Page 72 - MY Book - My Voice

The three following stories have been told by Amona, Nabil and Bah, during workshops at Dikemark, spring 2015Amona from PalestineI am Amona, a Palstinian born in Gaza, in 1953. I want to dedicate this drawing to both my mother and my father because the drawing reminds me of the lemon tree that they planted outside our house in Palestine.I got married in 1975. When PLO set up their headquarter in Lebanon, my husband got a job there, and we moved to Beirut. We lived in Bourj el Barajneh camp in Beirut for ten years and got four children. Sometimes I followed my husband around the country, when he had workto do in the camps in the north, and we lived there for a few days. In 1982, we ed to Syria, because of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the expulsion of PLO. We left just 20 days before the Sabra and Shatila massacre. We settled in Yarmouk camp in Damascus and got another three children there.In 1994, Israel withdrew from most of Gaza and the Palestinian Territories, and Yasser Arafat moved the PLO administration from Tunis to Gaza. Just a few years later, in 1996, after Arafat was elected president, we moved back to Gaza. Three of our daughters wanted to stay in Damascus to study at the university. After some years, they all got married and had children.One of our daughters has immigrated to Norway. I came to Norway two years ago, in 2013, with my husband, to visit our daughter and grandchildren. One day my husband got ill and died. He is buried in this country.When my visa expired, I just stayed. I want to stay in Norway, to be able to visit my husband’s grave and to be near my daughter and grandchildren. I have applied for permit to stay, but it has been rejected. I am now living at the reception center.Since the war broke out in Syria, I haven’t had any contact with my daughters in Damascus! I forgot how to be happy. I have seen dead people in the streets. Limbs spread out. I feel safe in Norway, and want to be able to visit my husband’s grave and see my grandchildren. Why am I not allowed to stay in Norway?70