Abou Shmeiss says it was only years after beginning to write in Hebrew that she acknowledged that it is indeed a form of colonialism or occupation,[3] but that it came naturally for her to write in Hebrew – to her Arabic is a holy language, the language of the Quran, and she would be diminishing it by writing her everyday thoughts and feeling.[4] Her second collection, I Am Two, expresses this duality. She says that to Israelis, if she writes about her Palestinian identity, they view her as a traitor, and Palestinians view her that way because she writes in the language of their oppressor.[5] She says, however, "I have learned to live in halves".[5] For all the reasons she gives, those that are intentional and those she likes less, she says "I will probably never stop writing in Hebrew, thinking in Hebrew, and also dreaming.