She Is Everything

Palestinian Palestinian

Since we are living in a world that judges you by what you believe in, how you dress up, the color of your skin, and what media writes about you is what counts the most, I will be telling some about my nationality, my dad is a white American that's what he likes to call himself even though his father was an Italian immigrant back in the '60s. My mother is Palestinian not a Palestinian Palestinian, she is Palestinian Jordanian, the word Jordanian comes after Palestinian because of the Israeli occupation in my mother's homeland Palestine. Since 1948, Palestinians had to be in that situation where they defined themselves as they have Palestinian roots and then the country they were born in. My mother's father was kicked out of his homeland by the Israeli soldiers in 1948 and went walking to the Jordanian border. It's when Britain decided to gift Palestine to the Jewish after the holocaust happened. My mother was born in Jordan she lived the first 14 years of her life without a father, my grandpa was here at the United States, my grandma refused to live in the United States of America because she believes that America supports Israel against Palestine, she also wanted my mother, uncles, and aunts to be raised in a country that has almost the same exact culture as Palestine. My mother used to see her father twice a year for fourteen years, once she used to come to the USA with her siblings every summer and during Christmas break my grandpa would fly overseas for them. My mother came for good to the United States at the age of fourteen when grandma died. My Mom finished college then met my dad and got married in the USA. When I was a kid my mother used to tell me how she used to live very close to the Palestinian borders in Jordan, she used to see the Palestinian mountains every morning on her way to school and how her house used to shake from the bombs that were being dropped to kill more Palestinian every day until this day. Growing up with my Mom telling all this kind of stuff made me feel that I belong to Palestine more than Italy, so in middle school when it comes to the question "what's your nationality" I would answer Palestinian Jordanian. How lucky those people who can say I am Palestinian Palestinian, those people risk their lives every day in Palestine to be called that, those people will take the honor of freeing Palestine in gods will. It was raining in July, heavy rain in July. I mean it's the US you could never guess anything. The university was almost half empty because it's the summer term, I was at the parking lot trying to get my guitar out of my car when Ameer came running to help me, it's like the sky was sad crying and when Ameer and I got together it stopped, he held my guitar with his hands and said "surprise me, what can't you do?, you dance, your the captain of soccer, you'll probably be the valedictorian of your class and now you're telling me you play guitar. As we're walking to the building he offered me a cup of Starbucks and I told him I don't drink it or buy anything from there because of its owners and how they send a weekly donation to support Israel against Palestine, he was in shock and hurried to change the subject. I can tell by his smile that he's in love, he asked me about the tattoo that I have on my finger, I showed it to him, he suddenly rose his eyebrows "please don't tell me this is the Palestinian map" he said, I answered yes while I'm laughing at his reaction, "how couldn't I tell that you're Palestinian, of course, you can tell that I'm Palestinian or at least an Arab" he said, I got lost looking at his face thinking how flawless this Palestinian beard is, how his eyelashes are longer than the Israeli occupation has lasted, and how his skin is lighter than Palestine's future. I asked him if he has ever been there "No, but I am Palestinian Palestinian" he answered. He said Palestinian Palestinian.