Entangled suffering and disruptive empathy: The Holocaust, the Nakba and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin

Abstract

Discussions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are rarely far from the topic of the Holocaust, often taking the form of competitive victimhood, as supporters of both sides politicize the memory of the genocide for their political gain. In her 2010 novel Mornings in Jenin, Palestinian–American Susan Abulhawa interweaves a Palestinian narrative of history – including the Nakba, that is, the destruction of historical Palestine in 1948, the ongoing conflict and the Israeli occupation – with Holocaust memory. By acknowledging rather than minimizing or denying the Israelis’ cultural trauma, she takes a stance of empathy, which researchers consider a prerequisite for peaceful conflict transformation. I contend that Mornings in Jenin exemplifies how cultural texts not only provide a space to explore how new mnemonic links are being drawn up against contested and reified national narratives in Israel/Palestine but also play a political role by performing a narrative that acknowledges the cultural trauma of the other side.