelis and Palestinians have extreme views about peace without considering the other side’s rights, friction, terror, hostility and hatred grow up constantly and continuously. Naji’s and Tamar’s views about peace unfortunately aren’t accepted by many fractions of the Israeli or the Palestinian communities. Hence they suffer a lot and can’t bring the change they want so much. His father was killed when an Israeli air craft targeted a suspicious Palestinian vehicle passing by. However, his tragedy doesn’t change him as it does change his brother, Nidal. His love for peace is stable and unchangeable until he dies as he tries to stop his brother who has been brainwashed as he put it and wants to be a martyr.
Some militant Palestinians somehow find out that Naji meets Tamar now and then and ask him to carry out a plot to kidnap her in order to free Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. He rejects despite their convincing argument that the Israelis won’t release any prisoners unless they have to. Besides, they argue that it’s an opportunity to serve his people and do his national duty and prove to be loyal to his nation. He rejects the idea and they plan to kidnap her without his knowledge. However, he accidentally learns about their scheme and warns Tamar against coming to see him. But when he finally meets her a Palestinian gets into her car and threaten to kill them both if she doesn’t obey his orders. Naji tries hard to protect Tamar but he doesn’t give up. Then a military Jeep arrives at the scene out of the blue, and Tamar opens the door and runs to call for help. Tamar is surprised to see Minashi in that jeep. The kidnapper runs away and Minashi asks her to follow him to the nearest police station. She tries hard to end the case at the spot so as not to put Naji in danger, but Minashi insists that they have to report the kidnapping attempt. Tamar then has to obey Naji who desperately asks her to drop him somewhere. Later it turns out that the kidnapper is a Palestinian informer who works with Menashi who in turns loves Tamar but she doesn’t return his love. He is envious and wants hard to get rid of Naji so he and Dan, Tamars brother, conspire against him. All the time he believes that the Palestinian militants are responsible for the kidnapping plot.
At the police station she is questioned about the plot and some time later the kidnapper and Naji are caught and brought in. Naji is accused of trying to kidnap Tamar and the real kidnapper testifies that he is his accomplice. To protect him Tamar testifies that he is her boyfriend. Naji, on the other hand, testifies that he is the kidnapper’s accomplice. He wants to save her the embarrassment she’ll get once her folks know about her secret love affair. The detective is amused by their mutual attempt to save each other, but that doesn’t prevent him from detaining him until the investigation is over.
Naji remains in prison for two years until his trial is finally held. During that period, Tamar has an abortion for she discovers that she is carrying Naji’s child. That is the worst nightmare she can ever have despite her precaution and prudence. She then starts her military service at a check post in the occupied Palestinian territories where she has to deal with the bad treatment of Palestinians on the part of her fellow soldiers.
When his trial begins two years later, Tamar repeats her previous testimony that Naji has nothing to do with that kidnapping attempt. He is released that day and when he goes home his mother tells him that his brother, Nidal wants to become a martyr and he has to look for him and bring him back before it’s too late. He finds him at the local mosque and he has a bitter argument with him and the other members of his group. His brother accuses him of being a coward because he thinks that Naji has to avenge his father and the other Palestinians whom the Israeli soldiers have already killed not to mention his two years’ imprisonment. Naji fails to convince his brother to come back to his senses and abandon his wish of becoming a martyr.
Then one day and all of a sudden Tamar asks Naji to meet her at the same bus stop and Naji notices that she has completely changed. She drives silently all the way to the cemetery they have already reached by mistake. There she tells him that her brother was killed by Arabs and she has to avenge his death. She’s so angry and hurting that she needs to kill an Arab and she doesn’t care if he’s Naji himself. At the right moment she can’t do it, she throws her gun into the open grave she already forced Naji to get into.
Naji walks back and reaches his home eventually.
Some time later Naji leaves home early in the morning to look for his brother who has stopped coming to his home to the overwhelming distress of his mother. He discovers the building where he stays and goes in to look for him. A few minutes later the building is bombarded and three days later Naji’s body is recovered from under the rubble. The Israeli media claim that he is one of the most wanted terrorists while the Palestinian media claim that he is only one name on a very long list of Palestinian martyrs who died for the Palestinian cause. The story ends with the following question, “what is he indeed?
