It was Written at March 16th, 2003

 

March 16^th, 2003

"Whenever you go and wherever you go, you hear the same statements "check out your ID card", "Do not forget to hold your ID card." Other wise you will be in a trouble, you might spend three hours or more on the checkpoint,  or you may spend your night in a near prison. If you want to go to bathroom, you must hold your ID card; maybe you face an Israeli soldier asking you about your ID card to make sure that you are a Palestinian citizen. If you want to eat in the kitchen, you must hold your ID card.

By the way, the Palestinians ID cards are the most ironical cards in the world. Before Oslo most Palestinians have had an orange ID cards , it was for People who are in Gaza and West bank , this color indicates that there is one authority which is Israel authority. There names were written in Arabic and Hebrew. People who are from Jerusalem hold a blue ID cards. After Oslo People who controlled by what is called the Palestinian authority changed their ID cards to become Green ID cards, but their names were written  in Arabic and Hebrew languages, both languages are Semitic languages. It is rare to have the two Semitic languages in the same official paper.  Why did they sing Oslo? Did they do so to see our names in ID cards written in Arabic and another international language, maybe English? I do not think that they wanted to keep seeing our names in Arabic and Hebrew. Oslo did not add anything to our IDs; it changes the color of it to embrace the people of Oslo.  Years later Oslo makers will discover that the color of those IDs is the same color of the resistance movement flag's, both are green. We always have the concept of double function.  I am talking about ID as if I have one. In fact, I do not have an ID card yet. In 2005 or 2006, I will   have one. I do not know the exact time, because I am not so interested in having this card, which will cause me many problems. My situation is not different from those who have Green ID cards. 
These days I am expecting everybody to tell me to hold my birthday papers to prove that I am Palestinian and live in that city. Whenever we go my mother holds our birthday papers, In case she has been asked for official papers for her five kids.  Sometimes I feel that we need an extra bag to put all these papers and ID cards.
My parents somehow seem illegal residents, their ID cards are still orange, I do not know why they did not get new green ID cards.  Anyway, it seems that I must train myself to hold  my ID card wherever I go. It is very difficult and silly to hold your ID card in you homeland just to prove for a group of strangers that you are Palestinian citizen. Those ID cards do not prove that we are Palestinians, for example, there are many Palestinians outside Palestine have no Green IDs but their soul is Palestinian more than mine is. I think that there is something else must be hold to prove that we are Palestinians; something more important than ID cards.  something worth to be hold wherever we go.

One day I heard my uncle says that" many Palestinians who live out-side Palestine are trying since Oslo to come to Palestine to have ID cards for themselves and their kids."  Do they really want to have that Green ID? Do they really want to see their names written in Hebrew? Do they really want to see the extremist irony in world whenever they look at their ID Cards?

 I do not understand politics so much, but I think that we must not have the logo of Palestinian authority with our names in Hebrew in the same card. I think that the Palestinian authority established to refuse the Israeli existence, and help us to get rid of Israel, not to help Israel to get into all aspects of our life even our ID cards. I do not understand why do we have this Palestinian authority, is it our local government or what? I hate to be like an idiot person. I live in Palestine and I still do not understand what is going on.   Am I a fool?  "