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...
Forat asked to watch a movie about a couple arrested for violating a ban on interracial marriage. I wondered what she understood about our family. Falafel in the South “Hada humus!” Adam insisted. “That’s humus!” I was surprised...
This time I’m writing under my real name. To thank you and to let you know about my book, a love story about the occupation. Dear Readers, I want to thank you for the time you dedicate to reading...
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,...
“I am a Jew married to a Palestinian,” I told the supermarket man, with a smile that I hoped was courteous, pluralistic and also conversation-ending. I picked up Forat and Adam from school and preschool. My ultra-Orthodox nieces and...
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,...
עומר שאל אותי, בפשטות ובישירות, על העברית שאני מדברת עם ילדיי. "זו לא אשמת השפה אבל אנשים פה מתקשים להפריד בין השפה לבין הכיבוש".
My daughter’s kindergarten is making a video about nationalities. It’s a complicated topic for us. Her father and I can’t even drive the same car I came home at 4 a.m. from a short work trip abroad. Osama was...
I never consciously decided to speak Hebrew with my daughter, but it became a kind of connection between her and me, like our private language “Imaaaaaaa!” As usual, Forat awoke screaming. Five in the morning. I was sitting near...
