AP World History Summer Project 2015
Welcome to AP World History! This class is a lot of work but we’ll also have a lot of fun. This
curriculum is very large and for that reason I am asking that you do some work over the summer to
lessen our workload when school starts. Each of these assignments will be worth a test
grade and will be due on the first day of school.
The Lemon Tree is a National Book Award Finalist written about a real life friendship between a
Jew and a Muslim in Israel. In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old,
journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind
it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house
he was greeted by Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose
family fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and
Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five
years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967.
The Lemon Tree Questions: Answers need to be eight to ten sentences long. They can be typed
or hand written. The book can be purchased from any book dealer in paperback or digital form.
There are also multiple copies at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library that can be checked out for a
two week time period. You are not required to purchase a copy of this book.
1. The book opens with the journey of Bashir and his cousins on a bus to their childhood homes in
al-Ramla. What must have been going through their minds during that time? Can you imagine the
internal dialogue in their heads, as they rode the bus, then walked around their old hometown?
How would you have felt if you were Bashir, approaching the old home, and pressing the bell?
2. Dalia’s very existence, and her arrival as an infant to Israel in November 1948, is the result of
remarkable circumstances that combined to save some 47,000 Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust.
How much importance would you put on the actions of Dimitur Peshev, the parliamentarian, or
Bishops Kiril and Stephan—and how much to other factors? Finally, the book (p. 43) describes
Dalia as carrying “an extraordinary legacy” with her to Israel in 1948. What was that legacy?
3. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 is known as the “War of Independence” to Israelis, and the
“Nakba,” or “Catastrophe,” to Palestinians. Chapter Four describes how Bashir’s family, and Dalia’s
cousin, Yitzhak Yitzkaki, experienced the war. Take the point of view of Bashir, during the first
several months of 1948, and tell the group how you experienced those times. Now, do the same
with Yitzhaki.
4. Bashir and his family kept their focus on the “right of return,” as promised by U.N. Resolution
194, as their exile extended into the 1950s, and then the 1960s. Why was this such a singular focus
for Palestinians during this time? If it were you who had been displaced, would you also demand to
return home, or would you, at some point, decide it would be easier to live in peace, if also in exile?
5. Dalia describes herself as growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust (pp. 112-115). Even though
her family escaped these atrocities, she nevertheless experienced a young Israel as deeply
traumatized. At the same time, she grew up among a new community of Jews who were trying to
re-form their identity. On pp. 118-120, a discussion of the Sabra, or “New Israeli Man,” describes a
desire among many Israelis to “wash off that old Jew” and “stand tall for the first time.” How much
of a role do you think the Holocaust, and reaction to it through the crafting of a Sabra identity,
played in the formation of Israel’s national psyche?
6. The emerging trust between Dalia and Bashir was shattered in February, 1969, when a bomb
exploded in a Jerusalem supermarket, killing three people. Bashir would later be convicted of
complicity in the bombing and sentenced to fifteen years. Is your own view of Bashir transformed
by the description of these events? How is this tempered, if at all, by the accounts of his torture and
imprisonment? In the meantime, Dalia cuts off all contact with the family. Describe her state of
mind during this time, and her own ambivalence about contacting Bashir.
7. After Dalia’s parents died, and Bashir got out of prison, Dalia did indeed get in touch with
Bashir. Why? Describe her evolution from being “zealous in the defense of Israel” (p. 180) to
meeting Bashir at the home of a Christian minister in Ramallah. At that meeting, Dalia offered to
share the home in Ramla. What is the meaning of this gesture? What is the meaning of the
agreement Dalia and Bashir forged that day?
8. In 1988, near the beginning of the intifada, Bashir was deported to Lebanon. On the eve of his
deportation, Dalia wrote an open letter to Bashir that was published in the Jerusalem Post (pp
200-203). Weeks later, Bashir replied (pp. 216-220). Describe your reaction to both letters.
9. Bashir and Dalia finally meet again, in the midst of rising violence and political tensions, in
Ramallah in 2004 (256-262). They find that their political differences are as great as ever, but that
their personal relations are as warm as ever. How does one explain that?
10. Near the end of the book (p. 262), Dalia says, “Our enemy is the only partner we have.” What
does she mean by that?
Continent Timeline
We are going to cover all the major events on all the major continents. To help you in this
endeavor, we are asking that you purchase a reference guide. The Visual Reference Guides World
History by Philip Parker is a very informative little book especially for the $8 price tag.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/world-history-phillipparker/1113855423?ean=9781435138957
Using this book you are going to pick a continent and create a 30 event timeline of the most
important things that happened there. Please choose between the Americas, Europe, Asia, and
Africa. Not enough goes on in the events of world history in Australia or Antarctica to justify
including them on the list. For each event, you need a date, main people involved, and two
sentences discussing the significance of putting it on your timeline. You also need to include 15
pictures over the course of your 40 item timeline. There needs to be a tie between the events and
the picture that you choose. This project should be a physical product you bring in on the first day
of school. You can hand draw the pictures or print out pictures from the Internet.
For example, if I was doing a timeline on Europe I would include the following event.
1517
Martin Luther nails his 95 Thesis to the door of a Catholic Church in Germany. This leads the way
for many people to leave the Catholic Church for the newly formed Protestant Church.
If you have any questions about anything please feel free to email. My email is