Apeirogon

Contrary to conventional thought, the River Jordan is often very meek in some places, with parts being as little as a trickling run of water. Water, however, is very important to the area. Through irrigation and dams, the river’s strength has been reduced to about 10%. The water barely makes its way to its endpoint, the Dead Sea, which as a result goes down three feet every year. In many West Bank homes, people do whatever they can to conserve water: brush their teeth with no water, reuse sponge water, wipe their cars and windows with dry cloths, etc.

In 1825, an English-speaker named Christopher Costigin met a Maltese sailor, and he asked the sailor to sail him from the Sea of Galilee to the Sea of Salt (The Dead Sea). The sailor, despite finding the trip difficult, obliged him. Costigin was an amateur geographer and cartographer, and he was hoping to find something holy at the Dead Sea.

The suicide bombers camped out in caves close to Nablus. Children snuck provisions in for them on horseback. Youssef Shouli, the leader, had the stowaways cover themselves with thermal blankets and aluminum foil to cloak themselves from heat-seeking sensors.

Smadar became obsessed with her grandfather’s watch after he died. She once wore it into a pool and pleaded with Rami to take it to a jeweler to get it fixed. Peled, the grandfather, wore the watch for most of his life. The only time he didn’t want to wear it was after the Oslo Accords, which he felt were a victory only for Israel and a travesty for peace.

Israeli soldiers sometimes shoot at water tanks for sport; the lowest shot indicates the better marksmen. This drains the water supply further.

Costigin and his sailor continued to run into problems on their journey. Namely, they had become sick during the journey. However, they finally arrived at the Dead Sea. The area was plagued by extreme heat. The sailor told Costigin they would die there if they stayed. The fresh water ran out, so Costigin tried to make coffee by using salt water, which resulted in him writhing in great pain only a few hours later. Luckily rescuers brought Costigin to safety through Bethlehem to Jerusalem on horseback. They gave him medical attention, but he died not long after.

McCann recounts the story of Rami and Nurit going to the spot of the bombing to look for their daughter amidst the chaos. Nurit grabs a polaroid picture of Smadar before they leave the house; Rami knows not to ask why. At the scene, they struggled to get through the cordoned off area. They finally spoke to some volunteers helping with the disaster. They helped them get to the correct area. They waited for what seemed like forever.

When he was in prison, Bassam arranged speakers to come in. One man, a philosophy student, came in and spoke about Gandhi’s ideas on civil disobedience. He explained that each word was important and that they must go together—“the civility of the disobedience was part of its power” (278).

McCann then recounts Bassam and Salwa’s experiences after their daughter was attacked. Salwa was told to go to a hospital where Bassam and their daughter were arriving by ambulance. When she got there, neither was there. She called Bassam to no avail, she pleaded with the staff to help find them. Finally, she got through to Bassam. His phone had died, but they were five minutes away in the ambulance. Rami ran down to greet the ambulance and help Bassam with his daughter.

At Abir’s court case, the Commander of the border guard said that ambulances were used to furtively act as terrorist transportation during the Second Intifada, which is why it was delayed for so long moving from one hospital to another. He felt the school should take most of the blame for her death since she had wandered off school grounds. Bassam’s lawyer refuted these claims.

Once, years later, Bassam and Rami were giving a lecture. A familiar man, who had been sobbing during the speech, shook Bassam’s hand and walked away. Days later a letter containing a donation to the Parents Circle came from Michael Sharia, which he noted in parenthesis that he was a former ambulance driver—the one that was driving Bassam and his daughter that day.