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It was shocking for me to discover that there are over 54,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank even more trapped and isolated than most Palestinians. They are the citizens lacking a hawiyye (national identification card), which were issued by Israel under the provisions of the Oslo Accords. When the second Intifada broke out, the cards stopped coming and many people who had come to Gaza visiting friends and family have been trapped here ever since. Most disturbing of all, they do not technically exist.

For the past 15 weeks some of these people in Gaza have been staging sit-ins in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council in an attempt to raise awareness about their plight and demand political action. To their credit, I have noticed an increase in the media coverage of this issue, which is an important step. Here is an article by Laila El-Haddad about the situation and another on Yahoo News. Some of the stories are terribly tragic… I spoke with many of these people people today at the sit-in. Here is just one of the short interviews I took…

Kris Petersen: Can you please explain to me a little about your situation?

Anonymous: My situation is that I have been here since 1995. I have no identification card to travel around, to finish my education, to go see my family… who live in Saudi Arabia at this time since 1967.

KP: And you were born in Saudi Arabia?

Anon: I was born here in the Gaza Strip. Yes, I have a birth certificate from the Palestinian Authority that shows I was born in the Gaza Strip. I returned in 1995 with an Israeli permit through Rafah border – legally yes – I stayed here. I worked with the Palestinian Authority as an international representative for public works and housing. And what I’m asking is identification to get a passport. I need a passport… Just to travel around like another human. Don’t I have the right to travel around? My dad just passed away, by the way. He passed away about 10 days ago in Egypt. I could not go see him when he was on the operating table. I could not. It’s two hours from Gaza Strip to Egypt! I cannot go see him because I don’t have any identification or passport. I want to finish my education, higher education, but I cannot.

KP: You were studying in California. Is that right?

Anon: In California, in Egypt… I cannot leave. I cannot leave Gaza Strip because I do not have a passport or identity. I was in Los Angeles at the University of California. I studied international relations for six years, then I graduated and worked in California… a part-time job and after I finished my education and there was peace between Israel and Palestine, I thought I would come back to settle. So I came back from the United States to the Gaza Strip and I feel sorry I ever came back. If I had stayed in the States, I would have had an American passport by now for sure.

KP: Why did you choose to come back to Gaza?

Anon: Because it’s my homeland! Well, I came to see my mom. She came to Gaza from Saudi Arabia as a visitor. She stayed here for one month and left; I stayed forever. She had gotten residence in Saudi Arabia… I didn’t have that. I mean, I had a student visa for the United States, but it expired. I had to leave—you know the rules. I would have stayed if I’d have wanted to. I was almost married to an American woman but I chose to come back to my homeland to see my house—to see my friends and everybody. That’s it.

KP: When did you first find out that you couldn’t leave Gaza?

Anon: I knew… I knew when I came here that I didn’t have an identification card or a passport and I would not be able to leave. But I came here because of the Olso agreement; there is a subject in the Oslo agreement that would have issued after 1999 a Palestinian country – we would have had a country for the Palestinian people. So I thought by 1999, everything would finish and we would have Palestinian passports and Palestinian identity, but the problem was after the uprising happened in 2000, the Israeli government stopped negotiations with the people who deal with this subject. So since 2000 until today, there is no one dealing with our problem which … we do not have a Palestinian identity or a passport. We cannot issue a passport even because the Israelis stopped negotiating this subject with the government.

KP: Has this caused a problem for you within Gaza?

Anon: I live in a big jail… that’s it. I cannot leave Gaza whatsoever. The last point I can get to is the Rafah border or Beit Hanoun. That’s it! Even if I’m going to die… if I have cancer… There’s a lady here who has cancer. We have no medicine for her in the Gaza Strip. Either she has to go to Israel or to Egypt to get treatment. Sorry, she cannot leave the Gaza Strip. She’s one of us… There’s a lot of people: students who cannot finish their education – they cannot go outside to study in a specialized field like medicine, engineering, electrical engineering. That’s all I can say…

KP: What about finding work in Gaza—has that been difficult because you lack identification?

Anon: Yeah well most companies ask for identification and sometimes I haven’t gotten the job because I don’t have it. You can’t go to the bank even! I don’t have a bank account! I can’t get a VISA or Mastercard because I don’t have identification. I can’t even cash a personal check, again because I have no identification!

KP: And the same applies to everyone here at this gathering?

Yes of course, of course.

Tags: hawiyye, Israel, Palestine, Identification, Palestinian Legislative Council, Gaza Strip, Gaza, West Bank, Passport, ID, Travel, Oslo Accords, Kris Petersen