On Galilee's Sacred Hill

Photo by Sidney Du Broff
© 1999

ON GALILEE'S SACRED HILL will be seen as one of the most beautiful love stories to have appeared in a very long time. The plot is exciting and deeply moving. David Spaulding, only son of the fabulously powerful, wealthy and socially conscious Spaulding family, whom we came to know so well in ON SINAI'S LOFTY MOUNTAIN, is now grown up, and working in Israel. He encounters, again, Jihan Heuseni, a beautiful and prominent Israeli-Arab girl who had saved his life earlier when she revealed that a bomb had been planted under his car. Jihan (whose name means 'Holy War') is deeply in love with David, has been from the time she was fourteen, and her best friend, Shashona Ben Ezra showed her the photographs of David's Bar Mitzvah, which had taken place at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Shashona, a kibbutz girl, is herself in love with David, though she would never admit it out loud, and perhaps not even to herself. Her family, and David's, have a long history in which together they struggled to create the State of Israel. It would only follow a natural course of events if these two people came together to form a permanent bond between themselves and the two families.

Shashona is a very serious girl, devoted to the Left-wing concepts first promulgated by her kibbutz, in which co-existence with their Arab neighbours is paramount. Jihan, whose father sits in the Israeli Parliament, has been encouraged to step out of the traditional Arab woman's role by her mother. Jihan has spent considerable time with Shashona at the kibbutz, imbibing Western ideas and values.

Jihan's liberation, so far, has resulted in an acute addiction to surreptitiously reading love story novels, the more explicit the better - which Shashona disapprovingly provides, and which would otherwise be denied to Jihan.

As they grow up, Jihan walks the road of Arab Nationalism, a path generally more open than other areas of endeavour in which an Arab woman may tread. In recognition of her brightness and devotion to the cause of Arab Nationalism, she is awarded a fellowship, and chooses, quite deliberately, to attend the same high-flying university, Alexander Hamilton, in Washington D.C., where David, who is the editor of the university paper, is working toward a Master's Degree.

Here, David and Jihan meet for the first time. David, not taken with her politics, tries almost as hard to ignore her beauty. Already prominent in many places in the world, Jihan is a huge success with the students at Alexander Hamilton. David, taking a strong position against this nationalism, provokes action which results in a bomb being placed under his car, about which Jihan warns.

Jihan is offered a million dollars as an expression of thanks for saving David's life. She turns it down, but does expect a reward - a kiss from David. He kisses her on the cheek. That is not the kind of kiss she has in mind. She says that full payment consists of taking her in his arms and kissing her on the lips. He observes that it would be easier to pay the million dollars, but nevertheless does as she bids, convincing, or at least half-convincing, himself that he did not enjoy it. Jihan assures him that his debt is paid in full.

Meanwhile, Shashona, having completed her time in the army -an obligation imposed on most Israeli young women - comes to Washington, where she will spend a short time with David and his parents. Afterwards, she will go on to Los Angeles, where she will attend film school at the University of Southern California, under the financial auspices of David's family.

Meeting her at the airport, David greets her with a kiss on the cheek; to do more might suggest a relationship that David is not sure he wants to encourage, though he is aware that this is what his family would like - if not actually expect.

Here, in Washington, in David's editorial office, with him present, Jihan and Shashona meet, each delighted to be with the other. Jihan complains to Shashona that David has been very cool toward her, and both women, in front of David, discuss his shortcomings, as if he were not there, with him injecting the odd comment and observation, which both women ignore.

David, university studies completed, goes to Israel, from where he reports. Meanwhile, Jihan returns to Israel, writing for the press there, appearing frequently on both radio and television, often as a spokesperson on Arab affairs. As a result of their work, Jihan and David often encounter each other. Jihan longs to be like other young women she sees around her, unburdened by a tradition that has severe limitations upon it, which most Arab women are forced to endure. She lives under the threat of death, which her brothers have imposed, because they disapprove of her life-style.

She asks David to walk along the Tel Aviv sea front with her, which he does more as an act of charity than out of any real desire. And when she asks him to hold her hand, like couples she sees, he offers a reluctant one. She asks him to pretend that he loves her. She longs for a real date, and again David agrees, however dubious.

After an evening together, when she realises that nothing could ever come of this, that her love will never be reciprocated, she takes her leave, and almost immediately is accosted by her brothers, who try to kill her. David, seeing this, intervenes, is severely injured himself.

Both in the same hospital, Jihan is close to death. Away from the watchful eyes of his parents, who have come to be with him, he frequently visits Jihan in her room, genuinely concerned. She will survive. He is greatly relieved. David is discharged first. It becomes apparent to the public that Jihan likes eating chocolate, and reading love stories, and is inundated by both from adoring Israelis who are deeply sympathetic to her plight.

David, his parents gone, takes Jihan back to his apartment, where he looks after her. Reading her love novels, Jihan reclines in bed while David brings her her meals on a tray. It is obvious (though not to him) that he is falling in love with her. Almost now fully recovered, Jihan, with considerable effort, manages to get David into her bed, where no man has ever been before. Later, out now for the first time since she left the hospital, Jihan asks David to take her hand, and to pretend that he loves her. He tells her that he doesn't have to pretend. She cannot assimilate what her ears tell her. He picks her up in his arms, tells her he loves her and kisses her hard on the lips.

Jihan, now that she has experienced the real thing, gives up reading love stories.

David's parents are upset by the turn of events, disappointed that their son will not now be marrying Shashona, but an Arab girl instead, with whom there must be a vast cultural chasm. However, they are smart enough not to make this into an issue, and accept, be it reluctantly, their son's decision.

Shashona, Jihan's bridesmaid, regards the situation stoically. Jihan tells her that she stole David from Shashona, and says they should change places. Shashona says that it was David's decision, that he fell in love with Jihan, and she wishes them every happiness. Shashona is of course still in love with David.

David and Jihan are immensely happy together. Ultimately they have a child whom they adore, and name after Jihan's mother, Samaria. But happiness is not necessarily forever. Tragedy hits hard.

Interwoven with this story is that of Aaron, David's best friend, now a historian at the Spaulding Foundation, who works alongside Ursula Von Striker, granddaughter of a prominent Nazi. Her brief is to make it apparent to her German contemporaries what has happened in their name, and to help them deal with the guilt inherent in those events. Inevitably they fall in love, much to the horror of Aaron's parents, with whom, as a result, he becomes estranged. Ursula, aware of the damage her presence causes, leaves, and returns once again to Israel, to work on a kibbutz in the Negev, where she expects to spend the rest of her life in repentance. Aaron comes to the kibbutz, but Ursula tells him that it can never work between them. Aaron stays on, to be near her. Ultimately they have a child. Aaron's mother goes to the kibbutz, to persuade her son to come home. She holds her grandchild in her arms, and bursts into tears.

This is not only a love story - one which can come to life only in the context of the Middle East - but a serious work that considers the real problems, the real threats, the conflict of aspirations which characterise the region currently, in the past, and, who but knows, probably into the future.

It is indeed a book about love - love of individuals - love of a land whose history is the fibre of the Western world, and who, in Israel, is to exert ultimate control. It is a profoundly satisfying work, disturbing at times, but, also, immensely rewarding.