Rania’s story

http://fasttimesinpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_1680.jpg

Little Lusan, born while her father was in prison

Dear friends,

Many of you know about my friend Rania in Tulkarem. She’s from Jayyous, and she’s a major character in my book. I helped raise money for her to finish her education, and a few years ago she fulfilled her dream of graduating from the Open University in Qalqilia with a degree in psychological counseling.

Shortly before graduating, she married a man named Sharif, a poor but kind man who lost his parents when he was young and never finished high school. He was incredibly supportive of Rania’s education, and they had a beautiful baby boy named Karim in 2007.

Two years later she was pregnant with a little girl, and Sharif secured a permit to work in Israel so he could finish building their house and support his growing family.

Then… disaster struck. Before her husband even had a chance to use his permit, he was brutally arrested in the middle of the night by armed Israeli soldiers who beat him in front of his pregnant wife and child and took him away without explanation. (The harrowing story is told here.)

He was held without charge, trial, or telephone call, and it was days before she learned the reason he had been arrested: He was accused of stealing cars in Israel. Rania could only laugh when she found out. He had never even been to Israel. But she wasn’t laughing when they handed down his sentence: one year behind bars.

A full year without his wife, without his son, without being there for the birth of his daughter. Even worse, a year without being able to provide for his family...

To read on, and view more pictures of Rania's adorable kids, visit: Rania’s Story @ Fast Times in Palestine

Happy holidays to you and yours,

Pamela

Pamela Olsen is the author of Fast Times in Palestine. MW reviews of her book can be found here and here, by Hatim Kanaaneh .

Unsolicited editorial note: FTIP makes for an awesome holiday gift, especially for the youth in your family, highly recommended ..Annie Robbins (Hat tip Marsha Holmquist)

About Pamela Olson

Annie Robbins is Writer at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, Occupation, On the ground reports

{ 16 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. RE: “…her husband…was brutally arrested in the middle of the night by armed Israeli soldiers who beat him in front of his pregnant wife and child and took him away without explanation.” ~ Pamela Olson

    MY COMMENT: Obviously, Israel is an existential threat to the institution of marriage!

    • Chaos4700 says:

      Well, any marriage involving people who are non-Jewish. (Or non-straight…)

      • RE: Well, any marriage involving people who are non-Jewish. (Or non-straight…) ~ Chaos4700

        SOME JEWS* AS WELL: Russian Jews defy Israeli rabbis’ ban on marriage, by Jonathan Cook, The National (U.A.E.), 08/06/11

        (excerpts) TEL AVIV // Two immigrants from the former Soviet Union staged a very public wedding in the streets of central Tel Aviv this week to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews barred from lawfully marrying in Israel. Nico Tarosyan and Olga Samsovatov chose to tie the knot in a special ceremony on Tuesday – watched by family, friends and curious passers-by – after Orthodox rabbis had denied them the right to wed. The rabbinate says that Mr Tarosyan cannot prove he is Jewish according to its strict standards and therefore should not marry Ms Samsovatov, who is considered a proper Jew…
        …An underclass of Jews has emerged in Israel since the early 1990s, when more than one million immigrants began pouring into Israel following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Many were entitled to emigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, which requires only that they have a single Jewish grandparent. But the authorities – keen to bolster the number of Jews in Israel’s demographic battle with the Palestinians – also allowed some to arrive with little documentation or faked papers…
        …Israel has passed control of all matters relating to personal status – births, marriages and divorces, and deaths – to rabbis belonging to the strictest stream of Judaism, Orthodoxy….
        …Official figures show that as many as 350,000 Jews are classified by the rabbinate as having “no religion”, and are therefore unable to marry in Israel. Their only option is to wed abroad – the marriage is then recognised on their return…

        ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to thenational.ae

        * Some Jews are “more equal” than other Jews!

  2. Taxi says:

    And the zionists’ have the nerve to complain about Qaddafi and Ahmadinejad!

    I’m sick of Apartheid israeli sadism.

    And hearing ’bout stories like the above just makes me wanna fight for Palestinian freedom EVEN HARDER!

  3. DanMazella says:

    Taxi, are you sick of Palestinian sadism.
    Read.
    link to frontpagemag.com

  4. DanMazella says:

    Israeli children- victims of terror
    link to youtube.com
    A must see for Taxi and Annie.

  5. DanMazella says:

    Annie, their is no occupation. It was never Pal land to begin with.
    There was never any state called Palestine governed by Palestinians.
    But lets take it from your point of view.
    Last month Saeb Erekat confirmed Olmert had offered a final peace settlement in 08, that would include territorial concession equivalent to the entire West Bank and the division of Jerusalem.
    The Palestinians also control 100% of Gaza.
    Erekat also admitted the Europeans showed him maps that showed Jews only live on 1.5% of the West Bank. Yes, only 1.5% of the West Bank.
    Which proves to any left wing person the only state the Palestinians want is Israels.

    link to israelnationalnews.com
    Fatah Recognizes Israel? Not According to PA
    In more double talk from the Palestinian Authority, its ambassador to India says Fatah does not recognize Israel anymore than Hamas.
    Elad Benari
    12/2/2011

    Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party is generally seen as the more moderate of the Arab factions and is seen as a “partner for peace” with Israel.

    Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party is generally seen as the more moderate of the Arab factions and is seen as a “partner for peace” with Israel.
    However, that notion may be completely off, according to comments recently made by the PA’s Ambassador to India, Adli Sadeq.

    In an article he wrote in the official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on November 26, Sadeq admitted that Fatah does not respect Israel anymore than Hamas does, and that moreover, the PA and Fatah utterly reject that Israel has any right to exist.

    Sadeq’s comments were translated by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) research institute and presented on its website.

    According to Sadeq, Israelis “have a common mistake, or misconception by which they fool themselves, assuming that Fatah accepts them and recognizes the right of their state to exist, and that it is Hamas alone that loathes them and does not recognize the right of this state to exist. They ignore the fact that this state, based on a fabricated [Zionist] enterprise, never had any shred of a right to exist…”

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