Visa blues

As many of you know, I have been toiling over some of my most basic needs which have gone unfulfilled-because of an administrative order that is meant to shut people like me out. My visa is several weeks expired because when I went for my previous appointment in time to be legit, I was told that I couldn’t be helped because I needed to get a letter from the appropriate authorities in order to process my visa. When I returned today, a month later with the letter requested, I was told that I needed to go to an entirely other Ministry, of Foreign Affairs! This is the second time I have come back to the ministry for an appointment that takes a month to get. Therefore, I have been relegated to staying frozen in my place of refuge and traveling only when absolutely necessary as many of you also know that I have been harassed on many occasions while traveling, and even threatened with immediate deportation.

After checking why, after 15 minutes after my scheduled appointment of they had still not called my name, I was assured they would get right to me. A half hour past, and several other appointments later, one finally called my name, this and the several administrators I dealt with finally ‘saw me’, they didn’t even want to bother looking at me.

‘People like me’ are those in a country that are not of a certain religion. I watched today at the ministry while people walked away from their appts. with noticeable grins of relief on their faces, and Jewish head dresses draped on their heads.

When I finally sat down to discuss ‘my case’, it was immediately noted that I filled out the incorrect form, and that I must fill out the ‘visa extension’ form. It was then, to my dismay, I realized that I had accidentally filled out the law of return application. I was immediately struck by the exact likeness of the applications, they were both identical color and the same exact questions raised as if to make a subliminal, little, ironic joke. The only difference was a tiny little box at the very top of the page that read something to the effect of check this box if applying for 'Law of Return', versus extending a 3-month visa.

The Law of Return from 1950 “grants every Jew, wherever he or she may be, the right to come to Israel as an 'oleh' (a Jew immigrating to Israel) and become an Israeli citizen.”

I can not help but feel an inherent feeling of purposeful belittlement and rage at the blatant racism I and all Palestinians are being expected to accept. Though the racism towards me pales in comparison to that experienced by Palestinians both within and outside of the Green Line, I sometimes can uphold the illusion of being immune to it and not letting it get to me. These laws are embedded so deeply in the beliefs and values of those administering and upholding them with their silence, they need not even be written on paper – because the understanding and acceptance of the system.

Whomever says that this is not a plain system of blatant racism and apartheid (separate laws based on race/religion), has not experienced it themselves.