Asma Jaber
Asma Samir Jaber is a Palestinian American graduate student of Public Policy at Harvard University where she is a Harry S Truman Scholar.
Asma Samir Jaber is a Palestinian American graduate student of Public Policy at Harvard University where she is a Harry S Truman Scholar.
Discrimination against Palestinians is alive and well in Israel, reminiscent of Jim Crow.
"Unbutton your pants," Sara, the stone-faced security agent at
Israel's Ben Gurion airport, told me. I sobbed, choking on my words, "My
dad was born in Nazareth."
"Lift your shirt," she continued.
"He's dying, and he can't return here," I mumbled. I thought of what my father looked like at that moment, bruised and broken from a drunk driver, unable to breathe on his own, and helpless in a hospital bed in South Carolina.
As the daughter of Palestinian refugees, it was already a harrowing experience for me to make my way from my father's homeland, where I have been working, back to Travelers Rest, South Carolina, where he chose to raise us after he was forced from Nazareth by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and forced from Palestine altogether by the occupation of 1967.
"Lift your shirt," she continued.
"He's dying, and he can't return here," I mumbled. I thought of what my father looked like at that moment, bruised and broken from a drunk driver, unable to breathe on his own, and helpless in a hospital bed in South Carolina.
As the daughter of Palestinian refugees, it was already a harrowing experience for me to make my way from my father's homeland, where I have been working, back to Travelers Rest, South Carolina, where he chose to raise us after he was forced from Nazareth by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and forced from Palestine altogether by the occupation of 1967.
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