Thanks to my father, who taught me to know when to say Yes to the things which are right, and to say No to the things which are not right, to say No to the occupation and to the discrimination of people for whatever pretexts; who taught me to forgive whenever possible; who taught me that life should be lived in peace, love and freedom.
Thanks to my three brothers Taha, Jibril and Ismail who supported me during my career as a journalist and how I presented myself before society despite all the social pressures and troubles which I brought to them during all those years.
Thanks to my mother who brought me to this world full of contradictions. For her patience after she lost me.
Thanks to the Austrian government and the people of Vienna, who have given me a new home and much needed peace and security.
Thanks to Ramin who helped me in my exile and often pushed me to continue writing my diary, and has taken care of my website since I came to Vienna.
Thanks to my friend Ivo and his mother Riet, who supported me in many different ways and who contributed the Dutch translations of many of my articles.
Thanks to Aidan White and the IFJ, who always kept an eye on me, and who gave me the help and often necessary protection to continue my work as a journalist.
Thanks to Meredith Tax, who exposed my case and has always had an open ear for many of my problems, small and big.
Thanks to the various Pen Clubs, who often helped me and who made some interesting speaking engagements possible.
Thanks to Human Rights Watch who gave me the Hammet/Hellmann prize in 2003.
Thanks to the people from Gush Shalom, to the CPT Hebron and Rick Polhemus, to Bruce Boccardy from Boston, Ludwig Thallemer from Germany, to Dina, Romi and Zahav from Tel Aviv, to the people in different locations who invited me to speak about the Palestinian issue, to the many readers who sent me letters of support during the past years.
Thanks, of course, to anyone I may have forgotten to mention here.
I hope I will be able to continue writing articles of interest.
