Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. This week we’re speaking with Mark Halawa, who -- although Jewish from birth according to halacha or Jewish law -- only after some 11 years in Israel recently gained his Israeli citizenship.

That's because Mark was born and raised in Kuwait to a family of Palestinian refugees. His father, once a colleague of Yasser Arafat, is a secular Muslim. His mother is the daughter of a Jewish woman from the Holy Land who married a Muslim man. So according to Muslim law, he’s Muslim. And according to Jewish law, he’s a Jew.

Hear how Mark learned about his Jewish identity and made his way from Kuwait to Jerusalem, where he is building his own tribe of tolerant citizens of the world.

IMAGE: Kuwaiti-born Mark Halawa receives his Israeli citizenship, August 2021. (Courtesy)

Read more here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-a-kuwaiti-muslim-made-a-jewish-home-in-jerusalem/

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