Hanna and Her Non-Existant Daughter

I am jumping ahead in my somewhat chronological journaling to tell you what I experienced today, a story of one family's encounter with Israel's attempts to drive Palestinians away or to make them literally invisible.

When I called Hanna, she was happy to hear from me after my year's absence from Palestine. She invited me to visit her, but said she would have to come pick me up because she no longer lived in Beit Sahour on account of her daughter's identity papers. I wanted to ask why this move from her family home where I had stayed last year, but there was only time to make our arrangements to get together the next day.

When she came to get me, she wanted first to show me her workplace, where she is director of a facility that serves severely retarded adults. I was impressed with the quality and number of services for their 16 clients, but more about that later. As soon as we got back in Hanna's car, I started to try to make sense of the family's problem. But in fact it makes so little sense that Hanna herself had difficulty explaining it. Her 18 year old daughter, Yara, who has just begun her first year of law school at An Najah University in the North, has no identity papers, which means she doesn't exist.  The family has had to move to the Israeli side of the Green Line in order to start the process of establishing Yara's existence by getting her an ID.

The move happened just 20 days ago, and Hanna is exhausted and angry. Listening and to her and asking many clarifying questions, I learned that Yara has no birth certificate, apparently because she was born in the West Bank to a father who has a Jerusalem ID. Without papers, Yara cannot get a passport nor any other document, including a college diploma. In exasperation Hanna said, "Last night I was crying. You can't make plans for the future. There is no hope. Why do we have to move out of our home, away from our friends and neighbors, far from my son's school and my work. and pay rent and taxes that are far higher than even Israelis pay?" Hanna is angry, but she has made the move for her daughter's sake

While the neighborhood they moved to is inside Israel, it is inhabited by Palestinians, who are second class citizens of Israel and cannot get building permits. Hence, the very building Hanna and family have moved into, could receive a demolition order any day. BUT, they must reside in it for two years before they will hear from Israel as to whether their application for an ID is successful or not. Hanna herself will also apply because otherwise the family will not be able legally to live together in the same place. Meanwhile, Hanna lives illegally in her new apartment!