1. Mornings in Jenin opens with a prelude set in Jenin in 2002, as Amal faces an Israeli soldier's gun. How does this prelude set the scene for the novel to come? Why does the novel open here, in contemporary Jenin, rather than at the beginning of the Abulheja family's story?

2. Discuss the dual traditions of land and learning in the Abulheja family. Which members of the family seem to value land over education, and vice versa? What common values do all members of this family share?

3. The boyhood friendship between Hasan and Ari Perlstein is "consolidated in the innocence of their twelve years, the poetic solitude of books, and their disinterest in politics" (9). Do you think such friendships between children like Ari and Hasan were unusual then? What do Hasan and Ari learn from each other?

4. What problems did the Abulheja family face day-to-day? Which family conflicts do you think were caused by the political situation, and which seem common to families in all parts of the world?

5. What connections can be drawn between Moshe's kidnapping of David and Israel's actions toward the Palestinian people? What wounds are healed when David discovers his real identity?

6. Hasan tells his daughter, "Amal, with the long vowel, means hopes, dreams, lots of them" (72). How do Amal’s hopes and dreams change when she calls herself "Amy" in America?

7. After surviving a week underground during the 1967 conflict, Amal denies knowing Dalia. Why does she renounce her mother? What are the consequences of Amal's "disgraceful lie" (74)?

8. Amal associates Dalia's stoic behavior with a line of her mother's advice: "Whatever you feel, keep it inside" (204). How does Amal's behavior with her daughter, Sara, resemble Dalia's mothering?

9. Consider the Israeli characters within Mornings in Jenin: Ari Perlstein, Moshe, Jolanta, and David's sons. How do their experiences compare to the experiences of the Abulheja family? What do these Israeli voices add to the novel?

10. How was Amal's experience similar and different from the widows' of 9/11? How did Sara misinterpret her mother's grief at the time?

11. Amal and Yousef both lose the people they love most in the attacks on Lebanon in 1982. How do brother and sister react differently to their tragedies, and why? Why does the novel end with words from Yousef, who lives in exile? What mood does Yousef's perspective create at the end of the book? What is the significance of the chapter title "The Cost of Palestine"?

12. If at all, how has this story changed how you view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Did you learn things that surprised you?

13. Why do you think the author wanted the reader to know in the prelude that the main character was "an American citizen"?

14. What layers of meaning can you find in the title of part III, "The Scar of David," which was the original title of the book?