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A child's life under occupation A Little Piece of Ground Elizabeth Laird Published by Macmillan Children's Books, 2003 London Pp. 213  SINCE IT was published, `A Little Piece of Ground' has provoked strong reactions and faced much criticism, especially from Jews who accused it of being one-sided, portraying all Palestinians as good and all Israelis as bad. They even called for the book to be banned inside the United States and Europe. The book tackles the impact of occupation on children, not only in Palestine but throughout the world. The novel brings to life the experience of an ordinary boy living in an un-ordinary and unstable political situation. It is not so much about politics as about childhood, friendship, love and football. Elizabeth Laird, known for her children's novels, describes the fearful life Karim and his teenage friends live through. He watches his father humiliated by occupiers. He sees Jewish settlers destroy olive trees, “the symbol” of Palestinian existence, under the protection of the Israeli soldiers. The boy also lives daily with the scene of Israeli tanks meandering among the local schools, demolishing them. Karim and his family sometimes have to stay a week or more in their Ramallah home because of the continuous curfew. The story starts during one of these curfews, where Israeli tanks enclose civilian buildings and block the streets. Karim, sitting in his room on the fifth floor, longs to play football with his friends. In an attempt to pass his time, the 12-year-old boy writes on a sheet of paper the ten best things he wants to do or be in his life, among them to become “a champion footballer of the entire world”. To fulfil his dream and to have the time to train, Karim believes that first he should get rid of the Israeli troops who keep “children trapped indoors unable to kick the ball”. He thus dreams to become the inventor of “an acid formula to dissolve steel in Israeli tanks”. When the curfew is lifted for two hours, Karim runs with his new friend, Hopper, to search for a “little piece of ground” away from his neighbour, old Abu Ramzi, who shouts at them whenever he hears the sound of kicked ball. Karim and his mates find an area of wasteland, with a wall, suitable to be a football pitch. Calling it “Hopper ground”, the boys place at its entrance a Palestinian flag made of stones. They decide to meet there whenever the curfew ends. “They'd achieved something real, the three of them, at Hopper's ground. They'd made a good place out of a rubbish heap. There would never be a stadium as there was in his dream, no spectators, no TV cameras or scribbling reporters, but all of those things could wait. The important thing was the place, this place that was their own creation,” writes Laird. During one of their visit to the ground, the boys discover that their secret was no more “kept”; rather, it became a “terrifying death trap”. “The Israelis have occupied it since the last curfew break. They had their tanks all over the football pitch and they've smashed down the walls.” While Hopper manages to run away to the “camp's tight embrace”, Karim is trapped in a rubble close to the football area, with Israeli tanks and bulldozers roaming around. Trembling and sweating, Karim knows that the soldiers will find him hiding; “They'll either shoot me straight off, or beat me up and break my legs, or take me off to prison”. The idea of the book started following Laird's visit to the West Bank town of Ramallah in 2002 to conduct workshops on writing for children. She wrote her novel in collaboration with Sonia Nimr, who teaches at Bir Zeit University, in Palestine, and lives in Ramallah with her young son. The book can be found at Bustan Lil Kutob bookstore in Shmeisani. Hada Sarhan Monday, October 27, 2003 |