profile

Ramsey Hanhan

A Short Story “The Orange Thief;” Moses; Bethlehem; +++

Published 4 months ago • 2 min read

Dear Reader,

This second Christmas under genocide, Moses comes to mind—not the wrathful old man, but the helpless infant in a papyrus basket floating downriver. The child was destined to perish were it not for the compassion of one person, the daughter of the very Pharaoh who condemned a generation of infants to death. Like Moses, Jesus was a survivor of a mass-infanticide. Jesus was saved by the compassionate intervention of his adoptive father, Joseph. Their journey to Egypt was a mirror image of Moses’ later escape in the opposite direction.

Today’s Babies in Baskets are calling our compassion, testing our humanity. Pharaoh’s daughter saw a helpless, crying baby. It didn’t matter that he was obviously a Hebrew child. Her compassion wasn’t the gentle, passive, charitable type, either. She chose to defy her father’s decree for what she knew was right.

Read more of my reflections on Christmas in “Give Unto Caesar.” I am happy to share with you my latest short story, “The Orange Thief,” which has just appeared in The Harvard Advocate, and two recent interviews. In anticipation of Christmas, I am also releasing a series of photo essays about Bethlehem. Enjoy this first installment, and keep checking my Medium site for more.

With love,
Ramsey Hanhan

SHORT STORY

THE ORANGE THIEF
​

Enjoy my newest short story, just published in The Harvard Advocate.

​

​

Still Running for Palestine

Together, and thanks to your contributions, my Iqraa team and I are have raised >$42k, enough to support the education of 42 Palestinian students. Though I finished my race, the race for Palestine is far from over.

Through the end of 2024, I am still collecting donations for United Palestinian Appeal’s Mahmoud Darwish Scholarship. Please help!

​

​

INTERVIEWS

Save The Olive Tree Podcast

Broad-ranging conversation with Omar Akhter about my childhood in occupied Palestine and my book Fugitive Dreams: Chronicles of Occupation and Resistance.

Arab American National Museum

It is an honor to sit for an interview with George Harb for an oral history project on Palestinian Americans. Listen to this pertinent and comprehensive conversation about the life of a Palestinian who came to America a teenager during the First Intifada.

​

ESSAYS

‘Give Unto Caesar’ While Babies Cry

Reflections on Christmas in the second year of genocide

PHOTO ESSAYS

The Road to Bethlehem

​

Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Shepherds’ Field: Beit Sahur and the Palestine Museum of Natural History

​

Ramsey Hanhan is is a Palestinian American author. His short stories and poetry appear in various publications. He also speaks publicly about Palestine and literature. He was formerly a physics professor noted for computer models that describe and predict complexity in nature. Hanhan holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Michigan and currently resides in Maryland.

Fugitive Dreams is a literary exploration of the Palestinian experience through five decades of personal stories. Born in Palestine ‘on the “wrong” side of the border,’ Sameer finds his way to America to rebuild his life.

​https://fugitivedreams.us​

Available to talk about Palestine and books.

PO Box 374, Simpsonville, MD 21150
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

Ramsey Hanhan

Author and public speaker. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter for events announcements, upcoming books and other written works, and more.

Ramsey Hanhan (رمزي حنحن) is the author of two books on Palestine: an autobiographical novel, Fugitive Dreams, and a book of poetry and essays on Gaza (coming soon). His short stories and poetry appear in The Harvard Advocate, Fikra magazine, and elsewhere. He also speaks publicly about Palestine, literature, nature, spirituality, and healing. Ramsey was formerly a physics professor noted for his computer models that describe and predict complexity in nature. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and resides near Baltimore, Maryland.

Read more from Ramsey Hanhan
Ramsey Hanhan's book Fugitive Dreams at the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, Palestine

Dear Reader, … and February has run into March … where is the newsletter? In the interest of getting my upcoming book on Gaza ready for launch (soon), I’ve been taking a hiatus. Further, when I returned from Palestine in Oct. 2023, I emptied miscellaneous items in my suitcase into a laundry basket that has remained untouched since. The hiatus is also giving me time to unpack that figurative laundry basket and resume everything I have suspended for the last 16 months, including my grief (see...

14 days ago • 2 min read
video of Ramsey Hanhan reading poetry

Dear Reader, “Spring is our proof that radical, revolutionary change is possible, and very quickly.” This comes from my opening remarks at a “Poetry for Palestine” event, two nights before New Years’ Eve: “I invite you to look at Spring. Trees lay bare for what seems like forever, then buds sprout, and again it seems like forever, but you wake up one morning and you see flowers of every color, and the next week it’s green all over, and bird-songs fill the air. Yet it happens in the most...

3 months ago • 2 min read
The Iqraa team at the finish line of the Parks Half-marathon

Dear Reader, Thank you for sticking with me during this difficult year. I appreciate all your interactions and notes of support. Reflecting on a poem I wrote last year from Palestine on October 7, it occurred to me that everyone killed in Gaza during the past year – estimates range from 43,000 to 200,000 or more – were alive at the moment I wrote that poem. This sad truth points to a starker fact: that the loss of life since Oct. 7 was entirely preventable. By the evening of October 7, the...

5 months ago • 3 min read