The Referendum

I was listening to the news this morning announcing that today’s referendum in Scotland will determine the future status of Scotland.  The commentaries definitely expressed the fury of the British government and a lot of English people.   However the first thing that came to my mind was the Psyches Piccot agreement of 1916* when our whole region known as Greater Syria or the Levant  (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq) was split up and divided between colonial powers by no choice of its people or any sort of referendum.  Ironically Britain and France were the  major partners of  that agreement.  As if that was not bad enough it had to be followed by the Balfour Declaration.   And ever since,  we have not enjoyed the liberation, democracy and peace that we were promised should we  help the allies to bring  an end to  the rule of the Ottoman Empire which had lasted for  four hundred years.  I just hope the Israeli occupation does not last that long.  However Israel proceeded with the same colonial mentality of divide and rule.  It might be worthwhile reading the document “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties, ”  which was brought to my attention through a recent article by Ali Kazaz in which he mentions that the strategy aims to encourage separatist groups to establish religious and sectarian states in the region in order to justify the establishment of its Jewish State and to weaken and destabilize the Arab countries, fuelling endless sectarian wars between Arabs and Muslims and to prevent Arab unity.  And yes indeed that is what is happening,  even after the very tragic events in Gaza with all the devastation and loss of lives.  Will we ever be able to stand up against this trap? Samia



*From Wikipedea:The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France,[1] with the assent of Russia, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916.[2] The agreement was concluded on 16 May 1916.[3]

A Nice Break of Good News

After thirty years of marriage, and thirty years of struggling with lawyers and the Israeli ministry of interior’s oppressive measures for family reunification,  my daughter  Dina was able to get a one year permit for her husband to live with her in Jerusalem.   Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, which were supposed to bring about peace to the region, Jerusalem was placed  out of bounds for  Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.   So my daughter’s husband, Yousef Nasser,  who is from Birzeit and  has a Palestinian Identity Card could not live with her and his three  children in Jerusalem, nor could they join him in Birzeit, because that would deprive them of their right of residency in Jerusalem, the city of their birth, and that of their forefathers.   How unfair.  So her only choice was to be a week-end wife and make the best out of it under the circumstances.  How many family occasions he missed that it became normal for him not to be part of those functions.  Yet it was very hard for the whole family when he was terribly missed on certain occasions like the time his daughter was hospitalized for a month and a half after a serious fall, as well as  on  many other happy occasions.   

When Dina told me on Monday morning  that they had an appointment at the ministry of interior I kept praying and hoping that their ordeal would be over soon.  So when she called to say they got the paper, I thought it was the paper approving the family reunification, but it turned out to be indeed an approval for family reunification which begins with  another ordeal of a yearly permit.  At the end of the year and to renew this permit they  need to provide all the necessary documents that they are  actually living in Jerusalem.  a document that would grant him a one year permit to be in Jerusalem.  What an anti-climax was my daughter’s first reaction.   After such long years of  deprivation of a normal family life, and  when all three children  are pursuing their studies abroad, and  no more around us, we can now  be together ”   But when  as Palestinians  we were never granted the justice that we deserved, and never had the best of choices,  a permit becomes an achievement and a sign of hope for further permit renewal.    This is the story of our life as well as that of  thousands of others.   

The great escape.