My cousins Fatuta and Mimi. They are siblings but Israel has imposed on them different IDs, legal statuses & as such different rights. Although born in Jerusalem, Fatuta has a WB-ID and wasn’t able to visit his mom on her deathbed because of Israeli restrictions on movement. 
For 8 months, their mother Hind was in the hospital in her hometown of Jerusalem. Fatuta & his father Ahmed couldn’t go at all because Israel didn’t issue permits to green WB IDs at the time. Mimi, Khalil and Samah, the other children could go because they had blue Jerusalem IDs.
Hind passed away at 5:30am. Her wish was to be buried in her city of Jerusalem and there was no way Fatuta was going to miss his mother’s funeral after not being able to see her for months as she underwent treatment. That morning at 6am he decided to sneak into the city.
Fatuta was terrified. Palestinians caught would be imprisoned, beaten, shot and at times killed. “Salem, I didn’t care, I needed to be there for my mother”. He crossed through a hole in the Separation Wall and shortly after was met with Israeli soldiers.
“It took every ounce of me to swallow my fear and act like I belonged there. I grew up in Jerusalem, it’s my city & I didn’t want them to stop me.” Fatuta pulled it off & made it to the funeral shaking to his core. Israeli soldiers could’ve ended his life in a matter of seconds.
His father Ahmed never got to say goodbye to his wife or see her for 8 months. He was too old to make it to Jerusalem.
A family of 5, all with different IDs & rights. Why? Because Israel decided it wants to decrease the amount of Palestinians that have access to Jerusalem & call it home. It has brought tremendous pain & sadness to my cousins and so many other Palestinian families.
This is the human impact of apartheid & the segregated, tiered system of IDs and statuses. It humiliates, deprives and displaces. Israel imposes it to fragment and control all Palestinians.
You ask Fatuta what he wants, he’ll tell you: just to go back to the places where I made my childhood memories without the permission of the occupation and without the fear of being killed. Is that to much to ask?
Ask any Palestinian what they want, they will tell you: my freedom, rights and to be treated with dignity. This is long over due. We need a new system where everyone is free, equal and there can be justice for all.
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