What made you write The Almond Tree?

As a Jewish American, I was taught that after the Holocaust the Jews found ‘a land without a people for a people without a land’ and that Jews went to ‘the land of Israel’ (i.e., Palestine) and made the desert bloom. In high school, I went to Israel to study Hebrew and Judaism. I soon learned that Palestine had neither been a land without a people nor all desert. Palestine had been the home of a multi-religious society that had a high standard of living and a rich culture and heritage. I lived in Israel for seven years and witnessed the miserable life the Palestinians led there. Through my novel, I wanted to shine a light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and show that there was a better way.