Israel

Israel is significant in Khaled Ansari’s backstory as both the place where his father died in prison and a central presence in the conflict that shaped his life. Its importance is conveyed through Khaled’s personal losses and memories, rather than through a broader description of the country.

Israel in Khaled’s family history

Khaled’s father, a prominent scholar involved in the Palestinian struggle for an independent nation-state, died in prison in Israel. The account presents this loss as one part of the history Khaled carried into adulthood; his mother, sisters, other relatives, and former neighbors were later killed in the massacres at Shatila, in Lebanon.

The invasion and Shatila

After returning home around the time of the October War, which Israelis call the Yom Kippur War, Khaled reached Tunis, trained with Palestinian guerrilla forces, and continued fighting until Beirut. When Israel invaded, his group made a stand at Shatila, where Khaled’s family and many former neighbors were among the refugees. A truce led the fighters to leave the camps with their weapons. After they had departed, the Phalange entered and killed the old men, women, and children left behind. Khaled’s account identifies the Phalange as the perpetrators of the massacre; it does not attribute those killings directly to Israel.

Memory and continuing conflict

Years later, Khaled recounts these events to Lin while defending the depth of his anger. Lin says he followed news of Sabra and Shatila while on the run and remembers it as a heartbreaking story. Khaled answers that Israel had done more to him than the harm Lin suffered in an Indian prison, and says that he would hate Indians forever if they had treated him as Lin was treated. The comparison makes Israel part of an unresolved personal history: the death of Khaled’s father and the loss of his family remain inseparable from the political conflict that surrounded Shatila.