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Israel suspends order to expel the Palestinian father of Israeli soldier, reports the NYT, in its ongoing coverage of the case of Adel Hussein, a Palestinian, and his half-Israeli, half-Palestinian son, Muhammad Hussein, a sergeant in the Israeli army. Palestinians consider Adel Hussein an Israeli sympathizer, and have threatened his life. Israeli authorities had considered him to be illegally working and residing in Israel, and had threatened to expel him, until the Israeli courts intervened today to suspend the expulsion.The son, of an Israeli Jewish mother and a Palestinian father, is in a lonely no man's land, while serving in the Israeli army.
This case so exposes the cruelty and utter tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that reduces the space for good decent people of all sides to be able to go about their lives, that it does more than all the thousands of inches of copy that have reported on the Mid East conflict.
But maybe there is some hope better minds will occassionally prevail.
"As Mr. Hussein walked to get an espresso with his son in Tel Aviv on Sunday — a public excursion that would have been highly risky for both men before the court's action [blocking the expulsion] — strangers called to him from passing cars or stopped him to shake his hand, congratulating him and welcoming him. 'You're staying with us, right?' one man asked.
"On the lapel of his gray jacket, Mr. Hussein wore a silver pin of a flying bird to represent his new sense of liberty. 'I haven't felt such freedom since 1999,' he said. 'I can walk with my son anywhere.'"
Must read the series, by the Times' James Bennett, part I here, part II here, and part III here. The photo in part II is just devastating. Thank G-d the Israeli courts intervened to right this awful wrong.