The niece of a top Palestinian official who recently told Israeli TV that she loves Israel to the point of having tattooed Israeli symbols on her body has been disowned by her Palestinian family.
Born a Muslim in Ramallah and raised in Saudi Arabia, Sandra Solomon (pictured), 38, changed her name and moved to Canada where she converted to Christianity, an act her family roundly denounced.
Solomon is the niece of the late Saher Habash, one of the founders of the Fatah party and a member of its Central Committee who led the Second Intifada of Palestinian suicide bombings against Israel.
“I grew up in a home that hated the Jews, hailed Hitler, and praised the Holocaust,” she told Channel 2 in an interview Wednesday.
Solomon, who since became an activist on behalf of Israel, expressed her hope that Jews around the world would forgive her for the abuse she directed at Jewish people when she was younger.
Solomon wears a Star of David pendant around her neck and has another tattoo on her arm of the word “Jesus” in Hebrew above a menorah.
“The [forced wearing of the] hijab is the main reason I left Islam … and also because of the way of life under Islamic Sharia law,” she told Channel 2.
Solomon said her “dream, one day, is to come to Israel, to fly the flag and salute it.”
“The State of Israel was created not to be erased but to stay,” she added.
Solomon said that if her uncle were alive to see her today, he would certainly lead a smear campaign against her.
“I stand behind what I say and I will tell the truth even if it leads to my death one day. I will at least know that I’ve had the honor to die for the truth,” she said.
The interview was vociferously denounced on Palestinian social media, leading her family to disown her.
In a statement to the Palestinian media, the family said: “On behalf of Allah the merciful and the compassionate who is blessed for creating us as Muslims, and on behalf of the Habash family and everyone related to us, we hereby declare cutting all ties to a woman who goes by the name of Sandra Solomon, who not only rejected Islam, but started spreading lies about our religion and declared her love for Israel and loyalty to the Zionist state.”
In relation to her televised interview, the family said, “Sandra was not seeking the truth, only fame and money. Her conversion to Christianity didn’t bring her the celebrity she was looking for, so she turned to the sons of Zion for respite, who gave her what he wanted because she provided them with propaganda, using the name of Saher Habash who had fought for Palestine and wrote poems and books to it.”
“Sandra used Saher Habash’s name to peddle her empty story,” the family continued. “Saher Habash’s illustrious history was her ticket into money and fame. Unfortunately, Sandra is ignorant, lacking any education and savvy, which is evidenced by her oversight of her many relatives who died as martyrs and her focusing on one symbol, Saher Habash. The media splash that her remarks created will not affect the Palestinian cause and Saher Habash’s legacy, nor will it change the history of the Palestinians, whatever their convictions and affiliations might be.”
“If Sandra was really hungry for the truth she’d realize that Islam, which she abandoned, is the most glorious and most tolerant of religions,” they continued. “If she was hungry for the truth she’d realize that Christianity, her new religion, is inseparable from Islam.”
They concluded the statement by saying: “Sandra can enjoy her money and celebrity, we will continue to enjoy our dignity. As the Quran says, ‘Those of you who abandon their religion and die as nonbelievers lose everything in this life and in the afterlife, they are the people of Hell where they stay forever.'”