Uniformed children streamed out of the school building, the older girls wearing the thick, long sleeved, polo shirts favored by the administration because, unlike the boys’ button-down shirts, they can’t be opened to reveal a hint of breast....
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...
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...
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...
Under different circumstances, I would have asked my wise friend Tally for advice on how to be a good friend to someone who is dying.Since I began writing this blog, my beloved friend Dr. Tally Kritzman-Amir has reviewed...
My children’s cousins in the Jabalia refugee camp are fasting for Ramadan. On the other side of our family, their cousins are doing Passover cleaning. When I moved in with my partner Osama a decade ago, he told...
I enjoyed cultivating the Tooth Fairy as a heroine. Forat deals with so many grown-up issues – I wanted her to retain some childhood magic. The truth about the Tooth Fairy Forat, aged seven, was reading a book....
The Israeli Minister of Culture gave me a Hebrew literature prize. I’m grateful. And trying to reclaim Hebrew from those who use it to oppress. Hebrew is not the private domain of the Israeli military or state A...
We turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus. It finally arrived in a weakened form, leaving us in maddening, beautiful isolation together. A sick day Osama left to take the children to school and...
Children are aware of stratification by gender and ethnicity. They notice who works in preschools, who their parents’ bosses are, and who cleans public toilets. Rereading a book from my childhood Forat lay on her bed and lifted...