Sami al Jundi - The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinians Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker

Table of Contents

PRAISE FOR THE HOUR OF SUNLIGHT

This moving memoir vividly portrays aspects of Palestinian life rarely encountered by the English reader: childhood under occupation in Jerusalems Muslim Quarter, the hidden world of Arab security prisoners in Israeli jails, and the stories of Palestinians struggling to transform their oppressive reality through dialogue, nonviolence and cultivation of a shared vision of the future with Israeli Jews. Sami Al Jundis story, with its triumphs and tragedy, should be required reading for those who ask, Where are the Palestinian peace activists?

Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the American University and Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute

This book is the most authentic account of Palestinian refugees painful ordeal that I have ever read. It is essential reading for anyone interested in a deep understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as the fabric of Palestinian and Israeli societies.

Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist, Haaretz, and co-author of Lords of the Land

Both nuanced and realistic, its soaring prose is to be savored by everyone who wonders whether enduring peace can be built. This is a true story, missed by the media.

Mary Elizabeth King, author of A Quiet Revolution

In fiercely compelling prose, Marlowe gives voice to Sami Al Jundis harrowing and redemptive story, cutting through dense thickets of propaganda and historical silence to bring us into a clearing that might very well be The Hour of Sunlight . The clarity achieved here is a gift to statesmen, diplomats, soldiers and militants, peacemakers, teachers and clerics of all faiths, Israelis and Palestinians and all men and women of goodwill. The writing here is masterly, the story riveting, the achievement profound.

Carolyn Forch, professor, Georgetown University, and author of The Country Between Us, The Angel of History, and Blue Hour

I expected this book to be illuminating, but I didnt know it would be so enthralling. Co-authors Sami Al Jundi and Jen Marlowe offer a beautifully written, insightful account of Al Jundis childhood as a Palestinian in Jerusalem, his teenage radicalization, his years in Israeli prisons, and his later embrace of nonviolence. The Hour of Sunlight is a refreshingly frank and utterly gripping chronicle of Al Jundis personal journey that also grapples with the broader social and political developments that make his story so vital.

Joanne Mariner, Director of Human Rights Watchs Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program

This is a fascinating, beautiful, unforgettable memoir. After the romance of insurrection and the school of long years in prison, Sami Al Jundi embarked on perhaps the most revolutionary path of all: a courageous confrontation with the deepest prejudices of both his own Palestinian society and that of Israel, challenging both peoples to recognize the equal humanity of the other. In so doing, he shows us the path to a resolution of this seemingly endless conflict.

Roane Carey, editor of The Other Israel and The New Intifada

The Hour of Sunlight fills an important void in our understanding of entrenched international conflicts by detailing the rare process whereby an extraordinary person develops deep empathy and compassion for an enemy, and then goes one step further to work on the ground to advance peace. The book demonstrates the thinking and leadership qualities that are necessary to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Peter Weinberger, United States Institute of Peace

ALSO BY JEN MARLOWE

Darfur Diaries (with Adam Shapiro and Aisha Bain)

This book is dedicated to those we have loved and lost:

To Samis mother, Myassar Al Jundi, known as Um Samir by most, called Yamma by Sami and his siblings, and to the people of Zakariyya, known by her true nameYusra.

To Samis brother Azzam Al Jundi, who always reminded us to laugh, especially at ourselves.

To Alma Rous Lazarus, who we never met, but whose loss we feel deeply.

To our friend Aseel Asleh, in whose memory we pledge to continue our struggle for peace with justice.

This book is also dedicated to the children in our own lives whom we love deeply: Nasser, Asala, Yazan, Mera, Emil, Rene, Alex, and Maya. We hope you will have a chance to meet someday.Your future is why this book was written.

Al Jundi kids enjoying a snowy day in Jerusalem circa 1972. Order from left to right: Sami, Samir, Riyyad, Azzam, Samira. Courtesy of Sami Al Jundi.

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: the final days of September, a woman keeping her apricots ripe after forty, the hour of sunlight in prison, a cloud reflecting a swarm of creatures, the peoples applause for those who face death with a smile, a tyrants fear of songs.

Mahmoud Darwish, from On This Earth Translated by Carolyn Forch and Munir Akash

AUTHORS NOTE

The Hour of Sunlight is Sami Al Jundis life story. Dialogue and details have been reconstructed; however, the memoir expresses with full honesty the essence of Samis life experiences. In chapters where the events were lived jointly by the authors, both authors memories and experiences are intertwined. We recognize that memory can be like mercury; difficult to pin down.

Some names have been changed, either because they could not be recalled, to protect someones privacy/identity, or because of a request from the person being written about. In some cases, composite characters were created, as the number of different people to identify and remember would have been difficult for a reader. This is particularly true during the chapters dealing with Samis ten years in Israeli prison, but is also true in other instances. For example, a few of Samis earlier childhood stories occurred with various friends; these stories have been all attributed to Samis two closest friends. Some aspects of Samis life we have not revealed in this book, in order to protect those he cares about.

We have retained the use of many Arabic words, whenever it felt appropriate to the tone of the narrative. The first time an Arabic word is encountered in the text, there is a footnote defining it. If the word is used again, it is defined in the glossary. The transliteration of the Arabic words is based on colloquial Palestinian Arabic and does not follow standard literary Arabic transliteration. This choice was made to facilitate understanding for a general readership.

How to name places is always contentious, as the politics of naming has much to do with the politics of control over those locations. For example, the city where Sami was born is called Al Quds in Arabic, Yerushalayim in Hebrew, and Jerusalem in English. Generally, we named places the way Sami speaks about themin Arabic. There are, however, some exceptions to that. Because certain English place-names contain resonance for English-speaking readers, such as Jerusalem , Hebron, and Nazareth , we chose to keep those names (and a few others) in English, rather than using the Arabic Al Quds, Al-Khalil , and Nasra . Occasionally, the Hebrew name of a city or town is also used. We made this choice when Sami was referring to the location in the context of it being the home of an Israeli friend. This is by no means meant to abdicate the Palestinian connection or claim to any place, but is rather an effort to respect how the person mentioned in the passage calls his or her home.