Feb
23
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Yasmine was born in July 2014 at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. Six months later, she has yet to get a birth certificate from the Israeli authorities. While her mother Tamara was born and has lived all her life in East Jerusalem, young Yasmine’s sin is that her father hails from the nearby West Bank city of Beit Jala.
Shortly after Yasmine’s birth, Tamara took her daughter and all the necessary documents — the rental agreement for her Jerusalem home, utility bills and her blue ID card proving that Jerusalem is her place of residence — to the small office of the Israeli Ministry of Interior in East Jerusalem’s Wadi al-Joz neighborhood and waited in a long line.
After reviewing her papers, the Israeli clerk asked for yet another document, an affidavit signed in the presence of a lawyer vouching that Tamara actually lives in the home for which she provided a valid rental agreement. Months earlier, Israeli social security officials had visited her at the very same home to see she lived at that address before approving what every Israeli citizen and resident is entitled to: free medical care including hospital coverage for delivering a baby. Continue Reading »
Jul
30
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
Weddings in Ramallah usually take place on Saturdays or Sundays. But when my daughter Tania and her in-laws to be were discussing her wedding date, the main concern was to avoid the World Cup finals. The only available date was Friday, July 11th. Little did we know last April, when we met with the priest at the Latin Church in Ramallah with our expected new in-laws, that this July date would be in the crossfires of a war on Gaza in which rockets would be flying all over. In addition to local friends and family, we were expecting relatives to arrive from Jordan and the U.S. via Jordan bridges, and some straight into Tel Aviv. As the wedding day neared, we had to reassure friends and relatives that Ramallah was safe. Friends from Nazareth, Jerusalem and Amman were calling us, saying that they are worried about coming. A week earlier, my brother-in-law, his wife and another couple were nearly killed by angry settlers as he was returning from a wedding in Ramallah. The incident caused us all to reserve half a local hotel in Ramallah to ensure that family and guests would sleep in town rather than risk returning home at night. Continue Reading »
Jan
01
2013
After a hiatus of a few years, we return to our tradition of summarizing the family news in a year end newsletter with photos and other links. The major family news this year is the presence of family and friends from  Jordan and the US for the wedding of our oldest daughter Tamara to Alaa Qasasfa on July 13th. The event was preceded with a wedding shower in Jordan and followed by a honeymoon in Thailand and a trip for the newlyweds to the US this Christmas. This event was challenging because it was held in two churches, in two different cities, with people having to cross three different borders to attend. For more about this unique wedding read this article. Tamara has excitedly returned to her teaching job at the Jerusalem School (including a short stint with Dina as her assistant) while Alaa has returned to his teaching job at the Bethlehem Bible College. Continue Reading »
Oct
16
2012
By Daoud Kuttab
This week, family and friends crossed international borders and military checkpoints and overcame the usual political bureaucracies to attend my daughter’s two weddings. Why two weddings? Let me explain.
Like me, my daughter Tamara is a Jerusalemite. The bridegroom, Alaa, lives in the Bethlehem-area town of Beit Jala. It takes minutes to move between these adjacent towns, but they are kilometres away because of the 45-year-old political and military situation caused by Israel’s occupation of Arab lands. Continue Reading »
Dec
15
2011
 
 By Daoud Kuttab
JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children’s favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person’s full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab.
Our family name came from the profession two brothers had a long time ago. The first Kuttabs were scribes who sat outside the court and wrote up petitions for people who had a claim with the authorities. Kuttab is Arabic for writers or scribes. Continue Reading »
Apr
02
2011
I spent five working days in the Qatari capital of Doha teaching a course on writing opinions behalf of the International Center for Journalists. Forty Qataris between journalists and public servants involved in media issues attended in two repeated sessions held at the Qatar News Agency with twenty in either morning or afternoon session. Continue Reading »
May
20
2010
(This was published in May 20th, 2010)
By Daoud Kuttab
My eldest daughter, Tamara, who studied and worked in the US, finally got her own Israeli-issued residency ID for Jerusalem. It took her seven years to accomplish this feat despite the fact that she was born and raised in Jerusalem to parents holding Jerusalem residency. What would normally be a routine act is a major hurdle for Palestinians, especially those who reside in Jerusalem. Continue Reading »
Jan
07
2010
By Daoud Kuttab
The latest news about Jordan’s demands that Canada seize the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were on display in Toronto, brings back many childhood memories for me.
For perspective this is what has happened. Jordan has requested Canada to take custody of the scrolls, citing the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories.
Continue Reading »
Jan
18
2009
In Gaza: Mostly Phone Terror But Some Encouraging Calls
by Daoud Kuttab
My cousin Sami Awad’s uncle Emile Farah, his wife, three children and an aunt live in the Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza city. Thursday was a day of terror for them as well as the Awad’s in Bethlehem. A number of militants seem to have been trapped just outside the housing complex that the Farah’s live in. A four hour exchange took place leaving those living in the high rise building living in sheer terror as they were seeing their deaths with every shelling of their building.
Sami’s job was to call his relatives every five minutes. He told me that every time he talked with his uncle or relatives, the terrified relatives would say that this might be the last time that we talk to you. He told me that he knew they were trying to get away from the fire exchange and every time Sami dialed the phone number he was scared that no one would answer and he would be unsure whether they were killed or that they had escaped the shelling. This uneasiness continued from noon on Thursday till about four in the afternoon. After four terror filled hours (with children crying in the background of many calls) the shooting finally stopped as the militants appeared to have succeeded in escaping the entrapment they had found themselves in. Sami’s uncle who is a retired UN worker finally succeeded in getting a UN vehicle to take the family to the home of his in-laws in a different, not necessarily safer, part of Gaza. Continue Reading »
