The Palestinian Three-Bell Comedy A Tank Under the Christmas Tree

Poet and novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah’s novel, “A Tank Under the Christmas Tree,” which began preparation in 1990, examines the state of Palestine over a period of 75 years, from World War I to the end of the First Palestinian Intifada, tracing the transformations it has experienced.
A novel of generations, its events take place in Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and other Palestinian cities. As much as it is a novel about the Palestinian city, drawing on the history of the homeland, it is also an extraordinary love story, a novel about music, singing, art, and culture, and the pioneering role of the Palestinian people—humanitarian, militant, and aesthetic—and the Christian role in the Palestinian struggle and its various manifestations. It also explores the great achievement of the city of Beit Sahour through its creative civil disobedience during the First Intifada.
Through its unforgettable characters, this novel of generations also presents the methods used by Zionism to control Palestine.
This epic work, an extension of “The Palestinian Comedy,” embraces the broader novel project “The Bells Trilogy,” which includes three novels: “Shadows of the Keys,” “The Biography of an Eye,” and “Tank Under the Christmas Tree.” Through it, Ibrahim Nasrallah affirms his extraordinary ability to renew, give, and explore new areas, historically and humanly.