This is not the Usual Byrd's Words. This is series of events I have been following for the last few years and I believe it has to be shared. Please feel free to share this story, just tell me when you do.
- byrd
Miriam
by rev byrd tetzlaff
Chapter One
This is a story that needs to be told. It’s not my story, but I am the only one that
can tell it. It is a true story, and it has
not ended. It is ongoing, right
now. It sounds like a badly-plotted soap
opera, but I swear to you, it is happened and is happening. The
names of the people and places have been changed, for the sake of safety.
It began several years ago when a friend, named George, was
still traveling about in the world. He
loved to travel and to meet people in their own lands, to learn about them and
their history. When he returned to the
United States, he kept in contact with many of them, via letters, phone calls
and e-mail. Some of them were behind
what was then the Iron Curtain. He saw and
heard many things that most people never even dream of. His interest was wide-reaching, and after he
returned, He still wanted to expand his horizons.
One of his friends asked if he would like to be pen pals with
an Israeli woman who wanted to improve her English. He said sure, and thus he met Miriam.
They began their friendship via mail and phone calls, because
this was before the internet had really gotten started. They became fast friends. She was not particularly interested in
politics, which disappointed George, who is very politically oriented, but they
found many other things in common. He
was delighted with her friendship, in part because she had, as he put it, such
a beautiful soul. He just liked talking
with her. She seemed to have no negative
feelings towards anyone, not even towards the Palestinians who were not popular
in Israel at the time. George, who
always championed the underdog, was quite aware of the politics within Israel,
but he respected her wishes and they seldom even mentioned what was going on in
her country.
Miriam was an only child of an upper middle-class Israeli
family. Miriam was, when their correspondence
began, in her late twenties and unmarried.
She was a good daughter and lived at home with her parents, who were
very conservative. Miriam was very well-educated. She spoke several languages and taught in a
local school. As far as George could
tell, Miriam did not even date. She was
pretty much caught up with her family and her work.
Miriam and George talked fairly often, and
George would hear about all her little adventures. Miriam would tell him about her students and
daily life in Israel. As their
friendship grew, George found he looked forward to hearing from her. It was not a romantic relationship, but it
was a very real friendship.
For several years they corresponded fairly regularly. Then, as things progressed, they graduated to
e-mail and phones. But one day Miriam
sounded different. George asked what
was going on? Slowly, she confessed. She
was dating someone. She was excited
about it, but had not yet told her parents.
She was not sure they would approve.
Her new boyfriend was a Palestinian.
Chapter Two
George was concerned.
He had heard how difficult it was for Palestinians in Israel and thought
it might be very difficult for Miriam if they were to get married. But Miriam was in love.
For some time, George heard about Miriam’s growing
relationship with El-Amer. Seems that
El-Amer was an educated person. He had a
degree in Engineering, but as a Palestinian, he was not allowed to work in his
field. So he worked as a laborer, digging
ditches. He had an extended family in
Israel and some of them were dependent on him for support. He had two nephews that were eight and ten
years old, respectively. Both of them
had been crippled because when they were younger, the Israeli army caught them
throwing rocks at tanks. As per custom,
the army broke both elbows on both boys and did not let them go to a doctor, so
the kids arms healed without being set properly. Neither boy had use of his arms. El-Amer took care of the family as best he could.
Actions like this are not uncommon in areas of the world where
people live under constant fear. And in
Israel, both Israelis and Palestinians live with fear all the time. Consequently, they do horrible things to each
other.
Miriam had been almost completely unaware of the plight of
Palestinians in her country. But as she
got to know El-Amer, she also became aware of what was happening to his people. And slowly, she began to speak out, first to
her friends, and then to her parents.
Sadly, her friends and family did not want to hear. In fact they were horrified that she would
speak in understanding terms about the Palestinians. Miriam was somewhat confused, because she
could not understand why such hatred existed.
Then, she became pregnant.
El-Amer and she planned to get married, but disaster struck. Miriam’s own mother turned her in.
It is illegal in Israel for a Palestinian and an Israeli to
marry. Miriam was taken by the
authorities and told that she should have an immediate abortion and what was
the name of her Lover? Not wanted to get
him in trouble, Miriam refused to tell them who the father was. And she did not want an abortion, she wanted
the baby. Her family coldly informed her
that if she were to be so ill-advised as to have the child, it would be taken
from her and placed in an orphanage.
For the first time in her life, Miriam was faced with just how
bad things were for some people in her country.
She decided to flee. She quietly
gathered up a small suitcase, took her meager savings and bought a ticket to
Syria. She left alone, because it was
not safe to contact El-Amer - he would be arrested.
She traveled to Syria. But as she disembarked, the authorities there
grabbed her and put her in prison. Her
mother had reported her flight and the Israeli government had put out a warrant
for her arrest. Because of her ties with
Palestinian persons, she was labeled a suspected terrorist.
Prison was horrendous.
Because she was an Israeli who had been with a Palestinian, the other
women in the prison hated her, and she was viciously attacked by them several
times. Badly beaten, she lost the baby –
and with it, her ability to have other children.
Chapter Three
Syria has no real love for Israel and after a while the courts
of Syria set her free because there was no evidence that she had actually
plotted any terrorist activities.
Alone, in a foreign country, Miriam was devastated. She had lost her baby, her own family had
turned her in -- knowing full well what would happen to her -- and she had no
money. She was afraid to get in touch
with El-Amer, because he would immediately be arrested and most probably
disappear. She did the only thing she
could think of to do: she contacted George.
George immediately wired her funds.
Reluctantly, she took a few dollars to keep herself alive, the rest she
put into a bank for safe-keeping. She
vowed to pay George back, every penny, even though that was not what he
wanted. And she managed to get word to
El-Amer where she was.
Meantime, El-Amer had been nearly frantic trying to find out
what happened to Miriam. He had been allowed no information about Miriam or her
whereabouts. When she finally managed to
contact him, he rushed to her side, knowing full well that by fleeing Israel,
he would never be allowed back into the country. He and Miriam were now refugees. They were like so many in this day and age, landless
people, with no papers, because now they belonged to no country that would
admit they used to be citizens. Legally,
they ceased to exist.
They traveled together to Lebanon, where they joined other
refugees. Miriam was now an Israeli,
surrounded by Palestinians, a Jew surrounded by Muslims. Not all were accepting of her, but to her
surprise, some were. She was greeted
with reservation, but kindness. She talked
with El-Amer about converting to Islam so that she would fit in better. He shook his head and told her that she was
Jewish and that was OK by him. He did
not think she should convert for political reasons, she should convert only if
she truly believed.
That started Miriam thinking about her own life and
her cultural heritage. She had always been proud of being a Jew, but now, she hated what
Israel had done to the Palestinian people. From her fellow refugees, she heard horror story after horror story about what has happened to so many
Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government. She, personally, renounced her country's actions and became
quite bitter towards Israel. She began
to wear the habib as a gesture of respect to her Muslim neighbors, and gradually
she was more and more accepted.
Eventually, her neighbors came to her to ask if she would teach their
children different languages. She
agreed, so while El-Amer was out doing whatever work he could find, she taught Palestinian
children how to speak Hebrew and English. And slowly, they began to build a
life together.
Chapter Four
Miriam and El-Amer lived in a tiny place amidst the refugee
struggle.
While Miriam’s heart had
hardened against Israel, her natural generosity could not be restrained. She adopted a stray dog, and then later added
a stray cat. This put a huge burden on
their finances, because they were poor beyond what most Americans can
understand and these new mouths to feed often cut into their own food supplies. Even under these conditions, they would not
touch the money that George had sent them. (In fact, El-Amer sends George a
small payment every month to reimburse him for the money they have already used
to get Miriam out of Syria. George
protests, but to no avail.)
I should mention here that the entire time all of this was
going on, Miriam did keep in touch with George as best she could. He set up a bank account (‘just in case of emergency’)
with the remaining funds for Miriam -
which she never touched. They would
arrange for certain times that he would be home when she could go to an aid
station and call him collect. He did not
dare tell her how much it cost him, because she would have insisted on paying
for the calls. He simply told her that
his cell phone included the calls for no extra charge.
But the flood of new refugees to Lebanon is ongoing. Every day, more refugees pour into Lebanon,
and not in an orderly fashion. Crowds of
people, walking slowly with little hope in their steps, fill the streets. Some
carry small bags or suitcases filled with their pathetically small hoard of
belongings. Others have no such wealth,
but travel only with the clothing on their backs. And each of them has a story, and each tale is
worse than the next tale.
There was one young mother with two small children, a girl almost three years old and a boy of around a year. She was fleeing because her husband had gone
to work and had never returned, so she had no means of feeding her children. That
is all too common an occurrence. People
disappear in countries where they are not wanted. As the small family trudged along the road,
some tanks pushed their way through the crowd.
People who did not move out of the way fast enough got hurt. The young mother with two children was shot
and as she lay dying, her belongings were looted. No one picked up the children.
I am not clear on how Miriam found out about the
children. I don’t know if she witnessed the
attack, or if she heard about it later, but by some means, she found out about
the children and she grabbed them.
If Miriam had not taken the children, one of several fates
awaited the kids.
- They might have died
by the side of the road with no one to feed them. - They might have been caught up to be sold
into slavery. The boy probably would not
have lasted very long, but the girl would have become a prostitute. Young children are eagerly awaited by predators
from every county.
-Or if they were very
lucky, they might have been taken to an orphanage where hundreds of children
are taken care of by dedicated but vastly over-worked caretakers.
But these children were lucky.
They ended up with Miriam and El-Amer.
Miriam, who had lost her own child, El-Amer who was a caring and responsible
person, the two of them took in these children as their own, despite the hardships and poverty they faced.
For a long time, Miriam was afraid the
children would be removed from her care.
She spoke with the social workers in the camps about the children. There was a long time of silence with no word
about the children’s fate. Then one day
a social worker dropped by to say the children were theirs to keep. Miriam cried out in relief, but then asked,
if anyone should come looking for the children, what should she do? The social worker lifted an eyebrow and said “But
who would care?”
That night, Miriam cried for the children, because it was
true. Who would care for them? These beautiful children, lost because of
hatred, prejudice and war. Who would
care for them? Who would care for any of
the children caught up in conflicts they had no part in?
Chapter Five
That is the latest I have heard from George about Miriam, El-Amer
and their two children, a dog and a cat.
They live as refugees, a family, doing the best they can in an ungodly
situation not of their making.
Miriam calls George periodically and lets him know what is happening. He looks forward to their conversations. And he keeps the money El-Amer sends him in a
special account, hoping to someday be able to return it to them when they live
in a free country.
El-Amer and Miriam celebrate Christmas, because it is such a
lovely Holiday, but Miriam confesses that she does not understand how the
Americans celebrate. She cannot fathom
the amount of money that Americans spend on a holiday that celebrates the birth
of one who was so poor.
George wants to send the children some gifts for Christmas,
but being a bachelor, he has little idea of what would be age-appropriate. Plus he has no idea what could get by the
censors. He is fully aware that any
package he might send will be opened and inspected, and very possible confiscated
and possibly even used as evidence against Miriam and El-Amer. So George has to be very careful in what he
might send them.
George would like to travel over to Lebanon to see them in
person, but he has been told it would not be wise, for him or for the small
refugee family. Both could get into big
trouble for their connections with each other.
I await updates from George about Miriam and her family. It links me to a part of the world that is
very real but beyond my personal experiences.
It reminds me how lucky I am to live in a part of the world that is
relatively safe. It makes me pray for
the people who are caught up in ugly political battles that result in violence and
crimes against humanity. And it makes me want to Do Something for that little
family.
But all I can do is to get the word out, because so little
information in American gives any real insight into what is happening over
there. We Americans are told that the
Palestinians are the Bad Guys. We don’t
hear about the Palestinian homes that are bulldozed while they owners are away
at work during the day. We don’t hear
about the water and electricity that are turned off permanently in the desert
areas where the Palestinians live. We do not hear about the Palestinians that are displaced from their homes because of Israel's insatiable hunger for land. We
are not told about the people who disappear and are never heard from again.
Despite what is happening, I want the Israeli State to
thrive. I want it to prosper and to
create positive relations with its neighbors.
I want all that -- but I am opposed to Zionism.
The Palestinians have just as much a right to
a peaceful life in a safe homeland as do the Israelis. I don’t know how that can be accomplished,
given the current statement of affairs.
I don’t know if it should be one state or two. I don’t know if it needs to be mandated by an
outside authority or if they themselves can somehow put aside the wrongs that
Both Sides have perpetuated.
But I do know that all the Children of Abraham should have the
right to live in peace, safety and religious freedom. All the Children of the Earth should have the
opportunity to create a Good Life for themselves and for their children, regardless
of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or cultural status.
Anything less is unacceptable.
