PA, Israel team up to fight mixed marriage
Published Thursday 25/03/2010 (updated) 27/03/2010 10:25
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=271564

Bethlehem - Ma'an - It wasn't the first time Israelis and Palestinians
joined together in an attempt to break up a Jewish-Muslim couple, only the
most recent. Years after authorities ended a similar relationship in Beit
Sahour, near Bethlehem, they're at it again.

First it was phone calls from the woman's "family." "Hello, we represent
Sima's family and we come in the name of . organization. We ask you to
return the girl to her parents." "Hello, we represent Sima's father. He came
to us as a clan and we demand that you return the girl." "Hello, I'm Rabbi
... . Tell your husband that we are ready to pay him half a million shekels
if he returns you to your parents."

These were just a fraction of the phone calls that continued as the weeks
and months went on since Muhammad Hamamra, from the Husan village west of
Bethlehem, fell in love with a Jewish woman, Sima, from the neighboring
settlement. Muhammad worked as a contractor in one of the Israeli houses
there, and their relationship lasted four years before the two were recently
married.

Then the Palestinian Authority got involved. "We're sorry Hamamra, the
Islamic juridical court can't validate your Israeli marriage contract. We
need the governor's approval." "The governorate can't grant you an approval;
we need a decision from the security services." "Hello, you've been placed
in this cell for four days because you're suspected of involvement in a
criminal case."

Muhammad's psychological condition is poor; he seems distraught. His Jewish
employer, at a gas station owned by Israeli settlers, fired him just for
marrying one of his own, and after 10 years of loyal service. Israeli border
police, meanwhile, have detained Muhammad and raided his home on more than
one occasion.

They have also taken Sima more than once, bringing her before religious
authorities in Israel to compel her to return, but she has refused.
According to Israeli authorities, Sima was supposed to have wed a Jewish
seminary student, and remains obligated to return to Israel.

The calls continue. "Hello, I'm calling the Palestinian Authority security
forces to ask that you order the return of my daughter, who Muhammad Hamamra
took from [the village of] Husan." "Hello, [responding to Ma'an inquiries],
the security forces actually have no involvement in this matter."

The young lady's family is originally from the Syrian Jewish community, so
the two share a common language. But the family, said to be very wealthy,
never shared approval for their daughter's choice of a husband, and hired
mercenaries, armed to the teeth, to raid the village of Husan during the
wedding. Villagers expected a massacre, they later said, but the forces
reportedly left without incident.

Sima says she embraced to Islam and changed her name to Sujud. When Ma'an
visited her home, she was praying and read a number of verses from the
Quran, which she appears to know by heart. She also prepared lunch. She is
eight months pregnant. Sujud told Ma'an's Muhammad Al-Lahham, in advance of
a report to air on Al-Arabiya, that "there will be no peace in this region.
I've lived with Jews and I know how they think, and I've lived with Arabs
and know how they think. Both sides will not abdicate Palestine."

Sujud says that she understands her family's attempts to stop the marriage.
What she doesn't understand is why the Palestinian authorities would
cooperate in preventing the couple from completing legal papers for their
marriage, especially since she is soon due to give birth to a baby girl. She
explains: "I hate the [Israeli] occupation and the killing, and I hate the
[Palestinian] Authority, which is punishing my husband. No one can take me
from my husband. I love him, I love his family, and I love everyone in this
village."

Ma'an approached the Islamic authorities, asking that they clarify a few
points on the legality of preventing Jews and Muslims from marrying in the
Islamic juridical court, and whether the Oslo Accords, which dictate Israeli
and Palestinian obligations to either side, preclude marriage between
Muslims and Jews.