Against the Loveless World

The south wall of the Cube contains a door. Occasionally, Nahr is given books to read, and sometimes prison officials visit her. She is almost friendly with one of them, a Russian woman named Klara. Klara was forced to move to Israel with her family, and does not want to be there.

With some difficulty, Nahr is able to enter Palestine. The border guards refuse to recognize her new identification card and issue her a tourist visa instead. Nahr is to stay with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Bilal.

Bilal apologizes for the way that his brother Mhammad treated Nahr, and does his best to make sure that she is comfortable. He explains to her that the Oslo Accords divided the country into different zones, and that the zone where he and his mother live is being heavily colonized by Israeli settlers. So far, they have managed to keep their house, but they are the last Palestinians in the area. It is not likely that they will be allowed to remain for much longer.

Bilal arranges for Nahr to visit her mother’s childhood home in Haifa. There, in the garden, the home’s Jewish occupier begins screaming at Nahr in Hebrew.