Where are you originally from?

One of the first things I noticed about schools growing up in Gaza is that we have two different uniforms.

With a child’s curiosity I asked my family about the girls’ outfits.

A brief answer was often offered to this innocent question: Girls who go to government schools wear dark green uniforms while those who attend United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees schools wear blue-and-white striped ones. (Boys wear blue shirts or T-shirts and jeans, no matter what school they attend.)

When I attended school, I eventually came to understand the actual reason for wearing different uniforms. This was brutally revealed when I was asked a frequent question while in elementary school, a question that declared my status in Gaza: Where are you originally from?

Let me clarify something first. I was born in my family’s old house in Bani Suhaila, about 5 kilometers east of the city of Khan Younis…..more