This is Margaret Purchase speaking and I'm recording the talk by Karen Henry

at Big Rapids Michigan March 24th 1994. I am an Arab Amercian that was

born and raised in Michigan. My grandparents come from Syria and Lebanon. I grew up in a household where you.

didn't learn to speak Arabic. And, we're all really sorry, but we've heard enough that we

begin to recognize some of the sounds as we study it. We certainly did grow up with very much of an Arab culture. And, with the Arab food, which

I maintain today is still the best food in the entire world. So, I did get a lot of growing up Arab. I made my first trip to the Middle East

10 years ago. And a little over ten years ago. And, have been to Lebanon once, and to Palestine and Israel three times, living and working in

Palestine in Jerusalem, for a Palestinian newspaper called El Hadja, which means The Dawn.

I'm not going to talk about the history of the region. I understand first of all that some of you are studying it and.

secondly, we don't have very much time. And, you want to engage some stuff

today. I will simply say a couple of things.

One is that Arabs have lived in Palestine for over two thousand years.

When Jews started going to Palestine due to a movement called Zionism and due to the atrocities committed by Hitler,

that they were accepted by the Arabs living there until they

had different designs on the area. The other thing I would like to

say about that is that the movement called Zionism, which is

often referred to as a religious movement, I think we should look at as

not a religious movement, but actually a political, nationalist movement. That, in

fact, the Jews who went to Palestine, went there for a place

to live. They went for security.

They went with a political ideology. They went believing they were going to a land without people and that they were the

people for that land. When they got there, they found out that wasn't the reality. And, Great Britain, which had a

mandate for the area, made promises to them that they couldn't keep and

promises to the Palestinians that they couldn't keep. So they were completing promises that created a lot of the strife that we have seen up till today.

Now in 1948 when Israel declared itself a state,

It's important for us to realize that the United States was the

first country to recognize the new

state of Israel. When you. If you have a flyer about my

talk. It says I am going to talk about Is peace and justice possible for 27 years of occupation to a massacre in

a mosque. And, I will talk about that. But I want to focus also

on perceptions that we have in this country about arabs. I will talk about

media coverage. First of all, occupation. Probably. The.

Most of us who live comfortably

in this country. So what does it mean to live under occupation. I will give you an example from

what I know, from how some of my friends have lived, and from what it was like for me to

live in a country that was under Israeli cccupation. This occupation

has gone on for almost twenty-seven years, which means that to the

majority of the population, people who are young like most of you in this room, that that is

all that they have ever known. They have only known life under occupation. Life under occupation

means you do not have the right to

vote. It means that schools can be closed by the military authority for

any reason whatsoever. And they can be closed for long periods of time.

A particularly insidious thing that has happened. A thing that has happened to students is that when the schools

are closed by military authority right before final exams.

Imagine it, if you are a student. It is time for final exams, and military authority

closes your school.You cannot take your exam.

You not only cannot take that, if the school opens in a month or too, you've got to go through that entire year of education again before you can take those exams.

Or at least wait for that entire year to elapse.

Palestinians are among the

highest educated people in the entire world. And, they take education seriously. Another thing that happens when you

live under occupation is you are subject to military curfew. You are subject to a phenomenon known as house demolition. Perhaps some of you have seen on the news

just recently. What that means is if one member of a family living in a home is suspected. I use the word suspected. Of

illegal activity that the occupying authorities can come in with bulldozers and bulldoze the home, b

efore the individual suspected of illegal activity

is tried in a court of law. This goes against international

law, but it happens on a daily basis. I was there to view a family, who was given thirty minutes to get out of their home before the bulldozers came. And, a

family in the Middle East is often more than the three point five people that it

is in America. It can be as many as seventeen that suddenly find themselves homeless.

Arrest, imprisonment, administrative detention are all part of

occupation. House arrest is another item that is part of occupation. House

arrest meaning that you cannot leave your home between sunset and

sunrise. If you've been watching CNN and

some of the other networks that have been talking about so-called peace accords and you've see some of

those spokespeople on the news--Hanan Ashrawi, Feisal Hussein.

When I was living in Jerusalem, I was part of a committee with Feisal Hussein

and other Palestinian and some Israeli Jews who were looking for

ways to work together and to work against the occupation. But Feisal Hussein

was under house arrest. So he couldn't leave his home. So we had no choice but to have our meetings at his home, which was often a great inconvenience. So he was under house arrest for

six months of the year that I was there.

Part of occupation means that

members can be exiled, Palestinians can be exiled from their land.

And that's all done illegal. It breaks up families. Another part of

occupation is that women are often subject to

sexual assault by Israeli soldiers and this is something that is not talked about, but it is something that does happen.

Land. Is stolen stolen. Settlements are built on the land. And another art of

daily life in the area for example like Gaza, which according

to some studies, is the most highly populated

area per capita in the world. If it is not the most highly populated, it

is extremely highly populated. It also happens

to be one of the poorest areas in the world. And, it is

one of the areas that the Israelis have intentionally neglected.

And, I think that they have neglected Gaza more than they have neglected any other area. Now, in

Gaza people live in what are called refugee camps. Now they are not tents. They

are actual buildings and they abut each other. And, the families that live in

those houses keep those houses spotless. They are spotlessly clean..

And, they do this without electricity. And, they do this without running

water in many cases. And, the people are spotlessly clean. Their clothes are clean.

The children are clean, but they

don't have, as I said, running water. They don't have sewage. What they have instead is the gullies, the open gullies in

some of the camps, where the sewage runs open. I was there one

summer during an especially hot day, a hundred and fifteen degrees.

And, the children are outside playing. And, it is really hot, and there is no running water, and the only

water running anywhere through the camp is running through the gullies and it is sewage. And, the children find it

irresistible to taste the water, and so they do occasionally. And, they get diseased. And, Israel, which is the occupying power, turns its back on them. So, these are examples of what life under occupation is like for the i

ndigenous population.

During the 27 years of occupation and during the Intifada, the

population hasn't just sat there and waited to be

arrested. What has been done during this period is build the infrastructure

of a society. There is a sliding legitimate

society. Palestinian society.

Education. There is kindergarten.Women especially deal with illiteracy. There are health services. Production.

They organized demonstrations. They do things like job training and I'm talking

about this in Gaza about one thing. Aside from the political organization

and the Palestine Liberation Organization. That this is the infrastructure of society that

has been worked up over twenty-seven years.

So with this backdrop, with that brief backdrop, we've got to the point where something

historic happened. And, it was

called the "Signing of the Declaration of Principles."

Story. And, what I like to call the historic handshake between Yassir Arafat and Izaak Rabin.

So. People, it seems, were so euphoric about the handshake. Two enemies actually shaking hands that

there wasn't very much analysis about what kind of a deal was this.

What exactly were they shaking hands on? Well in my personal opinion it was a very b

ad deal. Because it was an unequal deal and the Palestinians were coming

out low. But I also believe that bad deals can

turn out OK because, if your intention is good, and if the parties involved really care and work on it, things can turn out,

turn out for the best. Why was it a bad deal? It was a bad deal because at no point did

they talk about self-determination for the Palestinians. At no point, in other words, did

they talk about real freedom for the Palestinians. A Palestinian state was not mentioned. It was a bad deal because a lot of people were left out of the deal, particularly those who were living under armed occupation. It was a bad deal because

prisoners were not

part of the deal. The exiles were not part of the deal. Jerusalem was not part of the deal. Neither were the Palestinians in the diaspora. The economic issue the water issue, none of them was really dealt with.  On the other hand, t

here was something good about the deal.

Israel recognized the P.L.O. for the first time ever.

Jews and Palestinians in that land are talking to each other. They've always been talking to each other, but our media's never

really talked about it.

But now, they're talking to each other, and we are talking about them talking to each other.

Another good thing is that the P.L.O. is actually examining itself and realizing that perhaps it has got to make some changes. One of

the big problems

is that the USA, which is involved in these talks, is

extremely biased. And, we are going to talk about that next and has treated both parties as though they are spirits. And as though there is actual equality

between Israel and Palestine. And, in fact, there is no equality

of calling yet. There

is certainly the equality of color, but there certainly is no equality of power. and they cannot be treated as though there is.

So what that brings me to as a U.S.

citizen is born and raised in this country is. What is my responsibility? I am a taxpayer. Six billion

dollars a

year goes to Israel and I pay taxes for that.

So. What is it that has to do with me? Do I need to be responsible for this? What does our government represent when it gets involved in dealing conflicts?. Well, let us talk about the current government, w

hich is the Clinton administration, which actually happens to be the

worst administration in history of this country for Arabs, and especially for Palestinians. What has happened under the Clinton administration is that

United States dollars

have been used for settlements. And, settlements are supposed to be by

international law illegal. Previous administrations at least had the pretense of not using our tax dollars or grants and loan monies to Israel f

or an internationally illegal item like settlements, but this administration doesn't even bother with the pretense. This administration ignores international law

more than any previous administration.

This administration could just that Jerusalem actually belongs to Israel. And, there is no country in the world, including this country, that recognizes

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Jerusalem, the city, whose status is still to be negotiated.

There was a U.S. State Department report on Israeli settlements, which showed

that there was continued settling in east Jerusalem. That is against the law and past presidents, including Bush, approved for.  That does not mean I voted for George Bush, by the way. I voted for my

mother. Actually, I thought it would be nice to have an Arab woman president. A

nother thing that the Clinton administration has done. It has allowed the four hundred and fifteen

Palestinian exiles to

languish in Lebanon. It allowed this obvious breach of

international law to occur. And when the UN Security Council resolution

was about to get adopted, saying that this is an Illegal act, and the exiles needed to be returned immediately,

the United States with its power undercut the

resolution before it could read the board. And said. No. As long

as Israel lets them back a few at a time, even if it takes a year, that that

satisfies the letter of the law. It did not.

Disputed Territories. Now we have talked for years, for almost

27 years, about occupied territories, about the territories that are to be

negotiated. Territories Israel took in wars that n

eed to be returned, like the Sinai wa returned to Egypt. The West Bank and

Gaza are occupied territories. The only people who call the

occupied territories "disputed territories" are the Israeli Jews, who feel that they should not be  returned or people that also support

the fact that those territories belong to Israel. The

Clinton administration has been using the term "disputed territories."

I find this to be dishonest. The U.S. drafts papers on the peace accords,

because we were so involved in the peace accords that we

were drafting papers on how they should be worded and what should be said.

Never. Never call the territories occupied. Another thing about the Clinton administration is that

after the massacre in Hebron [Cave of the Patriarchs massacre]. The massacre of praying Muslims in a mosque. The President of the United States got up and

publicly said, "This was a gross act of murder, but

extremists on both sides are trying to derail the peace process." As though a similar

act had been perpetrated against

Israeli Jews praying by Palestinians. This

was an unconscionable statement and nobody called him on it. It was an unconscionable statement. What he

did was showed us that there is a

premium on a certain kind of life. And, the premium in this case is on the lives of our allies, the Jews and not on the lives of the Arabs

In addition, Clinton has surrounded himself with supporters of Israel. And, I use this term loosely

because I think that

a lot of people that are called supporters of Israel, actually don't have Israel's best interests at heart. Among them are Al Gore, who says that Israel, Israel

is America's best friend in the entire world.

The National Security Council Middle East desk is run by a man named Martin Indyk [Indyk, Martin Sean]. And Martin Indyk was at one time associated with AIPAC [America Israel Public Affairs Committee]. AIPAC

is the pro-Israel lobby in this country.

He also is a supporter of the Likud. The Likud is the Israeli

Party that is a very right wing, hardline party. And, he is running the Middle East desk at the National Security Council. Samuel Lewis [Lewis, Samuel Winfield] in the State Department is a former ambassador to Israel and is a

currently a

fundraiser for the Israeli government. Dennis Ross [Ross, Dennis B.] and Mickey Kantor [Kantor, Michael]. Dennis

Ross is involved in the negotiations and Mickey Kantor, who is the trade representative, and others

are all

AIPAC people. Now. There is something wrong with the

president getting all of his advice from people who have one vision.

If, in fact, these were some of his advisors and he

had other advisors, who said, "Look! You need to look at this side of the picture well,"

it would be a different story. But he doesn't.

We often said. And, we also send, as I told you earlier, six billion

dollars of aid to Israel per year with no

accountability. That is almost one third ot the total of the U.S. foreign aid package. And, we can't ask for accountability. I had Israeli Jewish friends, like Matthew  Kellot, who is a former

member of the Knesset. And these people write articles saying, "United States. Stop sending Israel so much money. It is not helping us at all."

It is allowing us to continue to defy international law. It's allowing us to

continue to prop up the military. And, it is allowing us to continue avoiding solving our problems. Ok. That's

the Clinton administration. That's the administration that did not respond in my estimation to the massacre at the mosque.

Now,when the massacre at the mosque occurred [Cave of the Patriarchs, February 25, 1994], the

first thing I did was try really hard to watch as much media coverage of it as I could. And, that's hard to do because sometimes it's difficult to watch..

And I found

that almost everybody was saying that this was the act of a lone gunman [Goldstein, Baruch Kopel]. One, demented person. And, it could never happen again. What I'd like to say is that this was a logical outcome of

27 years of occupation. That this was the logical outcome. And, first of all, I don't believe he acted alone. I think that he probably did not act alone.

But whether he did or didn't, it was still a logical act of state-sponsored terrorism. Of a

country that has a rule that says you can

never shoot a Jew, even if the Jew is shooting Palestinians. This is the logical outcome.

Settlers. The settlers are armed. And, they are almost always armed. And, they go everywhere with their arms. They go with their lavelier assault rifles and with their Uzis, and with their M-16s.  They

walk into the church of the Holy Sepulcher in the old city, carrying their guns.

Those of us, Jews, Arabs,

Americans, Brits. Those of us that see that, stay away,

because we fell that that is a very inflammatory thing. We don't want to be around these folks

carrying their weapons. They are always armed. Somewhere

violence has happened since the beginning, and it has never been stopped. In Hebron, where the massacre occurred and where Baruch Goldstein c

ame from, Kiryat Arba, which

I consider to be a Fascist settlement

It is a right-wing, hard-line Fascist settlement. He was a product of that settlement, and the

Israeli Jews who settled in that area would overturn crates in park in the market at Hebron. They would spray insecticide on the food. They would spit at people.

And, according

to Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, there were some eyewitnesses to watching

some of those Israelis Jews, who had passed by some Palestinians, who were burying one of their children, who was

shot by the military. And, they

walked past and shouted, "Mazel tov", which means "good luck and congratulations." And, this has been going on for a long

time.

Now in the midst of all that, in my criticism of the hard line settlers and of

the policies of the government. And, I do recall I criticize the Israeli government and the American government very strongly.

I would like to see them been and continue to be more than a handful

of Israeli Jews who are appalled by what is happening in their country. And, at great risk to themselves,  they have stood up,

spoken out about it, and taken as much action as they can.

And often found themselves in jail as a result. They need our support.

Now. How does the media cover all this? How am I doing on time? I tend to talk. How does the media cover this/  How does the media cover Arabs in general?

First of all. We're either a bomber

Or we're a billionaire or we're a belly dancer, and that's about

it. I mean you don't really see us as anything other than

one of those three  things. I've gone around throughout Michigan to speak. And, I am billed as an Arab American, because that is what I call myself, based on my pride, and also based on my necessity to say that. And, people expect me to be something other than what I am. And, they expect me.  First of all, they expect me to be veiled and not to be able to really talk

And, they don't expect me to say, to make any analysis or to be able

to interact with other people. We have to get past that. The problem with that is the tv novels, comics, cartoons, and movies show us as rich, ugly, if we are men

Sexually available, veiled virgins if we're women, but don't show as human. And, our leaders

In this country contribute to the atmosphere. People like Jeane Kirkpatrick,

who was representative to the United Nations, who say publicly that Arabs have a history of

violent politics. Henry Kissinger said publicly you

can't believe anything an Arab tells you. There was no outcry. That is unbelievable to me. CNN does a report. It does a report about Jewish kids and their response to this m

assacre [Cave of the Patriarchs]. And the Jewish kids in Israel.

say this massacre was awful. We've got to give up some land for peace. We don't want to keep living like this. They talked to

four or five groups of Jewish kids. And then they showed the final shot. And, the final shot is

children in Gaza. But nobody talks to the children in Gaza to ask how they felt. Why not?

And, the Grand Rapids Press, we see headlines like "Rabin remains steadfast." He remains steadfast

after Palestinians said, "Look. We've just had fifty of our people massacred, maybe more. And, we need some protection." And, he said, "No."

So. He's not called intransigent? He's called steadfast? I'm urging all of you, pay attention when you read the newspaper. Pay attention when you hear the news. Listen to those buzz words.

Find out what those buzz words do to you. If it says "terrorist," its dumb. But if it says, "soldier," it's us or our ally. "Us" meaning American. "

Hard line" is down. "Resolute"  is up. "Inflexible" is

down, but "firm" is up. Hear it after theirs. Ours is a tragic error. Now. We hear this stuff all the time, but we usually don't stop to analyze

how it makes us perceive the

news. And,we need to start doing that because, if we do that, we will perceive the news differently.  Those stereotypes and those kinds of headlines really hurt us.The CNN headline that the Israelis are on high alert. That's the headline. So, you immediately think

"Oh! My gosh! Something bad is happening to Israel.

What has

happened is that the Israelis shot into a crowd and wounded twenty Arabs. The headline is Israelis on high alert.

Something is wrong with that. How many people heard about what

happened at the funeral of Baruch Goldstein in Israel, when

another Israeli settler said,

One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.

Why was there not an outcry about that? There should have been an outcry about that. What I want to say is that those kinds of headlines lead to acts of

racism. And

those racist acts then get lost.

During the U.S.A. war against Iraq, what was called the Persian Gulf

War, I was walking into a shop in Grand Rapids. And, what I saw in a huge display with

teeshirts,

several teeshirts. And, all of them said the same thing. They said, "I'd fly ten thousand

miles to smoke a camel." And, in the center of the teeshirt was a circle. And, when I got closer, I realized that that circle was the sight of a gun. And, through the sight of the gun, there was an Arab sitting on the camel.

We talked, my friends here and I, talked to the man

who made that teeshirt. We said, "Would you have said that if it was, 'I'd fly ten thousand miles to smoke a Jew? Or a black?'  And, he said, "Oh, no! I've got my limits."

There's

something wrong with this and we're letting it happen.

There was another CNN. You can tell I don't like CNN. headline that says

That two Israeli soldiers were killed in the so-called security zone in Lebanon, an area where they are actually in illegal occupation. They were killed in the security zone

by supposedly Hezbollah. In retaliation, Israel shelled a market place, killing a twelve-year

old

girl and injuring twenty-two children. That item was disappeared from the news the next day. Try to put

any other group of people in there and

tell me, "Would that item have disappeared from the news the next day?" There is something wrong with this.

I. I've done a lot of speaking with a friend of mine who happens

to be an American Jew. And whenever we speak

People will say to me, now, you do believe in Israel's right to exist, don't you?  That, they do not want to hear me talk unless I say I believe in Israel's right to exist.

Nobody says to me, "You

do believe in Palestine's right to exist, don't you?" That is a double standard. And, it is a double standard we now take for granted.

I want to say a couple of things about hope, because I'm not leaving time for anybody to ask questions, because there are things to be hopeful about. And, one of them was

that my

Jewish friend and I wrote a letter to our newspaper

together after the massacre [Cave of the Patriarchs] in the mosque. And, we both sent it, and we talked

about it being a product of a violent society. And I think that that's something to feel hopeful about.

There are other things that make me feel hopeful. There was recently a World Day of Prayer by Church Women United.

And, the prayer service was written by Palestinian women. And it was very strong and very

beautiful and that was celebrated all over the world. We can also

celebrate the fact that there are Jews and Arabs who have been

friends and have talked

to each other for years. And, that they form alliances, and they do so no matter what the political situation is

There is a group of Jewish women called Women in Black, who every Friday stand in different squares in their country, pulling aside against the occupation

Even though they get yelled at and called whores of Arafat.

And they get spit at. That other people come up to them and

give them

flowers and give them fruit. And as they stay there every week. And they have done this for more, for more than a year.

more than a year. One final thing is.

That it is important that you all speak

out. That when you recognize this stuff that you speak out about it. It is important that we listen to the

voices of Arabs. I repeat. That it is important that we listen to the voices of Arabs. I took a class called "The Arab-Israeli Conflict" at the University of Michigan just a few years ago. Our list of r

eading material had three Israelis, six American Jews, not

one Arab. Something is wrong with this. This is a huge university.

You need to listen to the voices of Arabs. Arabs deserve to be heard, and it is up to us to ask them to talk. We have to object

to government policies, and above all. it was my proper call about is there any hope? Yeah. Is there any hope

for justice and peace?

There is. And one of the things that we can do is go right back to the United

Nations General Assembly, Article 19, adopted in

1948, which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wish I had the Declaration with me. But what it does, it affirms

the full

human rights of every single person on this planet. And if, in fact, you believe that and follow

international law. There will be some hope for justice and peace in the Middle East and maybe even here at home.

Questions? I know you've got like five minutes before a lot of us have to get out of here. Discussion, questions, comments? Announcements: One

of the organizations of Grand Rapids that my colleagues and I do work with is called

the Institute for Global Education. Middle East education project. The Middle East Education Project has put on a lot of events and seminars. A seminar called understanding Islam, where we've had speakers that are cultural people, educated people about that religion, and what it is like to live it.

We all have the speaker, who is the Rev. Dr. Don Wagner, who is the Director

of Mercy Corps in Chicago, who will be coming to speak in Grand Rapids

on May 4 at 7:30 at the Eberhard Center. He has

just written a book called  Peace or Armageddon and he will be giving a

talk. And, we have entitled his talk," Peace or Armageddon: the Holy Land in Turmoil." He has been to Palestine recently and has an eyewitness account that I think will be of interest. He has made

a study of the area and of

Armageddon for years and is very capable of answering any questions as well.

So, we invite you to that. Are we going to have this photocopied? Are you going to make a photocopy of this? And make it available maybe? Can we leave it with you?  There you go. Is this a political or a religious conflict? It is everything. But it is primarily a political, economic, empowerment kind of conflict

Religion figures into it, but I think that is one of the mistakes that we make is that we talk about it being a religious conflict. I will make this comment, however. It wasn't a mistake that Baruch Goldstein shot muslims. I think that was the intent. He did not go into a church. I think that his intent was to shoot and kill muslims. But I wouldn't say that the conflict itself is religious in nature. The conflict has to do with a lack of justice and that is . If there is no comment about the massacre in Hebron massacre. come to New York with his wife and children before the massacre. a million dollars.  And they now will not do that. Secondly, about Gaza Strip because it is the most populated area in the world. There are no resources. Nothing in there except people. And the Israelis look at it, and find bombs. They don't want it. That is why they are going peace treaty,

The peace accords are a clear no. They don't want it.That is the other thing.

I am not allowed to move back to Gaza before nine months. I need to go now. People

have not come back before I am not allowed to come back before nine months. Now, after the peace treaty, they started a revolution.

twenty-five years, because I am older than, I am allowed to

These are some of the pictures that we never saw that came out of the Gulf War. And, this is how we censored ourselves in this country

that we did not have to realize what a horrible war this was. This is a

soldier who was actually trying to comply with the United Nations resolution that said you've

got to leave the area, the Iraqui soldiers leave the area. And, it was believed they would leave the

area. As they were departing. This is called lutlana. As they

were leaving on the road, which is dubbed the highway to death.

What happened is, it was just unbelievable is that we shelled them. We pounded them at both ends. He was retreating, and

we made sure he never got out. These pictures didn't come out, but one of the generals was asked why. He said, my goodness if you showed pictures like this, there'd never be another war. I think he's wrong about that, a

ctually. I think we've seen horrible pictures, and I think we're still willing to go to war.

But it is important to recognize  that we did a lot of censorship of this kind.  And we continue to do censorship. I

didn't know about the eighty-five percent unemployment in Gaza.

I work. I worked in college. I work sometimes  for eight months. Still I am unemployed.

Shown several times. That is all right. On the other hand. an Israeli civilian. He is not a civilian. This

is my

Of course, it is compulsory, both men and women, Most of them carry rifles, even the ladies, they carry M-16, Israeli, Uzi, all kinds of weapons. For us,    Hebron, Gaza Strip.  A Palestinian woman was killed and she was pregnant. They said even that the Palestinians killed her. How could we kill one of us?

And they control the house. and how should we kill a lady walking the streets. We not shoot.  If you walk in the Gaza Strip without a leader you might get shot. It is not easy.Snipers and.

Open the.

Them and. maybe You know

the main reason why you.

The universities were closed, the schools 1987.

And I just remember talking about Jerusalem. I had been in Jerusalem for twelve months. One day, I was going to pray at Dome Rock in Jerusalem. And

I was stopped at the gate for

identification to get through to the mosque. And, I was beaten up by the soldiers

simply because I am

from the North, and simply because I insisted to go to the mosque for Friday prayers. I was taken out to the hospital.

I still have eight stitches in

my chest simply because I insisted. Since

I was a kid. I thought the Arab-Israeli, pursuing the Israel conflict is a very complicated issue

or equation. Now, I believe it is very simple from both sides. U.S. aid to Israel will cause equal killings of innocent Palestinians. I was told two years ago in summer of 1992, and I couldn't stay there. I was there four years.  I couldn't stay there

Because I couldn't find my friend.

And, you cannot ask.