Our Childhood Experiences of Identity

Fatma Ezzat Foqara

When I was five years old, I was at the hospital because my mom’s giving birth. There were games for kids my age. I was playing Lego with a girl that I do not know. We played together and smiled at each other without saying any word. Her mom was sitting in front of us. After that, my dad came and talk in Arabic to me: take your time, play and enjoy dear Fatma. When daddy said this, the mother’s girl took her daughter and said in Hebrew: let’s go from here, and she left the place, so I felt that because she knew that I am an Arab person, she did that racist behavior.

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Nariman Qadoura

I want to share with you my story that affected my life.
Five years ago, I went on a trip with my mother, uncle, and his wife to Jerusalem. We went to pray at Al-Aqsa, and when we wanted to enter, they wanted us to hand over our identity to them to verify us, and when they made sure of us, they began to search our bags at the beginning, I felt that it was their duty to look for them, but when a family of Jews wanted to enter, they only made sure of their identity, and they did not search their bags. When I asked my uncle why they did that, he said maybe because we are Arabs and not Jews, I am not sure. When he said that, I felt anger, sadness, and humiliation and wanted at that time to take my identity and go, but my mother stopped me and said to me: ‘Let’s go in. When we finished praying, we went out quickly and took my ID from them, and we started walking quickly because I did not want to see them again because of their racist behavior. After five years have passed, I have not gone to Jerusalem again until I do not see and feel the same situation that I have seen and felt before.

Rawan Eyadat

I was on a vacation trip with my family, and I approached a woman who asked me whether I am a Bedouin? I answered yes. She was shocked and said to me: you don’t look like a Bedouin girl because you don’t have black skin. This attitude made me feel bad that how people judge the person on his appearance, not his personality.

Lilian Renawe

I remember when I was 13 years old, I went with dad and mom to Galilee lake. We were sitting next to some foreign people. I remember them asking me and my parents if I am a mixed child because my mom is blonde and my dad is bronze. They were asking questions like: are you both from the same race? Are you both from the same country”. It was hard for them to believe that one ethnic could create people with different shapes, colors, and features. And they were more curious why does my and my father look more Eastern than my mother. But of course, my whole family are Eastern and are from this land.

Aya Qaraqra

My mother is a teacher. At the beginning of her education career, she was in the Negev. We decided to live together in one house, me, my brothers and my father. I remember as a child we were in a Jewish nursery school. It was difficult in terms of language, atmosphere, new people. You are distracted, that you are between Arabs and Jews, and you feel that at certain times your identity is lost. In the beginning, you are a shy, antisocial person. You are afraid when you speak because it is not your language that you are used to. Somewhere you feel the distinction between an Arab and a Jew in terms of rights. When you adopt and become more powerful through your experiences, your mistakes, confronting the world that is alien to you and its questions about who you are and where you are, according to it they respect you and for you this is wrong.

Aysha Qais

I will talk about a story that happened in my family when my sister went to learning Italy.
She was having difficulty adapting to the new atmosphere, especially with the new language and the new nationalities as well, due to the presence of multiple nationalities and new people. She also had difficulty defining her identity, and sometimes she felt that she was losing her identity and could not know how to define her identity.
But with time, she adapted and became aware of herself easily and without concern because she was accustomed to the atmosphere and also made friends from several nationalities and religions and became acquainted with more knowledge about many nationalities and identities.