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 preschool...
We’re starting the new year not feeling very welcome in our North Carolina apartment complex, where the neighbors expect children to be unseen and unheard. Cultural Differences and Plates “She’s coming!” Osama called out, pointing through the window at...
Our daughter is enjoying sugary American food, but for her father, North Carolina brings something sweeter: a COVID-19 vaccine he wouldn’t yet get in Palestine. Eating Animals “Ima, which animal did they kill to make the cold cuts?” six-year...
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,...
Kids from east Jerusalem take on their parents’ fears of losing their residency rights. The stress of the corona virus pandemic doesn’t make things easier. Three-year old Adam was screaming. Lately it feels like he is always screaming. We...
The Israeli lockdown curtailed plans to visit a cousin for the Jewish new year – a relief given the government’s failure to contain the coronavirus The area code “02” appeared on the screen of my telephone. I was standing...
A lot of people in Gaza have died in recent months, after their requests to access treatment in Israel and the West Bank were denied. Munir is dead. He had cancer. He died after not being able to...
A little girl who just wants to marry her giraffe shouldn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of her parents’ struggle with the occupying authorities. The automated phone system of the Civil Administration, the military unit responsible for civilian...
No daycare or camp; my partner is away. Being alone all day, every day, with my two kids might be more dangerous than the pandemic. “Forat, do clean up, tidy up,” I called to my daughter for the fourth...
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...
