Kurkaah

Haifa has become the most comfortable and sought‐after destination for LGBT asylum seekers from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip thanks to its status as a mixed city of Jews and Arabs. Sami fell in love with its streets, its Arab neighborhoods, its Eastern restaurants serving tasty and familiar food, the Haifa Bay as seen from the Independence Shield, and of course with the sea that was always there, like a promise that everything was still possible... Nimaar was born as Sami in a small Palestinian village near Ramallah into a reality of violence. His abusive and estranged father, clashes with the Israeli Army, and persecution due to rumors about his sexual orientation turned his childhood into a living hell. He manages to find solace on the football field, but when his sexual identity is exposed and the danger to his life becomes clear, he has no choice but to flee to Israel, a place he had always seen as a cruel enemy. In Haifa, he tastes freedom for the first time and meets LGBT youth from the territories and Israel. Yet even there, he discovers that the past does not let him go and continues to haunt him. "Korak'ah" is a stirring and heartfelt novel about loneliness, survival, and courage, and about the relentless pursuit of freedom and a safe haven. Eli Avraham was born in 1960 and raised in Beit Dagan., He is a graduate of the agricultural program at the religious youth village "Kfar Hassidim", completed his archival studies at "David Yellin College", and worked for approximately 33 years in the emergency department at "Assaf Harofeh Hospital" and in outpatient clinics. Divorced, a father of seven children and a grandfather to four grandchildren.