Keeping the Dream Alive

In 1969, Israeli soldiers burst into Terry Ahwal's home while she and her family were eating breakfast. More than fifty years later, she still vividly sees her father's arms up in the air while young soldiers kicked him, hit him, and beat him with their automatic weapons. Her mother's shouting and pleading also are seared in Terry's memory. And she still has visions of her and her sister howling from terror as they watched their father dragged into the street.

Keeping the Dream Alive: One Woman's Quest for Justice is Terry Ahwal's story. It details her years growing up as a Palestinian Catholic under Israeli occupation, her reluctant immigration to the United States as a teenager, and her daily battles in becoming a Palestinian American who cares deeply about both her homeland and her adopted country.

As Terry has ascended professional and political life in mainstream America, she also has endured harassment by the Israeli government for daring to speak on behalf of Palestinians. As an adult, she witnessed further horrors when she returned to Palestine with Jewish and Palestinian colleagues, and a U.S. senator, on an economic mission. She has since been banned from returning.

Her goal is not to cast aspersions against the Israeli people, but to support her fellow Palestinians, who have endured much hardship under Israeli rule, and to realize her dreams of seeing a lasting, just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

Table of Contents

Part I - A Palestinian Girlhood

Everyday Life   23

Death in My Family   31

The Fun Summer of 1965   37

My Grandfather's Illness and Brother's Birth   47

Catholic School   57

The Occupation of My Home   61

Part II - Life Under Occupation

Introduction to Hell   77

Soldiers from Hell   81

Strangers in Our Own Homes   85

My Aunt Samira   89

Our Lives Changed Forever   95

Witness to an Assassination   99

The Sealing of Our Neighbor's Home   107

Tony's Beating   109

Dismantling Civil Society   113

The Killing of Musa Al-Tawasha   121

Picture Gallery   125

The Wedding   133

No One is Spared (The Golda Meir Era)   137

   My Father's Beating   138

   Living the Best We Could   140

   Coming Of Age Under the Occupation   142

   The Death of Gamal Abdul Nasser   145

   The Munich Olympics   152

PART III - Going to America

A Palestinian in America   157

Turning the Tide with the ADC   171

Revisiting Horror   175

An Invitation to the Oslo Accords Signing   183

The Beginning of the Peace Process   187

A Country of Checkpoints   193

Visiting Palestine with Senator Levin   205

   Holy Week in Jerusalem   210

   The Official Program Begins   214

   Meeting With the Enemy   215

   Ignoring the Palestinian by Design   225

Going Home to Serve My Homeland   229

My Husband Encounters the Israeli Occupation   233

Banned From My Homeland   239

2018-Present Day   253

EPILOGUE   257

ABOUT THE AUTHOR   260