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Susan Abulhawa - Wikipedia

Susan Abulhawa - Wikipedia
Abulhawa in 2010

Susan Abulhawa

Extended-protected article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susan Abulhawa
Abulhawa in 2010
Abulhawa in 2010
Born1970 (age 55–56)
Kuwait
Occupation
  • Activist
  • scientist
  • writer
Nationality
  • Palestinian
  • American
Notable works

Susan Abulhawa (Arabic: سوزان أبو الهوى; born 1970) is a Palestinian-American scientist, writer, and activist. She wrote the novels Mornings in Jenin, The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015), and Against the Loveless World (2020). A human rights activist and animal rights advocate, she founded the children's organization Playgrounds for Palestine.

Early life and education

Susan Abulhawa's parents, born in At-Tur, a neighborhood on the Mount of Olives east of the Old City of Jerusalem, were Palestinian refugees of the Six-Day War in 1967. Her father, according to one account, "was expelled at gunpoint; her mother, who was studying in Germany at the time, was unable to return and the couple reunited in Jordan before moving to Kuwait, where Abulhawa was born in 1970."[1]

Her parents split shortly after her birth and Abulhawa's childhood was turbulent, moving between Kuwait, the United States, Jordan, and Palestine. She lived in the United States with an uncle until she was 5, then spent several years moving between relatives in Jordan and Kuwait. She lived in Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi, a Jerusalem orphanage, from the age of 10 to 13.[1] At 13 she returned to the United States, where she lived with her father briefly before entering the foster care system.[2]

Abulhawa studied biology at Pfeiffer University in North Carolina, and completed a masters in neuroscience (biomedical science) at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.[2][1]

Early career

After her studies, Abulhawa began a career in medical science.[2][1] Prior to dedicating herself to writing full-time, she worked as a researcher for a large pharmaceutical company.[3][4]

Activism

In July 2001, Abulhawa founded Playgrounds for Palestine, a non-governmental children's organization dedicated to upholding The Right to Play for Palestinian children and build playgrounds in Palestine and UN refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria.[5] The first playground was erected in early 2002.[6][7] She is involved in the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and as a speaker for Al Awda, the Palestinian right of return coalition.[1] Abulhawa is signatory to the boycott campaign against Israel, including the cultural boycott. She gave the keynote address at one of the first campus BDS conferences at the University of Pennsylvania.[8] Abulhawa said the BDS movement was "one of the most effective ways to promote Palestinian rights and achieve justice against Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing".[9]

Abulhawa has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.[10] In 2013, Abulhawa declined an invitation from Al Jazeera to participate in a discussion about the Nakba with three or four Israelis, having been asked by the producer to participate as the only Palestinian as they needed her to "balance things out".[11][12] In her letter explaining her refusal to participate, she stated:

Imagine Germany never acknowledged the Jewish holocaust. Imagine, we are living in an era where Jews are still fighting for basic recognition of their pain. Then imagine that on the day in which Jews engage in solemn remembrance of their greatest collective wound, television shows choose to feature German sons and daughters of Nazis in a discussion expressing differing views on whether or not and/or how Germany should deal with the memory of the genocide their country committed. And imagine, of course, there is a token Jew "to balance out" such an ill-timed and inappropriate public conversation.[12]

In 2024, Abulhawa declared in light of the Gaza war that "Israel is committing the holocaust of our time, and it is doing it in full view of a seemingly indifferent world."[13] On November 29, 2024, Abulhawa was invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion, "This House Believes Israel is an Apartheid State Responsible for Genocide". She spoke as member of the team in favor of the proposition together with Miko Peled and Mohammed El-Kurd. The motion was carried with a majority of 278 to 59. The Oxford Union later deleted her original recording on YouTube and uploaded a censored version. Abulhawa responded that the Union seemed to have yielded to demands from Zionists "as Palestinians struggle to make our voices heard in the midst of a genocide".[14][15]

Abulhawa has referred to Israelis as "rootless, soulless ghouls" in her writing, as well as describing the October 7, 2023, attacks as a "spectacular moment".[16] She described the Gaza war as a "Jewish supremacist slaughter", writing, "these sons of Satan will taste what they meted to us".[17] New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized her comments as "reprehensible" and "patently unacceptable".[17][16] Mamdani was criticised by some of his supporters for "reinforcing harmful narratives that conflate support for Palestinians with anti-Jewish sentiment". Abulhawa said that her comments were not antisemitic or anti-Jewish and that she was responding "to a Zionist power structure and its proponents from the perspective of a Palestinian who has experienced the ravages of that system".[17]

Later in March 2026, Abulhawa spoke about her criticism of Mamdani's response to her comments, stating that "There is a pattern of using Palestine and Palestinian pain for, whether it's street cred or political gain or whatever it is, and then throwing us under the bus when whatever gain has been achieved." Abulhawa criticised Jewish Americans, stating that they "are the most privileged demographic in this country... I think the resentment that they are seeing now is stemming from the world watching the so-called Jewish State commit a genocide." She added, "We can't ignore the fact that it’s not just Israelis, it is Jewish Americans... I think no words, no terrible words should be spared for these monsters, because they are monsters."[18][unreliable source?]

Writing

Library resources
    By Susan Abulhawa

    Abulhawa's political and romantic fiction is written in English. Her first language in which she learned to read and write was Arabic.[5] Her writing career began with essays and political commentaries. Her work appeared in newspapers and magazines, including the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Internationalist, The Christian Science Monitor , and more.[19]

    Abulhawa is a contributing author to two anthologies, Shattered Illusions (Amal Press, 2002) and Searching Jenin (Cune Press, 2003).[20]

    Her debut novel The Scar of David (2006), republished as Mornings in Jenin (2010), is a multigenerational family epic spanning five countries and more than sixty years, focusing on the effects on Palestinians of the Israeli occupation. It became an international bestseller translated into 32 languages.[1][21][22]

    In 2013 Abulhawa published a collection of poetry entitled My Voice Sought the Wind.[23]

    Her second novel, The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015), a novel of family, love and loss centered on Gaza City, garnered a global readership and critical acclaim.[24][25] Her third novel, Against the Loveless World, was published in 2020, again to critical acclaim.[12][26][27]

    Novels

    Other

    • Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Capitalist Climate Change, New Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2017.
    • This Is Not A Border: Reportage & Reflections from the Palestine Festival of Literature, New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.[28]
    • Shattered Illusions, anthology (Amal Press, 2002)[29]
    • Searching Jenin, anthology (Cune Press, 2003)[29]
    • "Memories of an un-Palestinian story, in a can of tuna" in an anthology: Penny Johnson; Raja Shehadeh (eds.) (2012). Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home.[30]
    • My Voice Sought The Wind, poetry collection (Charlottesville: Just World Books, November 2013)[31]

    Awards

    See also

    • Jenin – Palestinian city, northern West Bank

    References

    1.  Yaqoob, Tahira (April 26, 2012). "Arab-American novelist fights for justice in Palestine". The National. Abu Dhabi. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
    2.  Rhodes, Giulia (June 6, 2015). "Building playgrounds in Palestine: 'This is their special place and refuge'". The Guardian.
    3.  Day, Susie (August 27, 2023). "Writing Palestine". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
    4.  Background - Authorial Context: Susa Abulhawa, supersummary.com. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
    5.  "Mornings in Jenin: The Strange and Circuitous Path of a Palestinian-American Novel". arablit.org. April 1, 2012.
    6.  "Meet Us". Playgrounds for Palestine. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
    7.  Adams, John (March 2003), "Playgrounds for Palestine Brings Playground for Peace" (PDF), Today's Playground, archived from the original (PDF) on July 28, 2007, retrieved October 13, 2009
    8.  Robbins, Annie (February 15, 2012). "Out of the Ballpark: Susan Abulhawa's Speech to the PennBDS Conference". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
    9.  Bland, Sally (March 27, 2012). "Susan Abulhawa: Writing for Palestine". The Jordan Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
    10.  Abulhawa, Susan (2009). "Palestinians Will Never Forget". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. American Educational Trust. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
    11.  Weiss, Philip (May 19, 2013). "Abulhawa Declines to 'Balance Out' Several Israelis in 'Al Jazeera' Forum on Nakba". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
    12.  Abulhawa, Susan (May 14, 2013). "Are Israelis Now Appropriating the Nakba?". Palestine Chronicle. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
    13.  "I Went to Gaza. What I Saw Was a Holocaust". Novara Media. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
    14.  "Oxford Union criticized for censorship after Israel debate". The Jerusalem Post. December 15, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2025.
    15.  "How the Oxford Union debate was won". Jewish Voice for Labor. December 1, 2024. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
    16.  Powell, Michael (March 14, 2026). "Where Mamdani Has Refused to Moderate". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
    17.  "Why is NYC's Mamdani facing criticism over response to attacks on wife?". Al Jazeera. March 15, 2026. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
    18.  Tress, Luke (March 19, 2026). "After criticism from Mamdani, Palestinian author speaks out against him, calls American Jews 'monsters'". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved March 20, 2026.
    19.  "Susan Abulhawa EAA '03". Leeway Foundation. Archived from the original on October 7, 2022. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
    20.  "Georgetown SFS-Q Hosts 'Mornings in Jenin'". Georgetown University in Qatar. August 23, 2014. Archived from the original on March 19, 2026. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
    21.  Badih, Samia (May 4, 2012). "Palestine on Her Mind". Gulf News.
    22.  "Review: Mornings in Jenin". Kirkus Reviews.
    23.  "Susan Abulhawa's My Voice Sought the Wind – Poetry Review". Palestine Chronicle. October 25, 2013.
    24.  Saif, Atef Abu (August 6, 2015). "The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa review - a displaced Palestinian family's bid for survival". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
    25.  "BOOK REVIEW: The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa". Author Suanne Schafer. November 20, 2025. Archived from the original on March 19, 2026. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
    26.  Khadivi, Laleh (August 26, 2020). "A Beautiful, Urgent Novel of the Palestinian Struggle". The New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
    27.  "Fiction Book Review: Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
    28.  "This Is Not a Border: Reportage & Reflection from the Palestine Festival of Literature". Bloomsbury.
    29.  "Bloomsbury Biography". Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
    30.  Abulhawa, Susan (2012). "Memories of an un-Palestinian story, in a can of tuna". In Johnson, Penny; Shehadeh, Raja (eds.). Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home. New Delhi: Women Unlimited. ISBN 978-8188965731. OCLC 796756354.
    31.  "My Voice Sought the Wind". Archived from the original on October 27, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
    32.  "Against the Loveless World: A Novel | This House of Books". November 2, 2021.
    33.  "Shubbak Literature Festival 2017: Catch-up Audio". The British Library blogs.
    34.  "MEMO Book Awards 2013 honours Rashid Khalidi, Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson". Palestine Book Awards. November 14, 2013.
    35.  "All 4 Palestine - Model Role Details". www.all4palestine.com.
    36.  "Susan Abulhawa Writes to Affirm Palestinian Existence". Aspen Institute. February 16, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
    37.  "Aspen Institute Announces the Five Finalists for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize". Aspen Institute. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
    38.  "2021 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Archived from the original on March 19, 2026.
    39.  "Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa's 'Against the Loveless World' nominated for US literary award". Arab News. March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.

    Further reading

    ===
    Against the Loveless World
    by 
     4.50 avg rating — 31,905 ratings — published 2019 — 36 editions
    Mornings in Jenin
    by 
     4.52 avg rating — 54,972 ratings — published 2006 — 111 editions
    The Blue Between Sky and Water
    by 
     4.18 avg rating — 7,918 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions
    My Voice Sought the Wind
    by 
     4.08 avg rating — 95 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions
    ==

    ==

    Mornings in Jenin

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Mornings In Jenin
    First edition (original title)
    AuthorSusan Abulhawa
    Original titleThe Scar of David
    LanguageEnglish and other languages
    GenreNovel
    PublisherJourney Publications (2006)
    Bloomsbury Feb 1, 2010[1]
    Publication placeUnited States
    Media typePaperback
    Pages331 pp
    ISBN978-1-60819-046-1

    Mornings in Jenin (2010, U.S.; originally published as The Scar of David, 2006, United States and Les Matins de Jenin, France) is a novel by author Susan Abulhawa.

    Background

    Mornings in Jenin was originally published in the United States in 2006 as The Scar of David.[2][3] The novel was translated into French and published as Les Matins de Jenin. It was then translated into 27 languages. Bloomsbury Publishing reissued the novel in the United States as Mornings in Jenin (February, 2010) after slight editing.[3][4][5]

    Mornings in Jenin is the first mainstream novel in English to explore life in post-1948 Palestine. The novel was partially inspired by the Ghassan Kanafani novel Return to Haifa.

    Filmworks Dubai bought the film rights to Mornings in Jenin, planning to begin production in late 2013. Anna Soler-Pont, head of the Pontas agency, which sold the film rights to the novel, said: "This is going to be a special project. There aren't any epic films on Palestine yet."[6] However, the producer died shortly after and the rights reverted to her.

    Critical reception

    Reviews

    Anjali Joseph of The Independent writes that "Susan Abulhawa's novel, first published in the US in 2006 but since reworked, follows the Abulheja family, Yehya and Basima and their two sons, in Ein Hod, a village in Palestine. The pastoral opening crams into 40 pages a cross-faith friendship, a love story (both brothers fall for Dalia, who marries the elder son, Hasan), a death, the Zionist invasion of the village, and the theft of one of Hasan and Dalia's sons, the infant Ismael, by an Israeli soldier. He gives the child to his wife, a Polish Holocaust survivor. Usefully for narrative purposes, the baby, renamed David, has a scar on his face "that would eventually lead him to his truth". From these beginnings, which promise a Middle Eastern Catherine Cookson's story, a fine novel emerges."[7]

    Abdullah Khan of The Hindu comments that what struck him most is "the honesty of the author’s voice. Despite being born to Palestinian refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, she has tried hard not to let her personal feelings fill the text. All individual Jewish characters are portrayed in sympathetic light. Nowhere in the story has she lost the touch of humanity. Another bright aspect of Susan’s writing is her ornamental use of language in the tradition of contemporary Arabic writing."[8]

    Robin Yassin-Kassab of The Sunday Times suggests that at "times you want to criticise Abulhawa for laying the tragedy on too thick, but her raw material is historical fact and her blend of fiction and documentary is one of the book’s strengths. What rescues Mornings in Jenin from polemic is its refusal to wallow or to stoop to tribalism. One of its many achievements is that, for such a necessarily political work, no character becomes a mere cipher for suffering or victimhood. Although the novel is written according to Anglo-American conventions, it echoes the poetic prose that is a feature of contemporary Arabic writing. Abulhawa effectively communicates her bubbling joy in what she calls 'the dance' of Arabic, pondering the language’s intricate courtesies and imagistic flair."[9]

    Controversy

    In 2007, a live reading of The Scar of David was later reduced to only a book signing by the Barnes & Noble store in Bayside, New York. Barnes & Noble stated that the change was made for the safety of the author, also noting a need for “sensitivity” to the Jewish community.[10]

    The French author and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy called Mornings in Jenin "a concentration of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish clichés masquerading as fiction".[11] Abulhawa responded by dismissing Levy as a "French pop star of philosophy and intellectual elitism" and accusing him of "name-calling", adding:

    He simply slaps on the word “antisemitism” to discredit any negative portrayal of Israel. This word — with its profound gravity of marginalization, humiliation, dispossession, oppression, and ultimately, genocide of human beings for no other reason but their religion — is so irresponsibly used by the likes of Levy that it truly besmirches the memory of those who were murdered in death camps solely for being Jewish...Mr. Levy accuses us of “demonizing Israel”, when in fact, all we do is pull back the curtain, however slightly, to show a dark truth he wishes to keep hidden. I suspect that Mr Levy feels, as most Jewish supporters of Israel do, that he is more entitled to my grandfather’s farms than I am. After all, that is really the foundation of Israel, isn’t it? The question that should be asked is “why?” and “how?” Why should Jews from all over the world be entitled to enjoy dual citizenship, both in their own homeland and in mine, while we, the natives of Palestine, languish in refugee camps, a diaspora, or patrolled ghettos and bantustans?[12]

    Lawrence Davidson discussed the controversy and defended Abulhawa and praised her book, saying: "It is a stark tragedy that, as of the moment, power is the deciding factor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For, as history teaches us, power has little regard for fairness, justice, morality, and decent futures. If you want insight into these sort of things you best consult the work of Susan Abulhawa, for you will not find them in the words of her critics."[13]

    Notes

    1.  Kirkus Review
    2.  Abulhawa, Susan. "The Scar of David: A Novel". Middle East Books. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
    3.  "Author's Note: Mornings in Jenin: pp. 323-4
    4.  BOOK REVIEW: ‘Mornings in Jenin’ Susan Abulhawa’s Palestinian family odyssey Archived 2012-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
    5.  Bloomsbury Biography
    6.  Evans, Chris (November 17, 2011). "Filmworks Dubai Takes Rights to Best-Selling Novel Mornings in Jenin". Screen Daily.
    7.  Independent Book Review
    8.  Khan, Abdullah (August 29, 2015). "This is a Palestinian story : Susan Abulhawa". The Hindu. Retrieved January 10, 2020. {{cite news}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)
    9.  The Sunday Times Book Review
    10.  "Barnes and Noble cancels Palestinian author's book reading". Muzzlewatch. May 23, 2007. Archived from the original on May 23, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
    11.  Lévy, Bernard-Henri (December 3, 2010). "The Antisemitism to Come". Huffington Post.
    12.  Abulhawa, Susan (December 22, 2010). "The Antisemitism to Come? Hardly". Huffington Post.
    13.  Davidson, Lawrence (January 3, 2010). "The Attacks on Susan Abulhawa". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
    ==

    ==

    The Blue Between Sky and Water

    Extended-protected article
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The Blue Between Sky and Water
    AuthorSusan Abulhawa
    LanguageEnglish
    GenreHistorical fiction
    Publication date
    		September 1, 2015
    Media typePrint (Hardback)
    Pages293 pages
    ISBN978-1-632-86221-1

    The Blue Between Sky and Water is a book written by Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa. The book is Abulhawa's second novel and was sold in 19 languages before its release and was published in English in 2015. The book navigates the experience of three generations of Palestinian women after the Nakba.

    Content

    Nazmiyeh

    The story begins in the village of Bayt Daras with the onset of the Nakba. Nazmiyeh's family home is stormed while she is alone with her younger sister. She is raped by Jewish guerilla forces who then proceed to kill her sister in front of her. Eventually the family flees to Gaza, where Nazmiyeh marries her childhood lover, within a few months, though she never reveals to anyone about the instance of the rape. Her first-born child, a boy, has blue eyes. The boy grows into a resistance fighter who is imprisoned in Israel.[1]

    Nur

    Nazmiyeh's brother moves to America seeking better opportunities. He and his American wife have one son, Michael, who has completely lost his connection to his Palestinian identity. Michael has a daughter, Nur, who spends the most time with her grandpa, following her dad's death in a car accident. Following her grandpa's death from illness, Nur is taken back in by her American mother who ends up marrying another man, who subsequently abuses Nur.[1]

    Nur decides to go back to Gaza where she is able to find Nazmiyeh and reconnects with her homeland. The novel ends with Nur celebrating with Nazmiyeh as Israel announces a prisoner release and there is hope that Nazmiyeh's son might be among those released.[1]

    Reception

    Dorothy Reno, writing for the Washington Independent Review of Books, states that the book's readers are "charmed by Abulhawa’s glittering language".[1] Imogen Edge-Partington, writing for The Student, attributes the novel's success to "its many dimensions and its intricate complexity".[2]

    Atef Abu Saif, reviewing the novel for The Guardian, described it as "not only a story about displacement. It takes in love, hatred, sex, rape, survival, death, loss and belonging. It is full of celebratory dances, partying on the beach, mourning, fear, mysteries, dirty jokes and national heroism."[3]

    Margie Orford, writing for The Independent, describes the author's voice in the book as "a voice that returns to the world the stories of Palestine that we ignore at our peril".[4]

    References

    1.  "The Blue between Sky and Water: A Novel | Washington Independent Review of Books". www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
    2.  "The Blue Between Sky and Water". studentnewspaper.org. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
    3.  Saif, Atef Abu (2015-08-06). "The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa review – a displaced Palestinian family's bid for survival". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
    4.  "The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa, book review". The Independent. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
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