Sharifa's Story

[holyland]

Sharifa's Story

Sharifa lives in a small village called An Numan.  It is a village of only about 150 people, and off in the distance you can see, the city of Bethlehem.  However, the people in An Numan cannot travel to Bethlehem because they have West Bank IDs and to travel to Bethlehem you need to have an Israeli ID.

Even so, Sharif's father, who has spent his life in Palestine, decided he needed to go to Bethlehem and he walked there.  And then he disappeared.  He wasn't seen for weeks.  Then one day, his body was discovered, his beaten body, was found tied to a donkey, which had evidently dragged him quite a distance.  That was the end of his life.

But his daughter still lived in An Numan.  And every day, she goes through the checkpoints.  And every day, as with all the people in the village, the Israeli soldiers go through her bags, go through her food, and sometimes confiscate it if that's the mood they are in.  But then one day a soldier asked to see her wallet.  She gave it to him.  Inside her wallet she carried a picture of her father.  The soldier took it out, smiled at her, and ripped the picture up in front of her.

Sharifa hardly ever goes through the checkpoint anymore.  She just stays at home.

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