Between two homes and two peoples: as a boy, Muhammad Hussein--the son of a Palestinian father and an Israeli mother--confronted Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. Today, he's a sergeant in the Israeli army.

At first glance, the photograph of an anonymous helmeted soldier in combat gear, crouching in the sand, M-16 rifle in hand, looked like another of the countless images published in Israeli newspapers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--this one taken during an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip last fall. Yet the truths of the image were more complicated than that. To begin with, there is the question of the soldier's name.

To his Israeli, Jewish mother, Stella Peretz, and his friends in Dimona, the Israeli town where he went to high school, the soldier is Yossi Peretz. To his Palestinian, Muslim father, Adel Hussein, and those who knew him in Nur Shams, the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank where he grew up, he is Muhammad Hussein.

To his divorced parents, when they speak of him together--and they seem to speak of little else at such times--he is simply "the child," their only one.

It may seem that this child of twin identity was given a rare gift: the ability to understand both Israelis and Palestinians at a depth few reach. But he sees his story as a tragedy.

TORN BETWEEN TWO SIDES

In his 21 years, Sergeant Hussein first lived peacefully as a young boy in a Palestinian village, visiting relatives in Israel at will. Later, he donned the uniform of a Palestinian fighter and chased Israeli soldiers with other boys, stones in hand. After his parents divorced, he moved to Israel with his mother, finished high school, and joined the Israeli army.

To be near his son, his father left his Palestinian town and lived as an illegal immigrant in Israel. When an Israeli policeman arrested him in January, he was briefly deported to the West Bank, where his son round him and brought him back to Israel.

Sergeant Hussein firmly identifies himself as an Israeli and a Jew, though he chose to serve in the army under his birth name (Muhammad Hussein). Yet he says he belongs with both his parents. "Once I thought, 'This is where my mom and dad are, and this is where I'll build my life,' " Sergeant Hussein says. Now he fears his mother and father will end up on different sides of an irrevocable boundary. "And I don't know where I am in all this."

AN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN MARRIAGE

It's hard to tell where stories of lives warped or ended by the conflict between Jews and Arabs begin: in the Arab Israeli War of 1967 that led to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 at Israel's creation; in the Old Testament story of Abraham's divided family and the origins of Judaism and Islam.

Sergeant Hussein's parents met in 1973, two runaways from broken homes, in a Tel Aviv restaurant. To get married, Adel Hussein applied to convert to Judaism and was turned down by the Israeli religious authorities. So Peretz converted to Islam for the two to have a state approved marriage.

Even in those days of openness between Israel and the Palestinian territories, Israeli-Palestinian marriages were rare. The newlyweds moved to the Nur Shams refugee camp. After nine years of marriage, the couple had Muhammad. All three family members spoke of their early years in the West Bank with a nostalgic tenderness.

Sergeant Hussein remembers hikes with his father through nearby pine forests. He dreamed of becoming a doctor. He remembers the Sony Walkman his father bought him as a reward for a stellar report card.

But during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Muhammad began joining other Palestinian boys and confronting the Israeli soldiers patrolling Nur Shams.

Later, as a teenager, Muhammad became attracted to radical Palestinian groups. He says his father told him to stay away from them, but one day Muhammad showed up in a Palestinian uniform. The next Palestinian uprising was still some three years off, but violence was increasing. "I saw my son deteriorating," says Add Hussein. "I have only one son. I have nothing else."

BECOMING YOSSI PERETZ

He sent the boy and his mother to Dimona, a desert town of apartment houses of crumbling concrete where Israel has settled poor Jewish immigrants from places like Morocco, Russia, and Uzbekistan.

In Dimona, at age 16, Muhammad Hussein became Yossi Peretz. He had his bar mitzvah and mastered Hebrew. He won an award for an antidrug play he produced. At the same time, he struggled in a new school system. Having attended same sex schools, he was startled to find himself in class with girls, with classes taught by women. His mother confronted poverty. His hopes for a medical career died.

His father had expected to remain in Nur Shams but to regularly see his son and ex-wife. But Palestinian officials demanded that he bring back his son. He says that when he refused, shots were fired at his door. His house was partly burned and smeared with graffiti accusing him of being a Jew. Palestinian officials say the attacks weren't political, but Adel Hussein says he feared for his life. He fled to Israel and has lived there illegally, passing as an Israeli Arab, until his arrest.

Sergeant Hussein says that the way his father was treated settled his uncertainty about joining the Israeli army. "I was considering if I could face the people I grew up with most of my life. But when they burned down our house, and wrote that graffiti on the walls, it made the decision very easy."

Adel Hussein says he told his son: "If they post you at a checkpoint and you see me, and I'm hot supposed to cross, then you should stop me and not let me through. You should do your job with total loyalty."

Sergeant Hussein is defending Israel against Palestinians, while fighting with his government to accept his Palestinian father. He speaks sometimes with bitterness of both societies. "I saw the life here, and I saw the life there," he says. "It's the same thing. Everybody's looking out for their own interest, and that's it."

His father argues against that cynicism. "What I keep telling my son is, it doesn't matter. Respect the old and guard the young, and be loyal. There are Jews who love Arabs and Arabs who love Jews, and God above everything. Everything else is secondary."

A SON RESCUES HIS FATHER

Now Sergeant Hussein is hopeful that he and his father will never again be parted. After his father's arrest, an Israeli court temporarily suspended his banishment, pending a hearing to decide whether he can remain in Israel permanently.

Since the court ruling, father and son have been able to walk openly through the streets of Tel Aviv. Before that, at each meeting or parting from his father--knowing he might not see him for months--Sergeant Hussein, a burly soldier, would shake with sobs.

But when his father was caught by Israeli police and sent into Palestinian territory, it was Sergeant Hussein who rushed to find his father and bring him back to Israel. "I'm here," he murmured in Hebrew to his father, who was crying with fear and cold. "I'm going to bring you back across now, no matter what happens."

LESSON PLANS

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* How might Muhammad Hussein answer a fellow soldier who accused him of divided loyalties?

* Imagine what it must be like to live like Sergeant Hussein. How would you describe your situation to a visitor from the U.S.?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has affected one family and left a young man struggling to find his way between two sides in a seemingly endless war.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

BACKGROUND: Students will undoubtedly find the story of Muhammad Hussein moving. After they finish reading, tell them that the reason Muhammad's parents divorced was so that his Israeli mother could take her son, then 16, into the relative safety of Israel. It was there that he learned Hebrew, was bar mitzvahed, and began going by his Hebrew name, Yossi Peretz.

COURT STRATEGIES: The article reports that an Israeli court temporarily suspended Sergeant Hussein's father's deportation to Palestinian territory until a hearing can determine his status.

You might break the class into three groups: prosecutors, who argue that the deportation should be reimposed permanently; defense attorneys, who argue that Adel Hussein should be allowed to live in Israel; and a group of judges who must hear both arguments and then vote for or against the deportation of Adel Hussein.

PROSECUTION: What evidence does the article present that would tend to favor the prosecutors' argument? (You might remind students about the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and other Arabs as well. Can Israel afford to take a chance that a nonresident Palestinian is not a threat to security?)

DEFENSE: What evidence does the article present that would help the judges decide in Adel Hussein's favor? (Adel Hussein told his son to stay away from radical Palestinian groups and to do his army duty with "total loyalty"--even if that meant turning his father back at a security checkpoint.)

JUDGES: Judges may go beyond a strict yes or no. For example, if they vote to deport Adel Hussein, they might allow visits to Israel with certain conditions. If they allow him to live in Israel, they might require conditions similar to those imposed on parolees, including regular visits to police or other authorities and restrictions on his movement.

Upfront QUIZ 2

DIRECTIONS: Circle letter next to the best answer.

1. Sergeant Hussein's early experience of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was undoubtedly shaped by his

a visits to Jerusalem, Israel's capital.

b growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp.

c knowledge of Israeli history.

d youthful idealism.

2. Adel Hussein left his Palestinian town and lived illegally in Israel to

a be near his son.

b return to his birthplace.

c earn a living.

d aid the Palestinian cause.

3. It's difficult to pinpoint the origins of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Some point to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that led to

a the partition of Israel into Jewish and Arab sectors.

b the deaths of thousands of Arab soldiers.

c the stationing of UN troops in Arab areas.

d Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

4. Others say the origins of the conflict date from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, a battle that followed

a a loss of Israeli territory.

b the bombing of holy sites in Jerusalem.

c the destruction of much of the Middle East's oil reserves.

d the creation of Israel as an independent country.

5. Adel Hussein sent his son and ex-wife to live in Israel because

a of the divorce.

b the law required Jews to live in Israel.

c be wanted to keep his son away from radical groups.

d it was probably one of the safer places in the region.

6. The most accurate description of Sergeant Hussein's view of Israeli and Palestinian societies is

a support of Israelis and opposition to Palestinians.

b at times, he speaks bitterly about both societies.

c a longing to return to his Palestinian roots.

d neutrality on most issues.

ANSWER KEY

1. (b) growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp.

2. (a) be near his son.

3. (d) Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

4. (d) the creation of Israel.

5. (c) he wanted to keep his son away from radical groups.

6. (b) at times he speaks bitterly about both societies.

James Bennett is the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times.