Home Coming

Whenever there is a plan for home-coming, it is always thought of as a happy occasion.  Whether one is coming home for the Christmas holidays, or the summer break, or whether one is joining a class reunion, there is always a feeling of excitement and joy that one looks forward to.

It is only when one is coming home to Palestine, that home-coming  becomes a nightmare.  All the excitement and joy turn into hours of harassment and interrogation at the borders by an occupying force that makes a Palestinian or anybody of Palestinian origin  feel as an intruder,  or a suspect.  By the time one reaches home all the excitement is gone and the tension of the interrogation is released with anger and very often with tears of frustration.  Whether one is arriving at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv (known originally as the Lydda  airport,) or whether one is crossing the bridge via Jordan, because West Bankers are not allowed to travel through the airport, it  is all the same.  Of course, not withstanding the fact,  that some are completely denied entry, and some are harassed and stripped on the way out. 

Now that the Christmas holidays are over,  all those young people who came to visit their  parents and grandparents have  gone back to their universities or their work.  But despite what they went through on their most  recent visit, they are determined to come back again and again as no harassment will stop them from coming home, with the hope that one day soon their home-coming will be to a liberated Palestine.