Our stories , Our voices

Maysa Shene

When I was young I remember going with my family to Jerusalem to pray in Aqsa , and you must wear hijab before entering, so on my way in I wasn’t wearing it yet, it was still on my shoulders then I passed some guards and soldiers they looked like angels with the way they treated us but when I was going out with the hijab on my head they searched us from head to toe like we were criminals or something, and they were totally different people but we were  the same people from an hour ago

Did this piece of cloth create confusion?

I have no idea.

Seren Hsarmy

Once I advertised for teaching private lessons in English, as I go through the customers’ names, I picked one and called the number. During the phone call we exchanged information, I explained a bit about how the private lessons teaching system works then, we agreed to meet after a while. After meeting the woman that asked for services, she found out that I was an Arab and then immediately canceled my service and didn’t want her child to learn with me.

Janan Shehady 

We as Arab in a Jewish country, we face a lot of problems due to identity. When I was a little girl we went with the scouts to camp which is a mixture between Arab and Jewish people. On the first day we had to introduce ourselves and play together with the Jewish people , but they didn’t agree to play with us ,and some girls started to talk with us in a bad way ,so that made us sad and it hurt us deeply. It was a kind of racism when they said “We don’t want to play with them, they are arab” ,So that hurts us deeply and now after 13 years I still remember this situation as if it happened now.

Esraa Shkier

When I was a child, everyone used to say that I was not like my brothers and parents, to the point where some people saw me as being strange to them. In addition, some people thought that I was a boy and not a girl because of my appearance, when I was young and my boyish behavior. My mother was the main supporter in the formation of my character, who was able since my childhood to resist every person who tried to destroy my character and make me weak in front of the trivialities of society. Today, I am a strong personal girl. I believe that for every person there is someone who supports him to reach what he is to form his identity

Diala Shani :

I would like to write a story, but it is not my childhood, but when I finished the twelfth grade.

When I finished the twelfth grade and finished all my exams, I wanted to resign in my financial life, develop a little in my calm personality, and get involved in the labor market.
I started searching in many places for work, but the difficulty I faced was speaking the Hebrew language, as most places rejected me because I did not speak this language well, so it became a barrier in front of me.
I took responsibility for myself to develop this language, and after a period of time I found the work that I was able to succeed in the interview, where the person in front of me seemed to speak Arabic and then moved to Hebrew. I tried to succeed and succeeded depending on what I gained.

Therefore, being an Arab, not exposed to the language of the other people, was a small obstacle to me in finding a job

Eman Shahen

I want to tell about an event that happened in the past when I was eighteen, I was participating in a volunteer project with Arab and Jewish participants, and there I faced an argument with a Jewish girl because she was criticizing my Arab friends and that bothered me and I could not tolerate her racism.