The Door to the Sun

In the beginning was Palestine, just when the story of Younes' life began. Younes sometimes went under the name of Abou Salem, sometimes the Man and some other times Ibrahim's father. He fought the English Army at the age of 16 and was still fighting them, an outlaw in his own country, seeking refuge in Lebanon. This was also when the story of his wife Nahila began – she became his bride at the age of 12, she was to breast-feed their first baby during the exhausting walks as she fled with the other villagers towards the North and left behind their burnt-down house. He would visit her in Bab El Chams, a cave in Galilee and tell her about Saladin and Nasser and Nahil believed his tales. All of Bab El Chams echoed with his dauntless feats and after each late-night visit she would bear a new baby and raise it all by herself. This was also the story of Younes' father, Cheikh Ibrahim, the old blind man who knew where the sun stood just by the smell of the trees lining the exile roads. This was also the story of Doctor Khalil, forsaken by his own mother in the confusion of the refugee camps. He was to accommodate Younes who was in a deep coma in Beirut and to lull his pain by telling him about the tragic story of his people. And this was the story of Chams, whom Khalil loved and who was executed by her comrades-in-arms. This was the story of the Palestinians, driven forcefully from the camps in Galilee to the camps in Lebanon, enduring fifty years of hardship, of hope and of love.