00:00:00ج: عندي اسئلة عن فلسطين وعن الوضع في فلسطين.
كيف الوضع في فلسطين خلال الانتفاضة الأولى،
كيف الوضع؟
Wafa: Ok, well, like I said previously the First Intifada was like really
something new for all Palestinian people. We used to have like problems ...
stuff going on once in a while between, you know, the Israeli people and the
Palestinian. But, it wasn't that bad. We were able to go to Jerusalem, to
Al-Aqsa Mosque and pray if we want to and almost everyday. Um, Friday prayers
was open, but as soon as the intifada started, like I said, a lot of killing, a
lot of dead people from both sides; but, Palestinian more because they had no
00:01:00weapons. The only weapon that was available is just rocks. Sometimes, maybe
knives in case; but, they never got in like really close contact. So, they had
weapons [the IIsraelis] and they used to just fire against, you know,
Palestinian people. They closed, as I said, they closed the schools,
universities, transportation between, you know, cities. They would put
checkpoints to prevent from going. Like, let's say I have relatives in Nablus or
in Hebron, people were not able to communicate or see each other and it kept
getting worse and worse. Of course, it's still the same right now; now Jerusalem
is blocked. If you carry a Palestinian - if you're carrying a U.S. passport but
00:02:00you're carrying a Palestinian passport, still you're not allowed to enter
Jerusalem; it's blocked. If you are under the age of 55, you're not allowed.
Yeah, you can't. Even though if you give them your American passport, and show
them that 'okay I'm carrying an American passport, can I go?' No, you have a
(هوية) or ID , a Palestinian passport so we treat you as Palestinian, not
American.But on the other hand, if you are like a U.S. citizen, born here, like
my kids, and they don't have an ID, or my husband, he's Jordanian but, he never
had a Palestinian ID or a Palestinian passport. When he enters Palestine, he's
00:03:00fine, he's respected, he's welcomed, no issues, no questions asked; you can go
to Jerusalem, you can do whatever you want, because of your American passport.
But on the other hand, I have a sister who lives there but she has an American
passport, but she has a Palestinian passport also. She cannot go to Jerusalem at
all, at all! You have to apply for a special permission from the Israeli
government in order for you to go and they give you a permission maybe for one
day, maybe for three days, maybe for a week. It depends. If they like you or see
that your like okay he's fine okay we give him like three days or no you're
rejected you can't. So it's up to them, basically they control everything. They
control the borders, they control the airport, and now none of the Palestinian
00:04:00people who have a Palestinian passport allowed to go to Ben Gurion Airport.
Which is Tel Aviv. They're not, not allowed. They have to go through like what
they call it, something really really horrible because they have to go to Jordan
first and then you have to go through all the Jordanian airport and everything
and then drive from Jordan, from Amman Airport, to Jericho where the border is
and then cross the border and it's like um um really really tough because it
takes you sometimes six, seven hours just sitting in the buses waiting for them
to open up, you ...
Munjid: Very hot. Very hot.
W [continued]: to open and say--. and you know Jericho? how hot it is, very hot
there. Sometimes they keep people in the bus for six, seven hours. And they'll
00:05:00be like just sitting there doing nothing. Whatever they feel like they want to
let that bus go, they'll let them in and then you have to go through their
security, their checkpoints, and then after that you have to go past the
Palestinian security, and the Palestinian check-up in Jericho and then go to
your destination, where you want to go.
Hanada: So, in spite of all of this, you still go back and visit.
W: Yes. Yes! [enthusiastically]!
H: Why?
W: Because it's my country, it's my land. They will never, they will never take
me out from there. They will never delete my roots, this is my roots. That's my
country. That's my place. Those are my olive trees, that's my house, my family's
house, they will never. Every year when I go to Jordan, I still cross the border
and take my kids, my husband, and go. My kids visited Jerusalem every time I go.
We go everyday to Jerusalem. They pray in Al-Aqsa. They know their roots. They
00:06:00know my village, where I grew up. They know their dad's village where their dad
grew up and they will still, even though we are all American citizen and we
carry the American passport, but we are Palestinians and we are proud of our
origin and our country because that's our land. They keep saying it is their
land. It's not, it's not! And they keep saying Palestinian people are killing
Israeli people when they're fighting. How you feel if you are sitting in your
house and somebody comes and kick you out and take over your house that you've
built and you've been living all your life in it? How would you feel? Right?
It's really tough, and the problem is the media all over the world, does not
show all this. I have a lot of American friends, a lot of very nice friends, a
00:07:00lot of neighbors that they're really nice. When I moved to this neighborhood, my
next door neighbor, she didn't even know anything about Palestine. She knew
Israel; she just said Israel. I sat with her for probably at least 4 hours, and
I explained to her everything and she was shocked. She was in tears. She was
like [incomplete sentence] 'you know what --' - I showed her videos. I showed
her a lot of videos, a lot of YouTube, a lot. I was like 'here, just look at
this' and she was in tears. She was like 'you know what, we're blocked here, we
don't see anything, we don't see the real world'. They think Palestinian people
like killing, or like fighting? No, we love peace, we love to live in peace, you
know. A lot of people, if you look around and see the whole world, you'll find
Palestinian in every single country. Why? Because they're running away. A lot of
people they can't, they can't stay there. But still, even if we live like 20,
00:08:0030, 40 years abroad, we still want to go back to our country. It's our country,
it's our land, it's our spot.
H: So moving back and forth in time, you are Palestinian Arab-American at the
same time. Could you please talk about the challenges that you've faced as an Arab-American?
ه: [الى منجد] ونفس السؤال: ما هي التحديات
التي تواجه العرب الأمريكيين في أمريكا الآن؟
W: Okay, well, since I moved honestly, the first challenge that we faced was the
language. Language barrier. You will be like when you come here-- we learn
English, we learned English in schools. But, we learned like the British
English. You know, like the real real like accent and real English language. And
we will come here and say like we will hear somebody say "water" [wad-der] and
we will be like 'what is he saying?'
00:09:00
M: (Laugh)
W: You know? Honestly, like what? Water? [wad-der?] We say 'wa-ter', you know,
'Wat-ter' (emphasis on the T in water). Because this is how we learned it. So
that was one of like the challenges that we faced, that I faced, when we moved
here. I could still understand most of that language but it was kind of really
tough at the beginning. But, once you know I got involved with work and started
studying and-- I, you know, I got it, so -- it was-- it got easier and easier.
Like, the first year, when I moved here absolutely it's not like today, after
like 25 years. One of like the biggest challenge that I faced was September 11.
We got married, me and him, we got married September 9th, 2001, Sunday.
M: Two days before September 11.
W: And it was in Chicago, our wedding was in Chicago. September 11, of course
00:10:00Tuesday, and I had off work for like three weeks because of the wedding and that
week was a horrible week. We, I - I couldn't leave the house, because in
Chicago, because it's not like Columbus. I did not have anything in Columbus,
but in Chicago because there was a lot of Arabic people, a lot of Muslim
committee, they got attacked. Like in Walgreens, at school, in grocery stores--
a lot of Muslim people - ladies, got attacked. Either verbal, or people will
snatch their headscarves, call them really nasty words ... so that week was
really horrible, because we just stayed home. We didn't want to go anywhere,
because we were so scared because people just got the idea that Muslim did it. A
Muslim did it, you know what I mean, Muslim. So this is all what they caught, I
00:11:00don't blame them [Americans] for their behavior honestly, because if I was in
their spot I would maybe do the same thing, I don't know. So probably they were
also scared, worried, that was tough. But honestly, my manager called me to
check on me and as soon as I came back to work the head manager came to the
counter at the pharmacy and I really appreciate, I will never forget his words.
He came and he said, 'Listen Wafa, you are, first of all, you are a human. You
are one of our employees and if anybody at work, or any customer, or anybody
approach you with any kind of, you know, wording or behavior, please let us
know. You are family and you are protected' and I was so happy to hear those
00:12:00words, because it made me feel comfortable and it made me feel that even though
I'm a Muslim, but they're accepting me. They're not rejecting me being Muslim.
James Fennessey: Did you have any, like, did you have any other experiences like
that during that time like this?
W: No, myself no, but, I know a friend that she got attacked at Walgreens in
Chicago, verbally and they snatched her scarf and just left her, you know, um--
Yeah, that was that was awful, that made me really scared that week that I told
my husband I was like ok we're not going anywhere, we're just staying home, you
know, yeah we stayed home, because it was really tough. It was tough. After that
honestly I did not like have anything that made me feel you know, not acceptable
maybe at work or with friends, with neighbors, but I know that a lot of friends
00:13:00had really bad experience too so.
ج: منجد؟
(٠:٣٧) م: زي ما حكت وفاء اللغة، يعني لحد الآن
نواجه صعوبة اللغة يعني ]يضحك[ أكثر اثنين
كانوا مقربين اللي بدي أعتبرهم هم اللي
ضرّوني تقريباً. يعني أول ما جيت على شيكاغو
أخوي، الله يسهل عليه ويجيبه بالسلامة
انشالله، كان يساعدني كثير. نطلع على
المحلات، عندي مقابلة، عندي كرت "appointment" يروح
معي ويساعدني، ما خلاني ما قالي روح لحالك
اعمل دبر حالك اتكلم لطّش، ما فيه وضلينا على
هالحالة. ولمّا اتجوزت بعد ثلاث سنين برضو
الست وفاء: عندي موعد للدكتور يلا معي! عندي
موعد رخصة يلا معي! مافيه يعني ، فلحد الآن أنا
يعني الانجليزي بواجه صعوبة بالانكليزي.
W [interjects]: And his employees speak Arabic. so (laughter), so he has to
speak Arabic with them too.
م: عندي عمال كمان من العرب ونتكلم دائما
بالعربي والحمدلله يعني .زي ما قالت يعني احنا
كانت اللغة اللي أخذناها بالبلاد كانت اللغة
البريطانية وما عرفنا لمّا جينا هانا "واتس
آب" و"هاي" يعني ما كنا نعرف اللغة هذه كلها
سبحان الله. بنسلك حالنا بنطلع بنتكلم لكن مش
هذيك اللغة.
ج: ليش اللغة البريطانية؟
م: الأردن
W: It's the system ... That's the system in our schools, they teach you the--
J: But, why specifically, why British English over --
W: Ah, because in, before 1948 we had Britain that took over Middle East, like
for Jordan, Palestine it was Britain for Lebanon, Syria it was France, so now in
Lebanon and Syria the second language is French, but in Palestine and Jordan its
English so-- yeah that's
