Walking Out into the Sunshine

Walking Out into the Sunshine is the personal story of a Palestinian born in Haifa in1935. As a result of the Israeli/Palestinian war of 1948, he and his family became refugees in Tyre, Lebanon. Later, he emigrated to the United States where he received a PhD in theoretical physics and taught, as a university professor, for more than three decades. The story provides an eyewitness account of Middle Eastern history, politics, religions, inter-community relations, economics, refugee status, education, immigration, inner conflicts, friendships, family life, and love in Arab and American cultures. The narrative offers the reader unique insights into the human condition. It points to steps, through understanding, toward resolving conflicts, and realizing peace.

Walking Out into the Sunshine is the personal story of a Palestinian born in Haifa in1935. As a result of the Israeli/Palestinian war of 1948, he and his family became refugees in Tyre, Lebanon. Later, he emigrated to the United States where he received a PhD in theoretical physics and taught, as a university professor, for more than three decades. The story provides an eyewitness account of Middle Eastern history, politics, religions, inter-community relations, economics, refugee status, education, immigration, inner conflicts, friendships, family life, and love in Arab and American cultures. The narrative offers the reader unique insights into the human condition. It points to steps, through understanding, toward resolving conflicts, and realizing peace.

Ghazi Q. Hassoun, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Physics at North Dakota State University. He was born in Palestine during the British Mandate. He became a refugee in Lebanon in 1948. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the American University of Beirut and M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. While actively pursuing his profession as a physicist over four decades, his experiences as a child in the politically torn country of Palestine and his refugee days in Lebanon continued to haunt him and demand explanations to fundamental questions and issues relating to national identity, religion, ethnicity, East vs. West, war and peace, among others. Questions and issues, which nagged him for years, were a cause of much travail and tribulation. He promised himself, upon retirement, to confront them head on, to try to understand them, and to explore how they might be turned around from stumbling blocks to stepping-stones. This book details the quest in this journey and invites the reader to come along.