(from my e-mail)
Dear friends,
As you read this important article, keep in mind a much simpler case – that of my wife and I.
I, by virtue of being born in the US, am American. My wife is Palestinian. Our two girls, one born in Ohio and another in El-Bireh, both carry dual citizenship/residency, American and Palestinian. My wife and I applied for Family Unification, as the article explains, in 1993, pre-Palestinian Authority. It’s been a 13 year pending file.
The Israelis, who control to this very day, the Palestinian population registry, have refused to issue us Family Unification status, by which I would ascertain Palestinian residency and be assured to be able to remain with my family.
We do not live in Israel, we live in El-Bireh/Ramallah, smack in the middle of the West Bank. So after you read this article ask the simple question, why prohibit Palestinians married to other Palestinians, both in the West Bank, Family Unification?
Until an answer is found, I will continue to do my part in building Palestine, in 3 month (tourist visa) intervals, and be ready to move (and bid my wife and daughters farewell) in 24 hours.
Pending my umpteenth visa extension,
Sam
P.S. If you would like to learn more about the infamous Palestinian population registry read this solid article by the great Israeli journalist Amira Hass, Gaza after the pullout / Israeli control over the population registry means continued control over Gaza Strip.
(from my e-mail)
21 May 2006
An Infant Dies
Gamilah is an Israeli activist who, (among other activities) transports Palestinians with medical problems from their villages to hospitals in Israel. Gamilah’s summary of last week’s activities includes a sad and distressing experience. [below, loosely translated from the Hebrew; parentheses within text are mine. Dorothy]
‘Thursday: The infant boy from Bayt Furik, born with a heart defect, died. His 30 year old mother brought him to Wolfson hospital the day after his birth. At the hospital, he lived but 16 days. His father accompanied the mother to the hospital and remained for 2 days. Then his permit allowing him to be in Israel ran out, forcing him to leave mother and child, and to return to Bayt Furik in the West Bank [BF is about 10 kilometers east of Nablus.] I was in daily phone contact with the mother. She and her family have become personal friends. Some of our group from time to time visited her [the group Gamilah refers to comprises Israelis who, among other things, drive Palestinians to and from Israel for medical care]’
Gamilah continues:
‘After the baby died on Thursday, we learned that no ambulance would be available until Sunday, and that it would cost 1,000.00 shekel to take the mother and her baby’s corpse only as far as the checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank. Neither I nor the family had that money. No option remained except for me to drive the distraught mother and her tiny bundle home.’
‘The drive back to Bayt Furik was terrible. This was the first time that I had to do anything like this. It wasn’t the first time that a child whom we’d accompanied had died, which is difficult enough. You become close to the families when accompanying someone whose child is ill. To lose a child is bad enough. But this was worse. The mother had been alone for 14 days—I mean the Israeli authorities refused to allow any member of her family to be with her at Wolfson to help her through the period [this is not unusual]. The loss of the child was horrible for her. She did not stop crying the entire trip. I had to struggle to hold my own tears back so as to be able to see where I was driving.’
‘I had wanted to arrive at the village before dark. But to our misfortune, we got stuck in a traffic jam for over 2 hours on the Ayalon highway. We finally reached the Tapuach junction, proceded to Huawara, and from there to the Bayt Furik. On that stretch of the ride, I hoped that we would not be intercepted by the military or police, who might decide to impose the new regulation that forbids Israelis driving in the West Bank from having Palestinians in their cars. But we finally made it to the village safely.’
‘Still, I was so shaken by the experience, that although I went to work that evening, after I returned to Israel, I asked my boss to release me, explaining that I wasn’t feeling well.’
[Imagine, dear friends, had you had to undergo the mother’s experience, that is to say, to have to have been alone in a hospital with your infant who is very ill, to not know the language of the hospital, to not be allowed to have any member of your family with you for 2 weeks, and then, after the infant dies, to have to carry the corpse of your newborn child home in the car of an acquaintance—how would you have felt? How would you have reacted? It’s not that Palestinian hospitals cannot always provide the needed care that’s at point, but that Israel’s attitude towards Palestinians is inhumane. After all, Israelis in some cases are also forced to go abroad for medical care unavailable in Israel. But if the country that the Israeli were going to would refuse to allow a family member to accompany him/her, can you imagine the outcry!: “anti-Semitism” would resound loud and clear. Dorothy]