IDs

Traveling requires documents, passports, processes. Nothing is worse than growing up sans a nation, and hence any legitimate and worthwhile documentation. When I first got my hawiya in a little run-down government office, I though it was a joke. The Hawiya is one laminated card and a normal printed paper stuffed inside a gaudy, cheap, plastic folder embossed with the Palestinian seal. Printed in both arabic and hebrew, these papers remind their owners that they are occupied (as if we could forget).

I resented my hawiya because it limited where I could go. The 1948 region, Gaza, and Jerusalem are all off limits. I likened the hawiya to the Stars of David Jews wore in Hitler's Germany. A hawiya signals to young bored soldiers at checkpoints that they can humiliate and degrade us. 

Despite all of its issues, I realize a hawiya is very much a blessing. As a Palestinian living in the Unites States, this ID is the my only legal connection to Palestine. My laminated card, gives me the right to live in Palestine. As Israeli's try to intimidate and drive Palestinians out, this right is very precious. Not anyone can go to the West Bank or Gaza and simply claim Palestinian ancestry (any jew can receive Israeli citizenship). A major portion of Palestinians live outside of Palestine, holding on to our identity and rights to the land is very important. Holding a hawiya is my small connection.