The Beauty of Belladdi Under the Ugly Occupation

After a 20 year absence from my ancestral home, I am here in the heart of Ramallah, Palestine a few minutes walk from the Manara, the town center. Though I lived in America for 48 years, leaving Ramallah, Palestine at the age of 6, I  feel I am at home. Belladdi!  My land! Though I physically  left, my heart and mind stayed here in Ramallah where I grew up next to the old City Hall, the Baba coffee house and the old Dukan (store) Isheeni.

I returned (should I say visited?) to Palestine in 1995 as a member of the Palestinian American Congress Executive Committee delegation. We spent our 10 days in Palestine going to several meetings per day vising political, social, religious, educational and business leaders, so I  didn't have the opportunity to visit relatives or to get the flavor of Palestine in general and Ramallah in particular.  In retrospect,  I should have stayed longer.

I am here now and as I frequently and fervently write about the political aspects from abroad, I longed to feel for myself the richness of my culture in Palestine. While sitting in the Nile Restaurant on 87th Street in Bridgeview, Illinois one gets a very small sampling of our culture but one does not really taste or feel or see or touch or hear the beauty of the language or smells the falafel cooked every 20 feet by street vendors or smiles as one street vendor shouts "Kaaik (round shaped toasted bread with seseme seeds) for one shakel (Israeli currency)" or appreciates the succulent figs and the yellish-green plums that simply fills your tastebuds with our culture. That is what I want to see, feel, hear, touch and taste and smell.

I have been here in Ramallah for two days now. The falafel sandwich made for me by Mahmoud whose restaurant is just a few doors from the Manara Square evoked my tastebuds beyond any sensation I have ever experienced. Maybe it was the mental anticipation, maybe it was the atmospheric surroundings, maybe it was being among my people, maybe it was my eyes that ate before I took my first bite or maybe it was my heart that reveled in the moment that enhanced the flavors of the falafel sandwich. Whatever it  was, that sandwich was so good, I bought another and I devoured both.

Still I have not filled my stomach. There is so much more to see and taste. Palestine is  a rich country, not by wealth from oil fiends but by the beauty of its hills and valleys; by its traditions and its  culture; and by its people young and old. The olive groves are beauty to the eyes as the mind knows that our culture deeply appreciates the oil that comes from them. Yes the culture has been influenced by the political constraints imposed by the merciless Israeli occupation and indeed our music and our theatrical plays have that political element deeply embedded in them.

Rocks are also enmbedded in the landscape.  Rock fences are a pleny and rocks, the symbol of our strenght, are everywhere along the roads.  Roads are forever winding in Ramallah and its suburbs. Around every  curve is another breathtaking sight. One's eyes are filled by the beauty of the land and the people.

I am seeing  and describing a beautiful picture. I have yet to see, however,  the refugee camps, I  have yet to be stopped by a checkpoint.  I have not been confronted by an Israeli Occupation Force soldier and I have yet to see the Apartheid wall.

In Ramallah, one can lose sense of the occupation. Businesses are flurishing, construction abounds and people are generally happy. Israeli occupational forces are no where to be seen. Life seems to be normal.

I feel engulfed by the beauty around me yet I know deep  inside that that beauty is a camouflage as the human spirit is not free. The ugliness of the brutal Israeli occupation remains.

A cousin showed me his haweeya (ID pappers that every Palestian is required to carry) and then laamented that Israel allows him to go to Jerusalem only during holidays. The people, my people are in a prison.

Yet, the people are happy as they go about their daily lives. As I was walking around the Manara on Sunday, I  noticed a vibrant happy people, though I wondered whether the many young men standing around were working or not.

As the per capita of PHds among Palestinians is the highest in the world, I wonder whether the talents of these young men were being wasted under the ugly occupation.  How much more talent can Palestine give to the world under a free and democratic State of Palestine?

I wonder as I see and taste the beauty of Watanni (an Arabic word for nationalism not easily translatable)?

Oppose The Israeli Three State Solution

I have written in previous articles that Israelis are excellent at using words to manipulate the thought patterns of world public opinion, especially in the United States. They have, through the use of the word “terrorist” against the Palestinians, been able to monopolize a negative opinion of Palestinians in the US, although the history of the creation of the State of Israel is not without horrendous terrorist acts against Palestinians.  I have countered that it is the Israeli soldier that is a terrorist because his/her primary job is to instill fear into the minds of Palestinians in order to get them to do what they would not ordinary do on their own, i.e. give up, leave their land.

Now the Israelis are trying to manipulate public opinion by redefining “checkpoints.” The Israeli soldier controls what Israel now calls “security crossings” to imbed into the minds of public opinion that the formerly called “checkpoints” is the border of the State of Israel.  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that there were 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstructing Palestinian movement in the West Bank in July, 2010.  This figure is up from 503.  There are other checkpoints called “flying checkpoints” that are unknown as to when and where they will pop up. On average per month in 2011, 495 of these random checkpoints sprung up, in addition to the 522 permanent roadblocks and checkpoints, to not only hamper, humiliate, harass but also to instill fear, frustration and fatigue into the lives of every Palestinian.

The use of the term “security crossings” and its manipulation and blackmailing of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is what leads me to believe that Israel does not want a Two State Solution (2SS) but rather wants a Three State Solution (3SS). Israel is in a frantic mode to impose this 3SS upon the Palestinians before the projected demographics make Israelis the minority in 2016 to prevent the inevitable solution: One State Solution (1SS). Israelis believe that if they continue its policy of fear, frustration and fatigue, the Palestinians will ultimately succumb to the 3SS that Israel sees as a counter to the inevitable 1SS. This policy will fail.

Israelis argue that the Palestinians have negotiated away Area C in the West Bank by agreeing to give up control of this area to Israel in the Oslo Accords. Nonsense! Israeli intransigence in not agreeing to the final status matters in the so called “peace talks” and it’s continued expansion of the illegal settlements have rendered the Oslo Accords null and void. Israel refuses to discuss the final status of Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a Palestinian State. Israel refuses to discuss the right of return of Palestinian refugees. And Israel refuses to discuss the borders between Israel and Palestine. Calling the checkpoints “security crossings” is part of the Israeli attempts to impose a 3SS.

Another blatant attempt to impose a 3SS is Israel’s blackmail of withholding taxes that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority if the Palestinian politicians of the West Bank attempt to reconcile with the Palestinian politicians in Gaza. In essence, Israel does not want Fatah and Hamas to reconcile. It wants separate States for these two political rivals in the West Bank and Gaza. The stupidity of these factions in continuing the divisions between themselves is playing right into the Israeli plans to impose a 3SS.

I argue, in other articles, that this imposition will not be successful as the Palestinian human spirit to be free, innately a part of every human being, will overcome the Israeli aggression against them. However, Palestinians cannot rely on the burning desire inside themselves alone, they must have gumption; they must be shrewd; they must think outside the box.  

Palestinians need to understand what Israel is planning and they must counter the political manipulation of their land, their lives and livelihood. 

There are a variety of practical actions that Palestinians could advocate in their struggle to break the Israeli chains of oppression.

• ·     Palestinians need to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement . Mobilization and support for the BDS movement needs to part of the Palestinian agenda around the globe.  Supporting supporters of Palestinian Statehood is a must.
•  ·   Palestinians need to make the Israeli businessman suffer the consequences of the occupation. In my article, “Hitting Israel Where it Hurts—Economically”, I argue outside the box by advocating boycotting a single Israeli product imported into the West Bank and Gaza at a time. Read it at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/hitting-israel-where-it-hurts.html
•  ·    Palestinian youth need to throw their stones. I advocate keeping the option of the stone alive in the following articles: “Romancing the Stone” and “Keeping the David vs. Goliath Option Open.”  http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/romancing-stone-option.html and http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/keeping-david-vs-goliath-option-open.html
•       Palestinians need to reconcile their divisions and present a unified front against the Israelis. I have written numerously in various articles about the need for Hamas and Fatah to reconcile. See “Palestinians Must Establish Parity with Israelis” at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/palestinians-must-establish-parity-with.html. Opposing Israeli attempts to place obstacles to the reconciliation of these Palestinian political factions needs to be the goal of every Palestinian. Palestinian unity is a must!
•       Palestinians need to take their fight to the International Criminal Court and bring to justice those Israeli leaders who ordered and Israeli soldiers who committed human rights violations against Palestinians.

While the impending demographics will impose a 1SS, Palestinians cannot sit idly back and let the hope of events control their destiny. Palestinians need to be continuously active to make the inevitable human spirit within them blossom sooner than later.

MODERATE PALESTINIANS SORELY DISAPPOINTED

I have always been an optimist. I have always advocated peace. I was one of the first Palestinians to call for the recognition of Israel. I did so in 1980 on the University of Illinois - Chicago campus (although I attended Loyola University) and was ostracized by Fatah, Jabha and other Palestinian student groups.  I held my ground and was one of the few Palestinians in the Chicago area that could go to any group’s events.

I welcomed the Oslo Accords and attended the White House signing ceremony on September 13, 1993.  I witnessed the famous handshake between Arafat and Rabin and felt a sense of relief that the long hard nightmare for my people might soon be over. 

Since Oslo, however, I and many moderate Palestinians have been sorely disappointed.  

• We have seen the settlement expansion in the West Bank more than quadruple.  
• We have seen thousands of Palestinian agriculture acres (olive groves) destroyed. 
• We have seen a separation wall built around our towns and villages leaving isolated enclaves that basically imprison Palestinians especially men between the ages of 18 and 40. 
• We have seen a voluminous number of humiliating military check points that disgrace and dehumanize Palestinians. 
• We have seen democratic Palestinian elections whose results were not accepted by Israel and an American President who told us that one of the results of the Iraqi invasion of 2003 was a democratization of the Middle East. 
• We have also seen since Oslo, (unfortunately) the introduction of the Palestinian suicide bomber and the assassination of an Israeli Prime Minister (by an Israeli terrorist) which, in essence, killed the peace process.  
• We have also seen the right wing religious fanatic groups who have increased their power and because they have been and are part of the past and current coalition governments in Israel, in my opinion, hold the entire Middle East hostage.  
• We also see the continued marginalization of the Palestinians 
• because of inter-fighting; 
• because the world cannot accept that the Palestinian people have elected one party over another party that is repeat with corruption and that has not produced the liberation it has said it will deliver; and 
• because the power of the purse is used to blackmail the Palestinian West Bank leadership to accept what the people will not allow them to accept. 
• We have also witnessed in 2008-2009 and now again the barbarity of the Israeli devastating and disproportionate onslaught against our brothers and sisters and our children in Gaza as the continued Israeli blockade causes severe economic conditions of food, water and medical shortages for which, we are told, the Palestinians cannot repel and for which the world flotilla aid campaign cannot break.

Because we have seen all these demoralizing aspects of the conflict, I, as well as many moderate (if not all) Palestinians, have abandoned the two state solution.  

• It is inconceivable that the 600,000 settlers in the West Bank will get up and leave.  This is not the Gaza Strip where 21 settlements illegally inhabited by 21,000 extreme Zionist settlers can be disbanded and the settlers removed.  
• It is inconceivable that the right wing ultra-conservative/orthodox parties within Israel will agree to give up Areas C especially since their power is increasing and especially since the recent poll in Israel tells us that the majority of Israelis have no problem living in an Apartheid like state.  
• It is inconceivable that Israel will abandon its policy to allow a Palestinian limited state within Area A and parts of Area B, on the one hand and another Palestinian entity in Gaza, as the Liberman Plan has so stated for Gaza. 

Inconceivability is only in the political realm.  In realty however, the numbers (population growth of the Palestinians visa via the Israelis) will force Israel to rethink its position.  My doubts are in succeeding Israel requests to endlessly talk to no end. The Israeli policy is "let us agree to agree in the future" but the future never comes because Israel always finds ways to interpret agreements by defining terms as it defines them. My pessimism is in endless talks that attempt to fill the glass with water but the glass is always half empty.

For Palestinians, the concept of a two state solution is illusionary. Since Oslo, succeeding Israeli governments have allowed the ever expanding settlements on illegally confiscated Palestinian land, thus creating “facts on the ground.” Israel has played its hand too long. Israeli leaders thought they could exhaust us into submission; that as long as they continued to build illegal settlements and continued to appease the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank while driving a wedge between West Bank and Gaza leaders, they could frustrate the Palestinians into accepting two Palestinian entities, one in the West Bank with Area A and part of Area B; and the other in Gaza.  Thus in essence, Israel has been trying for a three state solution.  Palestinians cannot and will not accept this.

By playing its hand too long, Israel has lost the moderate Palestinians. 

Moderate Palestinians are seeking other means to assert Palestinian fundamental rights. Moderate Palestinians wholeheartedly support the Palestinian request to join the United Nations General Assembly with pre-1967 borders but understand that this is only a prelude to a one state solution to the conflict. We also support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Israeli occupation. We welcome the emergency of a new generation of Palestinians who will pick up their stone and fight for the dignity and well-being of future Palestinian generations.  We also call upon the Palestinian factions to reconcile their differences and believe that the Palestinian house needs to be united immediately.  

(© Copyright 2012, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.) 

الفصل العنصري سياسة إسرائيل من الخوف

                 غروب الشمس في سلفيت ويعيش في خوف مرام          

(قمت بترجمة هذه المقالة على Google. كما هو محدود لغتي العربية لقراءةالكلام والقليل جدا، لا أستطيع أن يشهدوا على دقة              الترجمة، وأنا لا تقدم سوىأنها على سكن لقرائي.)


                في المقال السابق مقارنة ابنتي مرام والذين ولدوا 17 يوما بعيدا ، واحدة في فلسطين ، واحد في شيكاغو. أصبحت أنا ومرام اصدقاء الفيسبوك جيدة وانها تدريس لي أشياء كثيرة عن الحياة في فلسطين. في الآونة الأخيرة ، قالت إنها تشارك معي لها الرغبة في أن تكون متزوجة ولكن بدلا من السعي إلى الحب كسبب لتكون متزوجة ، وأنا استغرب لأسمعها تقول انها تريد أن جميع والسلامة من الزواج.كفلسطيني ، لا ينبغي أن أكون في حيرة في ذلك رغبة مرام لالتماس الأمان في الزوج المحتملة بدلا من السعي العالمي لرفيقة الروح الى الحب. ولكن أنا. ربما أصبحت أعيش معزولة في أمريكا منذ أن كان عمره 6 سنوات.ربما أنا حقا لا أفهم بأنني الحريات والحريات التي مرام والفلسطينيين 4.5 مليون نسمة في الضفة الغربية وعدم غزة.مرام تقول لي انها لا تستطيع ان الحب لو أنها لا تشعر بالأمان.واني اسعى الى فهم معنى كلمة "آمنة". فهل يعني الرغبة التوق لروح الإنسان أن يكون حرا؟ فهل يريدون أن يعيشوا من دون خوف؟في الولايات المتحدة يمكن أن نتوجه الى مدينة المقبل من خلال طرق عديدة ومختلفة من دون الحاجة إلى الذهاب من خلال أي نقطة تفتيش عسكرية. في المدن الفلسطينية الفصل العنصري القدم 25 جدار أو سياج من الاسلاك الكهربائية منعت يحيط محيط ولم يتبق سوى مخرج واحد يسيطر عليها الجنود الفصل العنصري. يتم التحكم في الدخول والخروج إلى المدينة عن طريق حاجز عسكري الفصل العنصري.يجب أن تكون مرهقة على روح الإنسان أن رحلة بسيطة الى بلدة القادم أن يأخذ الجهد العقلي كثيرا. يمكن للأميركيين لا يفهم هذا. نحصل فقط في سياراتنا ومحرك ، وطالما أننا نطيع القوانين والقيادة الحد الأقصى للسرعة ، ونحن لن يكون لها اي مواجهة مع الشرطة. في فلسطين ، ومواجهة الجنود الفصل العنصري يعد حدثا يوميا.الأميركيون ليس لديهم الخوف من الذهاب الى محل بقالة والتعرض للبندقية مصوبة على وجوهنا على يد جندي الفصل العنصري. في فلسطين أن الخوف هو الحاضر من أي وقت مضى.الأميركيون لا يجب أن يخشى ان جنديا الفصل العنصري سوف يأتي يطرق بابنا في منتصف الليل واتخاذ الأب أو الأخ لدينا إلى السجن. ليس لدينا جنود في الشارع. ما عدا في حالات الطوارئ فقط وبناء على السبب المحتمل ان ترتكب جريمة ق ، يمكن أن ضباط الشرطة لم تدخل بيوتنا بدون مذكرة تفتيش نفذتها السليم قاض. في فلسطين ، ويأتي الفصل العنصري الجنود على المنازل الفلسطينية في كل ساعات اليوم ، ونهب المنازل وانتزاع أي فرد من أفراد الأسرة إلى سجن يسيطر عليها نظام المحاكم العسكرية في إسرائيل الفصل العنصري الذي يحتوي على نسبة 99.7 ٪ من الإدانة.في أميركا ، يفترض كل شخص بريء حتى اعتقل الحكومة تثبت ادانته. الفصل العنصري في إسرائيل ، ويفترض أن الفلسطينيين مذنبون دون فرصة لاثبات براءتهم. ويمكن احتجاز السجناء السياسيين رهن الاعتقال الإداري إلى ما لا نهاية من دون محاكمة.ويفترض أن لا أحد في فلسطين بريء حتى تثبت إدانته. تقريبا كل فلسطيني يدخل في نظام المحاكم العسكرية في إسرائيل الفصل العنصري غير مذنب ، مذنب ، مذنب. أنا أعرف المحامي الفلسطيني في القدس الذي تفاخر مرة واحدة أن لديه الكمال 100 ٪ عن الرقم القياسي الذي اتهم عملاء من الخطأ القيام الفصل العنصري من قبل إسرائيل وجدت لتكون مذنبة.يتعرضون لخطفه من منزلك مع أطفالك الحالي وإلقاء القبض عليهم في الشارع من قبل الجنود والفصل العنصري الذي بني في خوفها على عقلية الفلسطينية. الفصل العنصري اسرائيل لديها سياسة لغرس الخوف في الفلسطينيين. لمزيد من الخوف ويشعر الفلسطينيون ، وعلى الأرجح كانوا يريدون مغادرة فلسطين. لمزيد من الفلسطينيين مغادرة فلسطين ، وعدد أقل من تبقى على الأرض. كلما قل عدد الفلسطينيين والاسرائيليين لا تزال تعد الأغلبية. لمزيد من الاسرائيليين هي الأغلبية تعد اسرائيل قادرة على المحافظة على نظامها العنصري. ومن المتوقع أن السكان الفلسطينيين في اسرائيل والضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة سوف يفوق عدد اليهود الإسرائيليين بحلول عام 2016. الفصل العنصري اسرائيل تحاول إطالة أمد ذلك التاريخ غرس الخوف في ذلك الفلسطينيون أنهم لن يتركوا فلسطين.الخوف هو جزء من الحياة اليومية في فلسطين. أنا شخصيا لا أرى ذلك ، لا يشعر أنه وأنه لا يعيش. ولكن هذا لا يعني أنني لا أفهم ذلك. بفضل مرام هي مساعدتي على فهم ما إذا كان يشعر وكأنه في العيش في فلسطين.حواراتنا بسيطة. أنا لا أطلب أسئلتها مباشرة حول خوف أو أي موضوع آخر. موضوع الرغبة في التماس الأمان في الزواج ، والعيش دون خوف ، وخرج بشكل طبيعي.بطبيعة الحال ، أريد مرام وجميع السيدات الشابات في فلسطين ليوم واحد قريبا من العيش دون خوف والسعي لشعور رائع من الحب الذي يبني علاقة الزوج والزوجة في حياة السعادة. فضح دولة الفصل العنصري في إسرائيل هو مساهمتي في جعل ذلك اليوم سيأتي عاجلا.((ج) فادي Zanayed ، ويمكن نشر هذا المقال أو يقع طالما يتم تضمين البلاغ وموقع كمرجع).

Apartheid Israel Policy of Fear

                                      Sunset in Salfit as Maram lives in fear

                In a previous article I compared my daughter and Maram who were born 17 days apart, one in Palestine, one in Chicago.  Maram and I have become good Facebook friends and she is teaching me many things about life in Palestine.  Recently, she shared with me her desire to be married but instead of seeking love as a reason to be married, I was perplexed to hear her say that all she wanted was safety from the marriage.

As a Palestinian, I should not be so puzzled at Maram’s desire to seek safety in a potential husband rather than the universal quest for a soul mate to love.  But I am.  Maybe I have become insulated living in America ever since I was 6 years old.  Maybe I really do not understand the freedoms that I have and the freedoms that Maram and the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza lack.

Maram tells me she cannot love if she does not feel safe.

I am trying to grasp the meaning of the word “safe”.  Does she mean the yearning desire for the human spirit to be free?  Does she want to live without fear? 

In the United States we can drive to the next town through many different routes without having to go through any military checkpoint.  In Palestinian towns a 25 foot apartheid wall or a electric barred wire fence surrounds the perimeter leaving only one exit controlled by apartheid soldiers.  Ingress and egress to the town is controlled by an apartheid military checkpoint. 

It must be exhausting on the human spirit that a simple trip to the next town has to take so much mental effort.  Americans cannot comprehend this. We just get into our cars and drive and as long as we obey the laws and driving speed limit, we will not have any encounter with the police. In Palestine, confronting the apartheid soldiers is a daily event. 

Americans do not have a fear of going to the grocery store and be subjected to a gun pointed at our face by an apartheid soldier.  In Palestine that fear is ever present.

Americans do not have to fear that an apartheid soldier will come knocking on our door in the middle of the night and take our father or brother to jail.  We do not have soldiers in the street.  Except in emergency situations and only upon a probable cause that s crime is being committed, police officers cannot enter our homes without a proper search warrant executed by a Judge.  In Palestine, apartheid soldiers come to Palestinian homes at all hours of the day, ransack the home and take away any member of the household to prison controlled by a military court system in Apartheid Israel that has a conviction rate of 99.7%.

In America, every person arrested is assumed innocent until the government proves him guilty. In Apartheid Israel, Palestinians are assumed guilty without a chance to prove their innocence. Political prisoners can be endlessly detained under administrative detention without a trial.

No one in Palestine is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  Almost every Palestinian who enters the military court system in Apartheid Israel is guilty, guilty, guilty.  I know a Palestinian attorney in Jerusalem who once bragged that he has a perfect 100% record—all his clients accused of wrong doing by Apartheid Israel have been found to be guilty.

To be subjected to being snatched out of your home with your children present and to being arrested on the street by apartheid soldiers has its fear built in to the Palestinian mindset.  Apartheid Israel has a policy to instill fear in Palestinians.  The more fear Palestinians feel, the more likely they would want to leave Palestine.  The more Palestinians leave Palestine, the fewer remain on the land.  The fewer the Palestinians, the longer the Israelis remain a majority.  The more the Israelis are a majority the longer Israel can maintain their apartheid system.   It is expected that the population of Palestinians in Israel, West Bank and Gaza will outnumber Israeli Jews by 2016. Apartheid Israel is trying to prolong that date by instilling fear in Palestinians so that they will leave Palestine.

Fear is a part of daily life in Palestine. I personally do not see it, do not feel it and do not live it.  But that does not mean that I do not understand it.  Thanks to Maram she is helping me understand what if feels like to live in Palestine. Our conversations are simple.  I do not ask her direct questions about fear or any other subject. The subject of wanting to seek safety in a marriage, to live without fear, came out naturally. 

Naturally, I want Maram and all young ladies in Palestine to one day soon to live without fear and seek the wonderful feeling of love that builds a husband and wife relationship into a life of happiness.  Exposing the Apartheid State of Israel is my contribution to making that day come sooner. 

((c) Fadi Zanayed.  This article may be republished or sited as long as the author and site are included as the reference.) 

A Tale of Two Palestinian Ladies

                On Facebook I like to chat with my people in Palestine, both in the West Bank and Gaza, to get a sense of what is happening on the ground. The stories I hear are heartbreaking and this in turn increases my sense of guilt about leaving Palestine at the age of 6½ and migrating to the United States.  I left my people behind and came to the good life. This feeling is reflected in my poem The Other Side of Fleeing (http://poetrybyfadizaanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/other-side-of-fleeing.html).

                Over the last several days I met a young Palestinian lady whose birthday is on the same month as my daughter, having been born just 17 days apart.  Their stories reflect the guilt in me as I wonder how I would have fared had I been routed in a different direction.  Read my poem A Journey To See Where I Was To Be. (http://poetrybyfadizaanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/journey-to-see-where-i-was-to-be.html)

                In chatting with her (rather interviewing her for this article) I had a tear in my eyes as I compared Maram’s life in Salfit, Palestine with MaryAnn’s life in Chicago.  Both were born in September, 1988, just months before Yaser Arafat uttered the words recognizing the State of Israel, now known as the Apartheid State of Israel.  

                Expressing that guilt within me, before MaryAnn was born I wrote the poem The Uprising Home and the Stone (http://poetrybyfadizaanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/uprising-home-and-stone.html).  MaryAnn had a loving home and parents, her own bed and room, she had the toy kitchen and dolls and educated parents who received their degrees from Chicago universities.  Her father, me, is a lawyer and Maryann had a very bright future ahead of her.

                Maram tells me that she realized that Palestinians were under Israeli occupation at the tender age of one as she recalls gunfire outside her home.   Just eight months earlier, the first Intifada began by inspired Palestinian youth who rose up against the Apartheid Israeli occupation and Maram remembers the gunfire.

                MaryAnn grew up and a new and bigger home was built for the family when she was 5 years old. Maram lost her father when she was 11 months old. A Palestinian traitor informed the Apartheid Israeli soldiers that Maram’s father, Ibrahim had a gun. Then an Apartheid truck chased him down and the Apartheid soldiers killed him.  The traitor quickly migrated to the US leading many to believe that he lied to earn a visa.

                MaryAnn never had a gun pointed at her face as did Maram one day at a checkpoint near Nablus.  Maram and her younger sister were heading home to Salfit which is south of Nablus.  Maram’s sister who was 17 years old had not acquired her “identity” card from the apartheid authorities as she was not required to get it before she turned 18. Approaching the checkpoint on that rainy day, the apartheid authorities would not let Maram’s sister get through, although Maram was allowed to proceed.  Of course, Maram refused to leave her sister and they both stayed together in the pouring rain for three hours as the apartheid soldiers held a gun to Maram’s face.

                I would like to believe that MaryAnn would have done the same had she been in Maram’s place.  Knowing my daughter, I am afraid that she would have confronted the apartheid soldiers with all her gusto and been thrown in prison.  But at the time, MaryAnn did not have a rifle pointed at her face but rather secluded away in a dorm of a Southern Illinois university majoring in biology studying to be a doctor.   Maram too was studying at a university near her home. Her field of interest was business.

                When Maram was in 7^th grade the Second Palestinian Intifada began.  Maram remembers the school being closed for a day every time the apartheid soldiers entered their elementary school.  The school would be closed for several days each time disrupting her education.  The elementary school was used to interrogate the residents of Salfit, two of which were Maram’s grandparents. 

The closest MaryAnn got to a policeman was when I was stopped for speeding on the way to Church when she was young.  The officer was nice and he let my family go to be on time to church. MaryAnn did have an experience of what it means to be an Arab on September 11, 2011 when other children on her school bus called her and her brother “terrorists.” I made sure those children were disciplined by school authorities.

Yes, MaryAnn traveled to school on a school bus while Maram walked to school.

These two young Palestinian ladies have similar dreams.  They both want to help others. MaryAnn recently held a major fundraiser for St. Jude Hospital at her campus, being inspired by making rounds with her Doctor Aunt at the cancer ward. Maram tells me that she wants to help build Palestine.

Both Maram and MaryAnn know that one day they will be married; both want children and want the best for them.  Maram tells me that she wants her children to have a better life than she has had—a trait in all of us. Yet, Maram’s desires are more profound than those of MaryAnn. 

While MaryAnn would want to give a better life to her children, I do not know what that can be. MaryAnn went to Disneyland more times than I can remember; to Wisconsin Dells resort almost every year during her childhood; and to my Ramallah Family conventions on several occasions.  She had all the clothes she needed and enjoyed all the toys any child could want.  Her stuffed animals filled her canopy bed.

Maram longs for freedom something that although Maryann has does not long for as it is ever present. Maram longs for a life without checkpoints or a separation wall, something I do not believe MaryAnn or any other American youth can comprehend. Maram longs for her father who was killed when she was only 11months old; MaryAnn has both her parents.

Maram wants to live in a country, her country Palestine, where there is “freedom of expression” where she would not fear imprisonment for her thoughts by the Apartheid State of Israel. I cannot imagine that MaryAnn can live with her thoughts repulsed, where she could not express her thoughts and desires.

Maram wants to live in a city that is not surrounded by a barbed wire separating the village from the farms owned by the villagers.  During harvest season, farmers must strictly abide by exit and entry timelines to get to their farms.  

I do not think that MaryAnn can understand such a life.  She cannot understand a life without freedom—plain and simple, a life without freedom.

(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)