I’m trying to keep my kids safe. But in Palestinian areas there are no shelters, and my adolescent daughter refuses to hide in the closet. As is true for many Israeli parents, my main challenge since the start of...
The Israeli army closed the city of Jericho on one of the busiest tourist days of the year. We spent hours waiting outside the checkpoint. “Do you go to the demonstrations?” a friend asked me, referring to the weekly...
When my daughter said that I speak Hebrew, a girl in summer camp pantomimed firing a gun and asked, “Is your mother one of them?” “Ima! There are kids up there, and they’re speaking Arabic!” After a year and...
In addition to the six Palestinian NGOs, Israeli officials branded my neighbor, my life partner and an ice cream company as terrorists. No evidence needed. Job Interview In 2017, a few weeks after I gave birth to Adam, I...
Far from the violence, Osama worries about his family in Gaza while I clumsily try to create a holiday atmosphere. It’s our third war together. Smoking Break Raleigh, North Carolina, our temporary home for Osama’s sabbatical. 7:30 am. Osama...
We waited for hours, the children and I on one side of the checkpoint, Osama on the other, hoping to make it to the airport. Cleaning the refrigerator “I knew you would clean again after I finished,” Osama said,...
Most deep natural pools in the West Bank are near settlements, and settlers have taken them over, by arriving there with guns or Israeli soldiers. Our relationship exposes my partner, Osama, to the seam areas of the West Bank,...
The driver who cut me off really did behave like an idiot. But he wasn’t the one who built the wall or closed the tunnel. I finished a work meeting in Jerusalem at 5 pm and called my partner,...
For the first time after two months of corona-closure, we were leaving the West Bank to visit close friends in the Israeli city of Holon. “Forat, brush your teeth so that we can leave,” I begged. Her brother Adam...
I went for a morning run with my son in a stroller and felt my eyes and throat burn. Tear gas thrown by Israeli soldiers. “Aaaaaaahhhhhh!” Adam’s voice. I heard Osama trying to calm him down. 5:20 am. Adam...
