Reema Hamdan, Don't Tell My Father. (Doco/Photojournalism (2019))

My father is Syrian and he ensured we grew up knowing our beautiful Syrian heritage and culture. I had visited Syria numerous times but this time I decided to visit the Golan Heights, which by international law is Syrian land but illegally occupied by Israel. I had been told many times by my father how beautiful the Golan Heights is, yet when I finally rested my eyes upon my fathers homeland I was mortified. The beautiful, fertile, lush green land my father fondly reminisced about had turned into an ugly militarized zone with warning signs of land mines everywhere. Golan Heights exudes the tension, hatred and political instability the Middle East is renowned for. I could not tell my father the reality, but rather lied and said it was everything he told me it would be.

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