Palestinian PM's sisters living in Israel
3 June 2006
By Martin Patience
BBC News website, Tel Sheva
The solitary green Hamas flag hanging from a sand-blasted palm tree on the road into the Bedouin village of Tel Sheva is a clue to three of the community's residents.
Officially, Hamas calls for the
destruction of Israel
Tel Sheva, where flocks of goats and sheep wander freely, lies close to the city of Beersheba in southern Israel.
It is here that three sisters from the Haniya family live, with Israeli citizenship.
Their brother is Ismail Haniya: the Palestinian Prime Minister of the recently-elected Hamas government.
They sisters are married to members of the Abu-Rakik family, a well-known family in the Bedouin community.
But their brother is a member of a group that officially calls for the destruction of Israel. A Hamas official called a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in April an "act of self defence".
According to some of the community's 12,500 residents, the Haniya sisters live quiet and peaceful lives.
The example of the Haniya family is a pattern repeated in thousands of Palestinian families in this region: members of the family living in Israel while their parents, partners and siblings are located in Gaza or the West Bank, and in neighbouring Arab countries.
There are about 1.2 million Palestinians living in Israel who are Israeli citizens. Another 200,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and are considered residents of the city.
Best of people
The head of the Haniya family in Tel Sheva, Sheikh Kemal Haniya, is a religious healer. (The three Haniya sisters refused to be interviewed about their brother.) At his one storey, rough cast, clinic, patients' families sit anxiously on the few white plastic chairs in the sparsely decorated building.
Sheikh Haniya is busy with patients. But his son Mohammed, who visited his uncle in Gaza every summer before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, says the Palestinian Prime Minister is "from the best of people."
Many of the residents in Tel Sheva say that the political situation has divided families and led to startling contradictions, demonstrated by the Haniya family.
"This is our land. We were living on this land before Israel was created so why shouldn't we continue living here?" says Mohammed al-Assam, standing his computer shop.
illegal visit
But Mr Mohammed admits that he rarely sees his family in Gaza. For Israeli citizens - and this also means Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship - it is illegal to travel into Gaza and the West Bank without permission from the Israeli Government.
In some cases, Palestinian families, divided by the systems of permits and citizenship, chose to live together illegally.
"We're completely intertwined," says a 35-year-old woman, who did not want to give her name.
"It's impossible to think that Palestinians can live cut off from one another. It won't work," says the woman, who lives with her husband in East Jerusalem.
The mother-of-two takes public transport or drives a car as she is worried that the Israeli authorities will ask for her ID. She says that she cannot visit her sisters in the West Bank.
For Ismail Haniya, who cannot even visit his ministers in the West Bank, the idea of him visiting his sisters in Israel anytime soon must be remote as well.
Note:
I can not figure out what the big deal is that the PM has two sister’s that are Israeli citizens any more then he has a number of cousins that are honest good American citizens?
Should we start counting all the Israeli’s that are Mossad and so forth living in the United States, I for one do not think the U.S.A. would copt to that one?
By Martin Patience
BBC News website, Tel Sheva
The solitary green Hamas flag hanging from a sand-blasted palm tree on the road into the Bedouin village of Tel Sheva is a clue to three of the community's residents.
Officially, Hamas calls for the
destruction of Israel
Tel Sheva, where flocks of goats and sheep wander freely, lies close to the city of Beersheba in southern Israel.
It is here that three sisters from the Haniya family live, with Israeli citizenship.
Their brother is Ismail Haniya: the Palestinian Prime Minister of the recently-elected Hamas government.
They sisters are married to members of the Abu-Rakik family, a well-known family in the Bedouin community.
But their brother is a member of a group that officially calls for the destruction of Israel. A Hamas official called a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in April an "act of self defence".
According to some of the community's 12,500 residents, the Haniya sisters live quiet and peaceful lives.
The example of the Haniya family is a pattern repeated in thousands of Palestinian families in this region: members of the family living in Israel while their parents, partners and siblings are located in Gaza or the West Bank, and in neighbouring Arab countries.
There are about 1.2 million Palestinians living in Israel who are Israeli citizens. Another 200,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and are considered residents of the city.
Best of people
The head of the Haniya family in Tel Sheva, Sheikh Kemal Haniya, is a religious healer. (The three Haniya sisters refused to be interviewed about their brother.) At his one storey, rough cast, clinic, patients' families sit anxiously on the few white plastic chairs in the sparsely decorated building.
Sheikh Haniya is busy with patients. But his son Mohammed, who visited his uncle in Gaza every summer before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, says the Palestinian Prime Minister is "from the best of people."
Many of the residents in Tel Sheva say that the political situation has divided families and led to startling contradictions, demonstrated by the Haniya family.
"This is our land. We were living on this land before Israel was created so why shouldn't we continue living here?" says Mohammed al-Assam, standing his computer shop.
illegal visit
But Mr Mohammed admits that he rarely sees his family in Gaza. For Israeli citizens - and this also means Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship - it is illegal to travel into Gaza and the West Bank without permission from the Israeli Government.
In some cases, Palestinian families, divided by the systems of permits and citizenship, chose to live together illegally.
"We're completely intertwined," says a 35-year-old woman, who did not want to give her name.
"It's impossible to think that Palestinians can live cut off from one another. It won't work," says the woman, who lives with her husband in East Jerusalem.
The mother-of-two takes public transport or drives a car as she is worried that the Israeli authorities will ask for her ID. She says that she cannot visit her sisters in the West Bank.
For Ismail Haniya, who cannot even visit his ministers in the West Bank, the idea of him visiting his sisters in Israel anytime soon must be remote as well.
Note:
I can not figure out what the big deal is that the PM has two sister’s that are Israeli citizens any more then he has a number of cousins that are honest good American citizens?
Should we start counting all the Israeli’s that are Mossad and so forth living in the United States, I for one do not think the U.S.A. would copt to that one?
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 5:19 PM
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