After a hiatus of a few years, we return to our tradition of summarizing the family news in a year end newsletter with photos and other links. The major family news this year is the presence of family and friends from  Jordan and the US for the wedding of our oldest daughter Tamara to Alaa Qasasfa on July 13^th. The event was preceded with a wedding shower in Jordan and followed by a honeymoon in Thailand and a trip for the newlyweds to the US this Christmas. This event was challenging because it was held in two churches, in two different cities, with people having to cross three different borders to attend. For more about this unique wedding read this article. Tamara has excitedly returned to her teaching job at the Jerusalem School (including a short stint with Dina as her assistant) while Alaa has returned to his teaching job at the Bethlehem Bible College. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

This week, family and friends crossed international borders and military checkpoints and overcame the usual political bureaucracies to attend my daughter’s two weddings. Why two weddings? Let me explain.

Like me, my daughter Tamara is a Jerusalemite. The bridegroom, Alaa, lives in the Bethlehem-area town of Beit Jala. It takes minutes to move between these adjacent towns, but they are kilometres away because of the 45-year-old political and military situation caused by Israel’s occupation of Arab lands. Continue Reading »

 By Daoud Kuttab

JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children’s favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person’s full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab.

Our family name came from the profession two brothers had a long time ago. The first Kuttabs were scribes who sat outside the court and wrote up petitions for people who had a claim with the authorities. Kuttab is Arabic for writers or scribes. Continue Reading »

I spent five working days in the Qatari capital of Doha teaching a course on writing opinions behalf of the International Center for Journalists. Forty Qataris between journalists and public servants involved in media issues attended in two repeated sessions held at the Qatar News Agency with twenty in either morning or afternoon session. Continue Reading »

(This was published in May 20th, 2010)

By Daoud Kuttab

My eldest daughter, Tamara, who studied and worked in the US, finally got her own Israeli-issued residency ID for Jerusalem. It took her seven years to accomplish this feat despite the fact that she was born and raised in Jerusalem to parents holding Jerusalem residency. What would normally be a routine act is a major hurdle for Palestinians, especially those who reside in Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The latest news about Jordan’s demands that Canada seize the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were on display in Toronto, brings back many childhood memories for me.

For perspective this is what has happened. Jordan has requested Canada to take custody of the scrolls, citing the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories.
Continue Reading »

In Gaza: Mostly Phone Terror But Some Encouraging Calls

by Daoud Kuttab

My cousin Sami Awad’s uncle Emile Farah, his wife, three children and an aunt live in the Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza city. Thursday was a day of terror for them as well as the Awad’s in Bethlehem. A number of militants seem to have been trapped just outside the housing complex that the Farah’s live in. A four hour exchange took place leaving those living in the high rise building living in sheer terror as they were seeing their deaths with every shelling of their building.

Sami’s job was to call his relatives every five minutes. He told me that every time he talked with his uncle or relatives, the terrified relatives would say that this might be the last time that we talk to you. He told me that he knew they were trying to get away from the fire exchange and every time Sami dialed the phone number he was scared that no one would answer and he would be unsure whether they were killed or that they had escaped the shelling. This uneasiness continued from noon on Thursday till about four in the afternoon. After four terror filled hours (with children crying in the background of many calls) the shooting finally stopped as the militants appeared to have succeeded in escaping the entrapment they had found themselves in. Sami’s uncle who is a retired UN worker finally succeeded in getting a UN vehicle to take the family to the home of his in-laws in a different, not necessarily safer, part of Gaza. Continue Reading »

Until my family and I landed in New Jersey in August 2007, I had lost
touch with what it meant to be a US citizen. I had arrived in Jersey
City in 1969 as a 14 year old boy with my family who immigrated from
the Palestinian areas. In 1980 after college and a few jobs, I
returned to east Jerusalem and worked in journalism since. Since then,
I have not spent any extended period in the US. My appointment as a
Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton brought my own family and
I back to New Jersey. Although many of my family members couldn’t
vote, we hungrily consumed the US presidential elections, religiously
following the primary season with all its ups and downs.
Continue Reading »

It ended rather quickly. After punching in the grades on the special peoplesoft web site of the university my last formal activity at Princeton University was over. In the span of this year I taught upper class students a seminar entitled New Media in the Arab world, ran a freshman seminar class entitled Authentic Arab Voice and taught helped a few more upper class with their Arabic in the Arabic Media III class.

My journey to Princeton started years ago when NY Times reporter Chris Hedges urged me to apply for a Ferris Journalism Professorship. He encouraged me again when I met him three years ago at a human rights event in Italy , I finally decided to apply and sure enough I was chosen one of the 2007 Ferris.
Continue Reading »

published in the Huffington post

The Kippa, the Keffiya, Green and Orange
by Daoud Kuttab

Upon arriving for my freshman orientation at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania back in 1971, I was asked to wear a cardboard beanie. Having just come from Jerusalem I was rather upset at having to wear that head covering. The beanie that I was given looked very much like the kippa that Jewish settlers wear in the occupied Palestinian territories. I later discovered that there was no connection between the two head coverings. Since then I have seen that small rounded item put on the head on different individuals include the Catholic Pope and the Anglican Bishop.
Continue Reading »