Tag: Denial of Entry

Denial of Dignity, Denial of Entry

Eccerpts from by Nadia’s journal 3 May 2007

What happened to me yesterday is something I couldn’t imagine possible, not because I didn’t think I could be refused entrance into Israel. There always was a possibility I would be interrogated, but not in the way they did.

I landed in Tel Aviv at 7 am, and handed my passport over to passport control. After less than 2 minutes, three men came up saying they were waiting for my arrival. They took me plus all my stuff to a big room, where more than 20 people started checking every single thing. First, they took my mobile and wrote down every phone number and name that was in it, checked my SMS, plus the latest calls I had made and received, then checked pictures on my camera.

After that, they checked my body, my clothes, my hair, and my ears, even my nails.

One guy introduced himself as Sami (i don’t remember the last name). “I am Sami, from the Ministry of Defense. I have been waiting a few days for your arrival, I will work on you today, and we will put everything on the table. I will be hard on you, because I am not a nice person. I am mean, which is why they chose me for you. You are a special person, Nadia, and you will get the toughest security system we have. If you collaborate with us we will help you”.

Sami took me to a room very far from the main center of the airport. The office has the logo of Ministry of Defense. One woman was with us all the time (according to him, it was to make me feel more comfortable. He told me “I know Arabs girls don’t want be alone with a man. We respect you, don’t worry”.

First of all, he took several pictures of me, then opened a file in his computer. He started asking me about my family, phone numbers, professions, number of children, addresses, everything. He took copies of my credit card, saying he must check the previous activities on it, then took copies of my ID, driver’s license, the pictures of my family I have with me, all while writing down who is who.

After all this he started asking more questions, “I am not here to check on what you did in Nablus, or if you worked or not, or if you stayed longer than the permitted time, or if you did anything illegal. There are people already working on that. My job is to check about TERRORIST ACTIVITIES YOU CAN BE INVOLVED IN. For that we need to check on the people you are related to, because WE KNOW that you know five people, terrorists, the worst people here. We know they are your close friends. If you give us their names (despite the fact that we already have it) you will enter Israel. If you collaborate with us, we will help you Nadia.”

Then, the show started.

He started with people listed in my mobile, one by one, the 163 numbers I have. Who is he/her, how did you meet this person, are you in touch with him, and on and on. Every single person in my mobile (the Palestinian numbers and Jordanian numbers) was checked on his computer, and every person’s picture came up on the computer. I saw Sam’ s picture, Anita’s picture, Yusra’s picture, Sumaida’s picture. At one point, he asked me about people in Balata and Askar Camp, people I’m supposed to know, so he was waiting for me to mention them.

He told me that he’s been checking on me for months. “Many people you know in Nablus were interrogated, and almost all of them gave us the same five names we’re looking for, saying you are a very close friend to them. Many people in Nablus know you Nadia; we contacted all of them. Now you must start speaking.”

I didn’t know who they were looking for, as you can imagine. The guy then called someone by phone asking for more things, and immediately, new pictures of people showed up on his computer. He then asked me about most of these people, many I had never seen. Some of them, however, I did know, and their numbers were in my mobile.

I told him that I can’t be blamed for what someone else did or didn’t do, that I don’t know what he’s talking about. He continued saying that I was not telling him the truth, because he already knew the truth, and I will not enter Israel ever again, if I don’t collaborate with him by providing him with more details.

After he checked my mobile again, he asked me why, with 163 numbers on it, only 13 are from people in Jordan, while all the rest are from Palestinians. “How is possible, Nadia, that a woman like you, smart, good looking, attractive, doesn’t have more relationships with people in Jordan? What are you planning to do, why do you insist you want to enter Israel, how are you related to these terrorists? They asked you to make something, didn’t they, they asked you for money, and they asked you to get married to them, what are you planning to do with them as soon you enter here? We know the truth, but he want hear it from you, and again, if you don’t collaborate with us we cannot helping you.”

After a few minutes another guy, Amir, entered the room, and he looked at me and told me, “Stop lying, you are hiding something, and we know it, you have bad friends and your relationship with them makes you related to their activities, I don’t trust you, and you will not enter Israel because of that”.

After he left, and I was alone again with Sami, I started crying, like a baby, and I told him that I want this interrogation stopped, go ahead, send me back to Jordan, because I don’t know what they are looking for, and I am not involved to anything.

Sami sat next to me and kindly told me “You are a nice person, a strong woman I can see that, well educated, so don’t make mistakes, this is your opportunity to tell the truth, we will help you, give me the other three names, and don’t cry anymore. Why are you so nervous, why this is so important to you? I don’t understand, and if I don’t understand, I only can think the worst about you… I WILL NOT LET YOU ENTER IF I DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING, BECAUSE I WILL BE RESPONSIBLE, WHEN YOU BLOW YOURSELF UP IN TEL AVIV”.

The interrogation continued, he made copies of all the pictures I have and started writing down next to each person their names, then looking in his computer. He said, “Nadia, maybe you have clean hands, but if any person has put their hands in dirty water, your hands will be dirty, and your hands are already black”.

Finally, he told me “Your situation here is not good, you have a strong connection with bad activities. This world is not safe any more, because of MUSLIMS (Nadia, remember what happend on September 11 because of Muslims). You are a big risk to the security of the Israeli people, and all of the visitors in this country. Israel is a democracy, one of the best countries in the world, not like the Arab ones, and we work hard to prevent any terrorist activities, and you are not helping us with our mission.”

He left me saying, “My team will decide now about what we will do with you, but I don’t think you will be able to enter here again. You are a risk to yourself and others. You can do whatever you want, go to COURT, if that’s what you want to do. But, if you do, I will be happy to go there personally and make sure YOU WILL NEVER ENTER HERE AGAIN.”

This interrogation lasted from 7:20 am until 4:15 pm. Downstairs the Chilean consul was waiting for me. I was allowed to speak with him and go out with security to smoke a cigarette. I never saw Sami again, he didn’t come back to tell me the results of the meeting, but the people from security had already told the consul I was not allowed to enter Israel, even before the interrogation was ended.

They asked me to go again to the checkroom where they again checked all my bags and me, then put me on a plane back to Amman at 7 pm.

I will finish writing this by saying to all of you that I did my best yesterday. I think nobody is really ready to face something like that, at least not me, because I am not used to being treated as a terrorist. I feel sorry for all the people who are related to me, now these people have all their names and phone numbers; they can check on them because of me. I feel like the worse collaborator in the world, and I am so sorry for making the life of others harder than it already is.
The Palestinians face enough injustices since the day they were born.

Salaam to all
Nadia

Diplomatic Mission intervention unites foreign passport holders with their families;

the Campaign for the Right to Enter/Re-enter
April 26, 2007

(April 26, 2007 – Ramallah) –Israeli border control authorities continue arbitrarily denying entry to foreigners traveling to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The pattern was first identified by the Campaign for the Right to Enter/Re-Enter the oPt in early 2006 when long-time residents returning from visa renewal excursions were being barred from reentry, separating them from their family and livelihood and forcing relocation to another country. Disturbingly, there are reports of Israeli border agents physically abusing foreigners; one US citizen was forced to return to Jordan at knifepoint. In a positive development, some foreign missions have intervened on behalf of their citizens resulting in those previously barred to finally pass Israeli-controlled entry points.

Those who are ‘allowed’ to enter the country are increasingly given visitor permits for as little as a few days without clear instructions whether and for how long they can extend their stay. Those denied entry are arbitrarily subjected to humiliating body searches, detention and verbal abuse before being deported.

Some recent examples illustrate the chaotic welcome scenarios for visitors to the Holy Land:

April 7 – Fares Abdullah, 28, Swiss IT-engineer whose father holds a Palestinian ID. He had pre-notified the Israeli Embassy in Bern and the Swiss Embassy in Israel about his plan to visit his parents and family for Easter. He was assured that everything was ‘ok.’ When he arrived at Allenby Bridge on the morning of April 7, he was made to wait for many hours until all other passengers had been processed. At the end of the day he was suddenly ordered at gunpoint into a private taxi back to the Jordanian border without any explanation. He tried again the next day and got through eventually, thanks to continuous and vigorous intervention by the Swiss Embassy official. Mr. Abdullah was granted a one week tourist visa.

April 14 – Hassan Newash, US passport holder and retired engineer from Grosse Pointe Michigan, was flashed a switchblade by an Israeli official at Allenby Bridge to force him back on the bus to Amman. Fearing for his life, Mr. Newash complied. Insisting on knowing the reasons for Israel’s denial of his planned entry to visit his family in Bethlehem, Mr. Newash was physically abused. Halfway to the Jordanian border it turned out that Mr. Newash’s passport was mixed up by the Israelis with those of two other travelers carrying the same first name. They were not on the bus to Amman. Mr. Newash was eventually driven back to the Israeli border to collect his passport and then was suddenly allowed to enter. He got a 3-month visa.

April 19 – Elisa Abedrapo, Chilean citizen of Palestinian origin entered her family’s home town Bethlehem for the first time in her life. Before that she had been denied entry twice last February at Allenby Bridge. As a result of persistent protests by Chilean nationals, who had been denied entry by Israel, with Chilean government institutions, the Israeli authorities apparently obliged and assured Mrs. Abedrapo clearance for entry. On April 19 she was allowed to enter on a regular 3-month visa.

April 21 – Hanna Quffa, US passport holder of Palestinian origin, has been working as independent auditor for USAID and other US government projects. He has been traveling back and forth many times from Europe where his office is based. To his surprise he was deported for the first time from Tel Aviv airport back to Milan on April 21, after being kept in detention for 12 hours. Border authorities explained Mr. Quffa’s detention and deportation by stating that ‘he did not have a work permit.’

April 23 – Dr. Ata Kasem, US passport holder and professor in mathematics, returned from California after 9 months of forced separation from his family and his home village Turmos Ayya in the West Bank where he was born in 1939. Dr. Kasem had lived and worked in the USA and in 1998 returned with his wife and 7 children, all holding Palestinian ID cards except him. For 8 years he kept ‘visiting’ his family by traveling in and out of the country to renew his 3-month visa, which he never overstayed. Last summer, after a vacation in Jordan, mother and children were allowed to return home through Allenby Bridge, while the father was denied and later had to leave from Jordan to the USA. He finally decided to try to return to his home and family on April 23. This time he was allowed to visit home with a 3-month visa. No explanations or apologies were given.

Since early in 2006, Israel has been repeatedly requested by third states to announce a consistent, comprehensive, transparent and internationally lawful policy towards foreign passport holders intending to reside with family, visit, work, or study in the oPt. It continues to dismiss those demands. In violation of its obligations as an occupying power to comply with international humanitarian law, Israel continues to abuse its control over entry, presence and residency in the oPt in a manner that causes unjustifiable harm to the protected civilian population, their family life, businesses and the institutions that serve them. It continues to expose foreign passport holders to arbitrary abuse and arbitrary denial of entry at the borders it controls, threatening and often causing them considerable pain and hardship in disrespect of their fundamental human rights and the elementary principles of humanity common to civilized nations.

Israel’s ‘new’ Procedures Change little at the Borders

Tens of thousands of families still face forced separation or de facto deportation

Ramallah – 29 March, 2007

Israel’s various announcements regarding new procedures for entry and visa extensions have failed to address, even superficially, the humanitarian crisis caused by its arbitrary, discriminatory and abusive exercise of authority over entry into the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Three months since the announcement of new procedures, Palestinians and others of US, Canadian, European and other citizenships continue to be denied entry to the oPt. Several are rejected promised visa extensions. All without justification.

If, as Israeli authorities now claim, the issue has been addressed:

– Why is it that US citizen Amjad Ghassan A’abed and her 2-year-old baby girl from al-Bireh were denied entry at Allenby Bridge 7 times since January 2007, despite the fact that Amjad’s husband and their 3 older children hold Palestinian ID cards?
– Why is it that US citizen and businessman Abdelhakeem Itayem — who after being denied entry for months was finally given security clearance and subsequently entered, exited and re-entered the country several times since January 2007 — was again denied entry on March 13?
– Why is it that 84-year-old Emily Giacaman from Bethlehem, US citizen and an ex-Palestinian ID holder, a widow, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of Palestinian ID holders, was recently denied a visa extension although she had entered the country legally?
– Why is it that on March 7, 67-year-old Fawzi Hamed from Turmos Aya, a US citizen, was detained overnight in a cell at Ben Gurion airport and sent back to the US on the following day? Mr. Hamed had been staying temporarily with his daughter in California since he was first denied entry last November. The Israeli border control officers explained why: “you are coming back to live with your family and hence you are not eligible for a tourist visa.”

Thus far, the only tangible change on the ground since Israeli announcements of new procedures has been the processing of few hundred limited visa extensions. While the Campaign welcomes the short-term relief visa extensions offer to individuals and families threatened with forced separation, these renewals provide for temporary admissions only; procedures for granting residency to foreign nationals whose center of life is in the oPt remain unaddressed. Israel’s continued refusal to process family reunification applications directly affects as many as 500,000 to 750,000 people who may be forced to leave the occupied Palestinian territory to keep their families intact. Together with the many foreign nationals who have established their primary business, investment or professional activities in the oPt, or otherwise aspire to build their lives in the oPt, the new procedures place them, at best, in a state of continuous uncertainty under constant threat of expulsion and exclusion. Moreover, as demonstrated by cases above, even those qualifying for limited duration visa extensions have faced refusals.

Amnesty International states in its report Right to Family Life Denied of March 21 that “the policy of not allowing family unification for foreign spouses has no discernible link to security. The Israeli authorities have not claimed that foreign spouses who are now prevented from returning to the oPt are a security risk to Israelis. The restrictions do not target individuals but apply to spouses of Palestinians in general and, therefore, are wholly discriminatory. As such, they may constitute a form of collective punishment against Palestinians in the oPt; the imposition of collective punishment is violation of international humanitarian law.”

As the Palestinian Campaign for the Right to Enter (RTE) feared, any hopes that Israel would base its exercise of control over oPt borders on legitimate security considerations, in accordance with international law, have failed to materialize. Israel continues to decide politically who may enter the oPt, for what purposes and for how long. Its arbitrary and abusive exercise of this discretion continues to cause serious and unjustifiable harm to countless Palestinian families, educational and social service institutions and businesses in the oPt.

For More Information:

Telephone: +970.(0)59.817.3953 Facsimile: +970.2.295.4903
Website: www.RightToEnter.ps Email: info@righttoenter.ps

Haaretz: “Quality time”

by Gideon Levy,

The Jordanian MIRS chirps on the table. “Where’s Nur?” asks the woman on the line from Amman. “She’s standing next to me,” replies her husband in Azariyeh, east of Jerusalem. A chirp every few minutes. Yihye Bassa, a 40-year-old date merchant, has for several years been forbidden for security reasons to travel to Jordan; Nibin, his wife, 26, is forbidden to come here. He barely knows the two girls, 4-year-old Nur and 1-year-old Talin. They are with their mother in Jordan. Yihye met Nur for the first time two years after her birth, when he was still allowed to travel to Jordan; he met Talin for the first time a few weeks ago, on the Allenby Bridge.

In an unusual and very moving humanitarian gesture, Israel let the couple meet for three hours on the Allenby Bridge, after preventing them from seeing each other at all for about two years. Family reunification: a half-meeting on the bridge, without refreshments, as a “pre-High Court of Justice petition” gesture. Moreover, Israel allowed Nur to join her father for a few months, and now she is here, in Azariyeh. But 18-month-old Talin was not allowed to join her father. All for security reasons. Yihye says that his problems began when the Shin Bet security services wanted to recruit him as a collaborator and he refused. Since then he has been refused permission to leave.

Now Yihye is sitting in the offices of the new community center in Azariyeh that he runs on a voluntary basis. Nur is still confused by the new person in her life and the foreign landscape, and Nibin chirps from Jordan on her MIRS every few minutes to ask if everything is all right. Oh, the Israeli occupation.

Yihye Bassa is a Hebrew-speaking businessman, who buys dates in the Arava and the Beit She’an Valley and sells them in the West Bank and in Gaza with an Israeli partner. His paternal grandmother was Jewish. When he was still allowed to travel to Jordan, he had a company there too, which bought dates in Iraq and sold them in Jordan. Six years ago he married Nibin, a Palestinian from Jordan. Yihye divided his life between Amman and Azariyeh. Nibin has submitted several requests for an Israeli visa at the embassy in Amman – and was refused with the explanation that she is too young. The couple ran their lives with interruptions, in their home in Jordan. Yihye’s parents, his family and his business are here.

Four years ago, when Yihye was once again making his way to his wife and his business, he was arrested on the Allenby Bridge: Banned from crossing. Why? he asked. “Take a note, return to the area and go to the Shin Bet.” Yiyhe went to the Shin Bet and there, he says, “Captain Yariv” told him: “Help us – and we’ll help you.” He told them: “Why should I help you? I have money, work, what deal would I make with you?” In short: He refused an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Yariv tried again: “Go to your family, come and we’ll talk,” and again: “Help us and we’ll help you.” For the next two years, Yihye was prevented from traveling to Jordan. He turned to the civil rights organizations and with the help of his attorney, to the military court in Beit El. Meanwhile their daughter Nur was born in Jordan; Yihye did not see her. Two years later the court allowed him to travel to Jordan and he once again visited with his wife and daughter. Nur was already two years old when she saw her father for the first time. After two visits – he was refused again.

This time, he says, security people offered to let him go for four years, without the possibility of returning. Yihye refused this temporary expulsion. In 2005 he was arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a collaborator. He was released on bail. Yihye says that it was a false arrest.

Exactly a year ago, in February 2006, they came to his house to arrest him again. This time he was placed in administrative detention for half a year, without a trial, and as is usual in administrative detentions, the reason is unknown. Yihye is an avowed Fatah activist, but his attorney, Walid Zahalka, says that he is not involved in terror. Half a year ago, he was released from detention. Last week the judge, Major Dror Sabrensky, ordered the erasure of the indictment against him, because of which he was arrested the first time, File 3405/05.

Upon his release from detention, he wanted once again to travel to Jordan, to visit his wife and daughters. In Amman, meanwhile, Talin was born, and he had never seen her. Again they offered to let him go for four years, without the possibility of returning, and again he refused. He is unwilling to cut himself off from his parents and his business dealings, his home is here. His attorney demanded one of two things: either he should be allowed to leave, or his wife should be allowed to enter.

In contacts between his attorney and the authorities, before turning to the High Court, the state prosecutor made a creative suggestion: a meeting on the bridge. Attorney Raanan Giladi of the State Prosecutor’s Office wrote on January 17, in the name of the State of Israel:

“Urgent. Re: Pre-High Court of Justice petition 562/06.

1. As you have been informed orally, the state is willing to allow a meeting between the petitioner and his family who live in Jordan.

2. The meeting will take place at the Allenby Bridge terminal, tomorrow, January 18, 2007.

3. We have been informed in writing by the manager of the Allenby Bridge terminal, Mr. Gideon Shikloush, that the meeting on the aforesaid date has been approved and that an appropriate place will be allocated for the purpose.

4. According to the details you have sent us, the family members who will be able to meet are as follows: Yihye, Nibin, Nur and Talin.

5. In case unexpected difficulties arise, we can be contacted by phone.”

In the morning Yihye got up and went to the bridge to meet his wife, his elder daughter, whom he had met twice, and his younger daughter, whom he had never met. At the terminal he was greeted by Sammy, who said he would take care of everything. But Sammy had an exam at Tel Aviv University and he soon disappeared. Yihye waited for three hours on the Israeli side, Nibin and the girls waited for three hours on the Jordanian side, until at about 1 P.M. they started walking toward one another. Yihye wanted to buy refreshments for his wife and daughters in the cafeteria on the Israeli side, but he was not allowed to do so, he says. They were placed in the VIP room at the terminal and were allowed to stay together until 4 P.M. Three hours after two years, quality time for the parents and the girls. “Nur knows me. She knows who I am. The little one doesn’t know who I am,” he said dryly.

When the meeting ended, Yihye wanted to take the girls with him for a visit to Azariyeh. No problem, they told him, but after a little while things became complicated: Nur could stay with her father, but only starting the next day. Not today. Why? Because. And how would he come to take her? And how would she cross the bridge alone? Only Nur, who has a Palestinian passport, could cross. Little Talin does not yet have a passport, a Palestinian passport can be issued only in the territories, and that’s why she can’t come in. A “catch-22.”

Yihye called Asaf, whose phone number appeared on the state prosecutor’s letter, in case “unexpected difficulties arise.” But in vain. Not today and not Talin. Nibin cried and Nur, who was promised that she would go with Daddy, also cried. He returned alone and despondent to his house in Azariyeh, without his younger daughter, without his elder daughter.

The spokesman for the Civil Administration, Captain Tzidki Maman: “From an investigation, it turns out that for security reasons resident Yihye Bassa is forbidden by security factors to travel to Jordan. As far as the entry of his wife and daughters, in the existing lists we found no documentation of requests to enter to visit the region. If requests are submitted in the usual manner, they will be examined in accordance with the instructions and the existing policy, with an emphasis on the humanitarian circumstances.”

Attorney Zahalka dismisses the response of the spokesman: “That’s nonsense. After all, we asked for one of the two, either that he be allowed to leave, or that his wife be allowed to enter.”

The end of the story: Last week Yihye’s mother went to Jordan, and on Shabbat she returned with her granddaughter Nur to Azariyeh, for a first visit with her father. Talin is still refused entry, as is her mother. Yihye pulls out three pictures from an envelope: His wife and his two daughters. Now Nur is playing with the computer in the pleasant and spacious community center run by her father, which was built with money from the German government, and asking where her mother is. This week her father registered her for the kindergarten in Azariyeh, until she goes back to her mother in Jordan. Occasionally the MIRS chirps and asks: “How is the child doing?”

Haaretz: “A mother’s resistance”

by Ofri Ilani, February 14th

Laila El-Haddad’s blog took shape in a very unusual way. Her son, Yousuf, was less than a year old when she returned to her Gaza home from a visit to the United States, where her husband, Yassine, lives. The blog, “Raising Yousuf” (a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com), had just begun, and it dealt with common child-raising experiences, mainly first syllables and words.

“It was initially purely about Yousuf and his milestones and shenanigans … Then one day, I think it was December 2004, on my way back to Gaza via Egypt, Rafah Crossing was shut down, rendering Yousuf and I refugees in Egypt. We ended up waiting a total of 55 days for the border to open, never knowing whether that day would be tomorrow or the next day or one month or one year. It was a very stressful time for us, and we hardly knew anyone in Cairo. So I began to write about our experiences waiting together on my blog.”

“Gradually,” she says, “the blog was transformed into reflections about how the occupation has become very personal for Palestinians. How it affects us not only as Palestinians or doctors or journalists, but also as mothers and fathers and children, to the very last mundane detail of how we live our lives.”

The details of Yousuf’s first months became a diary describing life in Gaza from the inside, one of the few being written in Gaza in English.

“Dear Mr. Peretz,” she wrote in an open letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz in November 2006, “My son Yousuf, 2 years and 9 months, would like me to inform you that he wants to enter Gaza. He has asked me to tell whoever it is who is keeping it closed to open the border for him immediately.”

For three weeks they waited in El Arish, Egypt, in an apartment they rented, along with thousands of other waiting Palestinians. “How is it that when waiting for passage through borders, time is suspended, yet somehow the rest of the world goes on living?” she writes. “How is it that all sense of time and belonging and life comes to a standstill here I cannot understand. We’ve packed and unpacked our bags a dozen times … sometimes things work in reverse here: last time we were stuck for 55 days in Egypt; the day we decided to buy more than a daily portion of food, the border opened.”

To crouch or run

Al-Haddad, 29, was born in Kuwait to parents from Gaza City and Khan Yunis. After a few years in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where her parents worked as doctors, the family returned to Gaza. When she finished high school, she moved to the U.S. and completed a master’s degree in public policy. There she met Yassine, who became her husband. In 2003, at the height of the second intifada, she returned to Gaza and started freelancing for several newspapers, and later for the Al Jazeera English Web site.

In the meantime, she says in an interview conducted via e-mail, it turned out that “I had access to a place that gradually became one of the world’s most isolated – now even off-limits to veteran Israeli journalists. So I realized I was in a unique niche and tried to make the most of it … it also entailed enormous risk. I was newly pregnant with Yousuf, and I worried about working as a journalist in a dangerous environment that also happened to be my home, and also about the quality of health care should, God forbid, something happen … And on more than one occasion, I found myself in the line of Israeli fire, having either to crouch for cover until the shooting stopped, or run.

“You want to shelter your children as long as possible – but at a certain point, you can no longer do that,” she says. “For Yousuf, some of his first words were ‘infijar’ (explosion) – and even ‘Hamas’ (when he would see rallies and came to recognize the green flag) – when he was only 18 months. In the end, though undeniably tasking and torturous, being able to live between two vastly different societies has been ultimately rewarding.”

The main reason why she repeatedly had to pass through the Rafah crossing is that her husband, Yassine, cannot enter Gaza. “Yassine is a Palestinian refugee; his family is originally from Haifa. In today’s world and especially I think within mainstream Israeli circles, that title is like the plague. This meant of course that not only was he denied a right of return to his native land, but also that he was denied entry with Yousuf and me into Gaza if he ever had a break and wanted to visit us. This is because Israel has stopped issuing family reunification and residency cards/ID cards to Palestinians for several years now, prior to the second intifada. We had hoped this would change after they ‘disengaged’ from Gaza, but in fact they continue to control the population registry there and therefore our ability to live and travel together as a family.”

Refugee chats

The restriction on movement makes online communication especially vital. “If I can’t reach people in the West Bank, Jerusalem or Israel, then I can reach them through my blog,” she says.

She says Gaza Web users face considerable infrastructure problems. However, the Internet helps unify the dispersed people. “Accessibility is not as far-reaching … But local calls add up … The youth use it a lot to chat in local forums and on more global messenger programs.”

Several refugee camps have Internet cafes, some of them sponsored by projects where youth connect with one another online, such as the Across Borders project. Established by Birzeit University, it aims to connect refugees.

“But it also does more than that,” says El-Haddad. “It creates a psychological connection between members of a nation that would otherwise never see each other or know each other’s parallel – but completely remote – experiences.”

Al-Haddad says her blog is a form of “virtual resistance” to the occupation. She says she receives many responses, including from Israelis.

“Some have been very vitriolic and hateful, to the point where I’ve had to initiate comment moderation. I’ve had people say: ‘Yousuf’s a beautiful boy; it’s too bad he has such a horrible mother who is raising him to become a suicide bomber like all other Palestinians.’ It makes you realize you are throwing yourself out there as cannon fodder, and you have to learn to live with the consequences of putting yourself out there like that. That is the price you pay for opening your door to the world.”