Herzl was taken with Bassam’s number 220-284 which he said were amicable numbers.
Bassam served seven years in an Israeli prison after he threw a broken hand grenade at an Israeli Jeep and where he was beaten daily It also gave him time to reflect and become friendly with one of his security guards, an Orthodox Jew, Herzl, who studied mathematics in Tel Aviv. Both Bassam and Rami want peace and the focus of the book is on the relationship between the two men. There’s a tunnel underneath Bet Jala about a kilometre long and at the exit there is a large red sign in Hebrew, Arabic and English saying that, “The entrance for Israeli Citizens is forbidden.”īut Apeirogon is not about the differences: it is about the similarities. But the ambulance was delayed for hours before it arrived at Hadassah Hospital, the same one in Jerusalem where Smadar was born, and where Abir died 10 years and two days later. However, the doctors at the Palestine clinic which “needs hospitalisation itself” say that Abir should be treated at a better equipped hospital on the other side of the “Separation Wall”. For instance, when Abir is injured by the Israeli sniper she is taken to the hospital in a taxi. And McCann also opens a window on life in the Holy Land and the stark differences between Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. It’s about the undercurrents that underpin the daily discourse about the Israel-Palestine conflict: politics, murder, grief. Apeirogon is based on a true story and Colum McCann tells us in his notes that they are “pulled together from interviews which were held in Jerusalem, New York, Jericho and Beit Jala.Īpeirogon is much more than about the deaths of the two girls. These two tragedies bring the two fathers together: Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian Muslim, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli Jew.
Ten years later and about three miles away from where Smadar was killed Abir Aramin, 10, dressed in her school uniform and carrying a candy bracelet that she had bought was shot in the back of the head by an 18-year-old Israeli soldier as his Jeep was speeding around the corner. Smadar Elhanan, 13, was walking on Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, on September 4 1997, listening to her Walkman playing Sinead O’ Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2U”, just an ordinary teenager doing what teenagers enjoy doing, when three young Palestinian men, not much older than teenagers themselves, set off suicide belts, killing themselves, Smadar and four others. It’s similar to what happens when you throw a pebble into a pond – the effect will cause ripples to flow outwards which go on long after the pebble has hit the bottom. Two real-life events that occurred 10 years apart inspired this powerful novel that focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict, which like an apeirogon - has an infinite yet countable number of sides - that affects everyone and everything.
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