As a child I sometimes used to travel to the West Bank to visit my family so I know what the checkpoints felt like. I knew what it was like to live under occupation.

When people ask me about my story I just go through the positive stuff: the tent-pole moments the big landmark checkpoints.

After the Berlin Wall came down I visited that city and I will never forget it. The abandoned checkpoints. The sense of excitement about the future. The knowledge that a great continent was coming together. Healing those wounds of our history is the central story of the European Union.