ARAB-ISRAEL WAR LITERATURE

Leon Uris’s Exodus (1958) and Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin (2006/2010) were written to depict, respectively, the founding narrative of Israel and the narrative of Palestinian displacement, both acting as powerful, contrasting, and politically motivated literary works.

Thus, Exodus and Mornings in Jenin present drastically different, often conflicting, narratives of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, serving as foundational texts for the Zionist and Palestinian narratives, respectively. While Exodus frames the 1948 war as a heroic, redemptive return of a persecuted people to their homeland, Mornings in Jenin portrays the same event as al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), focusing on the forced expulsion, loss, and ongoing trauma of the Palestinian people.

Leon Uris’s Exodus (1958)

Published a decade after the state's founding, Exodus was a massive bestseller that helped define the American and Western perception of Israel's creation. The novel centers on the journey of Jewish Holocaust survivors (highlighted by the ship Exodus) and their struggle to establish the State of Israel. The story is told largely from the perspective of Israeli freedom fighters (like Ari Ben Canaan) and American sympathizers (like Kitty Fremont). It portrays Zionism as an idealistic, righteous endeavor, with the 1948 war depicted as a necessary survival battle against hostile Arab neighbors.

Exodus is considered a"Zionist melodrama" that mythologized the Israeli fighter and often marginalized or stereotyped the Palestinian experience.

Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin (2010)

Mornings in Jenin provides a counter-narrative, focusing on the human cost of the 1948, 1967, and 1982 conflicts on a single Palestinian family, the Abulhejas.  The story traces the peaceful village of Ein Hod in 1941, detailing the family’s forced removal to the Jenin refugee camp during the 1948 Nakba. It follows the life of Amal, a daughter born in the refugee camp, covering four generations from the 1940s to 2002.

Its theme harps on the loss of land, identity, and the generational trauma of being a refugee, while highlighting the "ethic of love" and resilience of the Palestinian people.

The novel is described as "resistance literature" intended to challenge the dominant Western narrative, providing a voice for the marginalized Palestinian perspective.

Key Contrasts in Perspectives

In Exodus , the 1948 event is projected as the miraculous rebirth of a nation. Mornings in Jenin frames it as the traumatic destruction of a society.

In Exodus, the land is a rightful home being reclaimed. In Mornings in Jenin, the land is an ancestral home from which people were violently separated.

Exodus depicts the Arab side as hostile and attacking. Mornings in Jenin depicts the Israeli military as a colonizing force.

Exodus focuses on overcoming European Holocaust trauma through national action. Mornings in Jenin focuses on the ongoing trauma inflicted by the occupation.

Mornings in Jenin is frequently cited as a necessary counter-narrative to Exodus, offering a "fresh perspective" that humanizes the Palestinian experience in the same way Exodus did for the early Israeli experience.