• Star Crossed Lovers

    Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank

    By Matthew Price
    The couple married three years ago after meeting in Jerusalem.

    She is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. Her name is Jasmine Avissar. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar. Jasmine and Osama's is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Full story here.

    This is a very sad story - I have to admit, I emphasis a lot.

    When marrying somebody from another country, the challenges you face as newlyweds are startlingly different from the ones normal people deal with.

    While most couples were dealing with paying rent and maybe buying a house, Tina and I had to deal with a more fundamental problem - which country would we live in? Which country would have us?

    Most newlyweds lay out their hard earned cash for furniture and carpets... Tina and I found ours was filtered off into the pockets of unscrupulous immigration lawyers and handed over to American and British government departments.

    To get Tina's permission to live in the UK cost us over £1,000 in all.

    To finally get my green card cost us thousands of dollars.

    And if the financial cost wasn't bad enough, Tina and I lost years. We were married in 2003 and we won't finally be able to start our lives until at least December of 2007.
    But maybe that indicates how thousands of miles and the meddling of bureaucratic governments can't come between people who care about each other.

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