Siri is depressed. Not just depressed because of her family problem, but clinically depressed. She has tried various medications, but today she can’t shake the feeling that her spirit is being drained out of her. It is hard to hear.
I know Siri because I stayed with her several years ago when she and her family hosted me for the olive harvest program. Shortly after that the family was forced by Israeli residency regulations to move from their centrally located and beautiful home in Biet Sahour, West Bank, to an apartment just outside the town and inside the city limits of Jerusalem.
The story is a bit complex, and key to understanding it is to know that both Siri and her husband hold Jerusalem IDs. However, their 21 year old, law-student daughter, Yara, has no identity documents - no birth certificate and no other I.D. Because of this, she can’t get a driver’s license or passport, travel outside of the West Bank, nor apply for a job. The family has been pursuing every possible avenue to resolve this serious problem.
You see, Yara was born in a West Bank hospital - not a Jerusalem hospital - so Israel does not want to give her a Jerusalem ID. Israel considers Jerusalem to be part of Israel and will not issue a Jerusalem ID to a West Banker. “So, Siri,” I asked, “did you know this would be a problem when you went to a West Bank hospital to give birth?” “What West Bank hospital!” she exclaimed. “I just went to the nearest hospital. This law didn’t exist then.” The shifting sands of Israel’s regulations and laws are meant to trick Palestinians into situations that further restrict their lives, in hopes they will decide to leave.
Trying to evade such “control by bureaucracy”, Siri and her husband continued to live in the family home in Beit Sahour even after Israel declared that Jerusalemites must be able to prove that the center of their lives is in Jerusalem. To the contrary, their Jerusalem ID will be revoked. The value of such an ID is that with it you can travel into Israel and into the West Bank. That is, you have some freedom of movement. West Bankers cannot travel to Jerusalem or into Israel without a military permit.
For the last four years the family has been consumed by the issue of Yara’s lack of documents.
So, while Siri has a clinical depression which requires medication, she has a situational depression for which there is no medication. Meanwhile she has a very responsible job as director of a center for severely disabled adults, ages 16 and up. It may be the only such agency in the southern West Bank, yet can serve only 20 clients. There is no turnover nor age limit. “We can’t turn them out just because they are getting older. Where would they go?” As a fellow social worker, I understand.
Parents pay 300 shekels (about $85) a month for this service, though there are 4 subsidized clients. The center has other funding, from the Mennonites, for example, and a beautiful outdoor, sheltered gym donated by the San Francisco-based Middle East Children’s Alliance. The center is well equipped and staffed by 6 professionals. Issa, a physical therapist, showed me their sound and light therapy room, the PT room, the kitchen, activity rooms, greenhouses and woodworking shop. Impressive and welcoming. Issa is a graduate of Bethlehem University’s four-year physical therapy program and has been working here for 6 years.
Siri’s story is not over. Two days ago their rehab specialist was arrested from his home during an Israeli military raid in a Bethlehem refugee camp. ( Such arrests are usually political in nature and ignore that Israel does not have security authority inside the city.) The Israelis will hold him for 18 days without notifying anyone of the charges against him. Eighteen days that the center will not have its professional therapist. After 18 days, he might be charged or he might be held for six months without charges. The center will pay him the rest of this month’s salary and then, depending on the outcome, may have to start looking for a replacement.
“You cannot make plans for the future. This is our future.” Siri forced a smile.
