Alia, an aspiring young writer who happens to have been born in Gaza, wonders if anything would be left in her if all her pain were to disappear. But she still believes there’s beauty behind it. Her voice must be heard above the bombs.
Iris Keltz relates: “Forced to wait three days for a visa allowing me to cross the U.N. checkpoint into Jerusalem, Israel–– gave me the chance to meet a handsome young Palestinian poet, musician, and world traveler. After a whirlwind courtship of less than three weeks, we married and were planning a honeymoon when war broke out. The day Israeli soldiers barged into a basement apartment in Ramallah where were hiding, I was afraid––afraid for my life, afraid the soldiers would not recognize me as Jewish, and surprised these Jewish soldiers invoked such terror. I meant to cry out, “I’m Jewish, American, and these are my friends.” But I spoke no Hebrew, and they spoke no English, so I remained silent. My silence that day inspired me to write this book.” Her memoir, “Unexpected Bride: In the Promised Land” was published earlier this year.
Iris Keltz was shocked when she first heard leaders of the Jewish community in Albuquerque denounce the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement started by Palestinians. “Call me naive, but considering Israelis had been living under the threat of bombs exploding on buses, in shopping malls, restaurants, and other public places, there should have been a collective sigh of relief when Palestinian civil society chose a non-violent means to resist a fifty year old military occupation.”
The ancient Palestinian village of Susiya, in the south Hebron hills faces the threat of demolition by the Israeli military. This is not the first time the village had been threatened, but this time Israeli officials are under international pressure, including the United States. Israel’s High Court will decide whether or not to implement another demolition decree, but Iris Keltz writes the real fate of Susiya rests in the court of world opinion.
Iris Keltz reflects on the 49th anniversary of the 1967 war: “Yesterday Israelis celebrated Jerusalem Day, Yom Yerushalayim, a day commemorating the reunification of the Old City under Israeli control control. I too mark this day on my calendar but in a different way. When the Israelis were euphorically celebrating their victory I was experiencing the fear of war and the humiliation of defeat. I may have been the only Jewish person who was living with a Palestinian family during that war.”
“In the summer of 1967 I cast my fate to the wind and hitchhiked from Paris to Jerusalem hoping to live on an Israeli kibbutz, but a caprice of fate found me welcomed and married into a Palestinian family within weeks of my arrival in East Jerusalem, Jordan.” — Iris Keltz reflects on the 48th anniversary of the 1967 war in an excerpt from her forthcoming book, ‘Unexpected Bride in the Promised Land.’
Matzoh (Photo: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt) Matzoh, the Jewish bread of affliction, has a historical narrative…