‘Palestinian by Choice’ Wife of PLO Representative Supports Dream of Independent State by Gail Scott When you meet Christ’l Safieh, a striking blond Belgian Catholic mother, you would never guess the seemingly endless political battle in which she is engaged. But Christ’l, a former journalist and university lecturer, is married to Afif Safieh, the Palestinian representative in Washington and a Catholic himself. Together, they do everything they can to support the dream of an independent Palestinian state. “I tell people that I am Belgian by birth and Palestinian by choice,” she began as we sat down for tea in her living room, which is filled with exquisite Palestinian craftsmanship—the kind Christ’l is very keen on bringing to top fashion catwalks. In fact, she is working with British fashion designer Bella Freud, granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and daughter of Lucien Freud—some say the most famous British painter alive—to put Palestinian fashion on the map. “Bella Freud is an amazing human being,” Christ’l said. “Not only is she a first-class professional and designer of BIBA, the iconic swinging ’60s label from London, but she spends much time and effort fundraising for Palestinian refugee children through her charity, Hoping.” Two years ago, Christ’l took six designers from major European fashion houses to the West Bank hoping to incorporate Palestinian embroidery into haute couture. “Their enthusiasm was palpable. Bella Freud chronicled our trip in British Vogue, and Stephen Jones, designer for John Galliano’s Christian Dior collection, produced and now sells gorgeous hats with ‘made in Palestine’ labels in his London boutique,” Christ’l said. “The potential for this unrivaled craft is tremendous,” she added. “Much more than a colorful decorative art, it’s Palestine’s national living heritage. In refugee camps all over the Middle East, Palestinian women continue to pass down this unique and exquisite craft to their daughters and granddaughters.” When asked what the toughest part of her job here is, she responded without hesitation. “You know, I am more like the wife of a missionary than of a diplomat,” the former political reporter said. Because the United States does not officially recognize Palestine as a separate state, her husband does not have ambassadorial rank here as he does back home. “We have most of the responsibilities and duties but very few of the facilities and prerogatives that an ambassador and his spouse normally have,” she said. “We also seem to have a singularly bad sense of timing. We arrived in London the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and in Washington, three months before the Palestinians brought Hamas to power on Jan. 26, 2006. After that, all hell broke loose in the American Congress and it ‘rained’ anti-Palestinian bills and sanctions. “We definitely feel like the elephant in the room,” she continued. “The non-solution to the Palestinian issue is not just a Palestinian tragedy. The unresolved nature of the Palestinian issue puts the Arab world and the United States on a collision course.” In contrast, outside of town, the Safiehs feel increasingly welcomed across the country. “We can barely keep up with all the invitations,” Christ’l said, citing standing-room-only audiences at World Affairs Council meetings in San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and Naples, along with top universities such as Harvard and Princeton. “And we are delighted that many of our invitations are from Jewish organizations,” she noted. “Wherever we go, Afif and I can feel the audiences’ sympathy,” Christ’l said. “It confirms our opinion that Americans are fundamentally a decent society and that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the lines of a two-state solution is no longer a marginal position but the opinion of the mainstream in this country. We feel particular gratitude to former President [Jimmy] Carter for having the courage to express this reality in his latest book, ‘Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.’ Several opinion polls keep confirming the majority support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the percentage within the American-Jewish community in favor of this outcome is even higher. All that is missing is the political willingness to get there.” Their fight for an independent Palestinian state began back at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, where Afif was studying political science and international relations and Christ’l studied Germanic philology and later, communication science. “It was the height of the student movement in the late ’60s when everyone was talking about living in the ‘global village.’ Afif was a student leader in Belgium,” she recalled, explaining his early start in proactive politics. “I was already asking the tough questions and reading all the newspapers back in secondary school. I learned some lessons for life in that process,” she said. “Two political phrases of those days are particularly enduring for me: ‘Better take care of politics because politics will … take care of you,’ and ‘Bring imagination to power.’” Although they met in 1971, they didn’t marry until 1979 in Beirut. Together, they have lived in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Lebanon, Brazil, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States. Afif was a visiting scholar at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard from 1985 to 1987, after which he was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative to the Netherlands. In 1990, he became Palestinian general delegate to the United Kingdom, and in 1995, a board member for Bethlehem University, the Vatican-sponsored university in Palestine. In November of that same year, Safieh presented his credentials to Pope John Paul II and became the first Palestinian general delegate to the Holy See, also becoming the first PLO official to establish a dialogue with the Vatican. Next Page

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