<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[One half of a family crisis solved: a Palestinian family continues 2 struggle with Israel&#8217;s Kafkaesque ID &amp; permit&nbsp;system]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="headline_meta"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="18974" data-permalink="https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/one-half-of-a-family-crisis-solved-a-palestinian-family-continues-2-struggle-with-israels-kafkaesque-id-permit-system/attachment/1882464/" data-orig-file="https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg" data-orig-size="594,397" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}" data-image-title="1882464" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg?w=588" data-large-file="https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg?w=588" class="size-full wp-image-18974 alignnone" title="1882464" src="https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg?w=588&#038;h=392" alt="" width="588" height="392" srcset="https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg?w=588&amp;h=392 588w, https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/1882464.jpg 594w" sizes="(max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px" /></p>
<p class="headline_meta">by <span class="author vcard fn">Linah Alsaafin</span> on <abbr class="published" title="2011-03-28">March 28, 2011 | Mondoweiss<br />
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<p><em>Below is an update on the </em><a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/one-palestinian-familys-story-illustrates-the-absurdity-and-intention-of-israeli-policy.html"><em>Alsaafin family&#8217;s ongoing struggle to be reunited</em></a><em> amidst Israel&#8217;s Kafkaesque identification and permit system. The  &#8220;hawiya&#8221; which is referenced in this post is an Israeli-issued <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hammad-hammad/im-american-but-to-israel_b_171719.html">Palestinian identity card</a> which designates, and restricts, where a person can live. This system  severely limits Palestinian freedom of movement, and in many cases keeps  families divided.<br />
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<p>While rifling through notebooks used from previous semesters to find  something worthwhile to submit in the forthcoming English department  journal, I came across this rare diary-like entrance, written sometime  last June.</p>
<blockquote><p>Tuesday was to be the &#8220;good news&#8221; day, according to the lawyer.  Instead, he called to say that all work on Palestinian ID&#8217;s have frozen  because negotiations aren&#8217;t on-going. Told Mama from now on we have to  be ardent supporters of proximity talks har har. Lawyer said he&#8217;ll do  his under the table business to see what he can get, REALLY hope that by  the time he calls on Friday it will be the news we&#8217;re all waiting and  dying to here. Otherwise might as well get packing now and develop my  mental state of mind for [Amman]. Even with that my eyes will cry  themselves hollow at leaving Falasteen, which was supposed to be our  final stop on this mini globe-trotting thang. Promises made by Baba  already sound like the exact replica of the promises he made again when  we came here in the summer of 04. Monty Python&#8211;Always look on the  bright side of life.</p></blockquote>
<p>Needless to say, we dumped the lawyer and went back to Gisha who were  previously working on the case. Five months later, the breakthrough  finally came. The Israeli military, which issues Palestinian IDs finally  admitted that my mother&#8217;s wrongly issued Gaza ID was a mistake and that  her West Bank ID would be dispensed within the next six months. My  family breathed again. We could <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/the-reunification-of-my-parents.html">all finally reunite in Amman</a>,  where my parents haven&#8217;t seen each other for over a year as a result of  my dad owning a Gaza ID and therefore unable to live let alone enter  the West Bank which was our home for the past 6 years.</p>
<p>March 15th, the seminal day surrounded in such fanfare that was to  promulgate officially the end of division between Fateh and Hamas, was a  disappointment. Low attendance, no sense of direction, attempted  sabotage effects by the PA thugs, the list goes on and on. But that day  also had its own personal satisfaction. I spotted my mother near the  Manara&#8217;s railings and as I made my way toward her, she turned around and  excitedly yelled, &#8220;GUESS WHAT! I GOT MY HAWIYA!!&#8221; I froze. And then  much hugging ensued.</p>
<p>This is the moment we&#8217;ve all been waiting for, for her to have some  sort of legal claim to her right to live in the West Bank.  Unfortunately, this still doesn&#8217;t deter from the more glaring problem of  actually having the freedom to move outside the West Bank (in  Palestine) which is still hindered, like the rest of the 3.5 million  Palestinians living there. We are indebted to <a href="http://www.gisha.org/">Gisha</a>,  and owe them such immense gratitude. Thank you for persevering with us,  for resolutely working on my mother&#8217;s case, for handling our snappish  impatience, and ultimately for winning it in the end. That small note of  thanks she published in Al-Quds newspaper doesn&#8217;t even express half of  our appreciativeness. When the news came to her via phone call, my  mother had to hang up because she was at a complete loss for words.</p>
<p>A legal resident of the West Bank! Mama hasn&#8217;t even been to the  outskirts of Ramallah city for fear on encountering a flying checkpoint,  even after the IDF admitted the mistake they had made in the address on  her ID back in November. How absurd that we had to suffer through this  ordeal, when she is originally from Ramallah&#8217;s twin city Al-Bireh! But  it&#8217;s all part and parcel of being Palestinian nowadays.</p>
<p>Next, we will try to work on my father and older brother&#8217;s case. It  doesn&#8217;t look too promising since they were both born in Khan Younis, but  without hope we wouldn&#8217;t be where we are today. If my dad can&#8217;t be  permitted to enter the West Bank then we have no other choice but to  pack up in the summer and move to Amman, and that will be the moment of  victory for the Zionists&#8211;succeeding in uprooting another Palestinian  family.</p>
<p><em>Linah Alsaafin is a student at Birzeit University in the  West  Bank, where she is studying English Literature. She&#8217;s been living  in  Ramallah, West Bank since 2004, and despite being only 50 miles away   from her grandparents and uncles in the Gaza Strip, she hasn&#8217;t seen them   since 2005. Alsaafin was born in Cardiff, Wales, and was raised in   England, the United States, and Palestine.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2011/03/one-half-of-a-family-crisis-solved.html">Source</a></p>
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