Abed is a 30 year old man from Gaza, the biggest war zone in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is currently under the influence of the Palestinian Authority. He had to wait three days at the Gaza border to enter Egypt just so he could come use the Egyptian airport to visit his father in Jordan. Gaza doesn't have an airport since it was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in 2001. Since he cannot travel through Israeli territory, this is the only way he can do this.
Abed is studying to become a nurse. He wants to help save people's lives. It was only recently that he was able to graduate high school since the lifestyle is much different in Gaza. He has lived through three wars in his lifetime, and has put three members of his family in coffins as a result of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Abed speaks fluent English, doesn't want to fight in any wars with Israel, and simply wants to carry on with his life. However, there is something much different between Abed's life and mine. I have the ability to travel across borders relatively freely, I can drink fresh water whenever I want, and I have the freedom to use electricity and internet 24 hours a day.
Abed cannot do any of these things.
Meeting Under A Strange Coincidence
A couple nights ago I was walking around the streets of Cairo looking for Tahrir Square, the main downtown square in Cairo. Since my Arabic is so terrible, the only thing I could muster up to ask for help is "feen Tahrir" (where is Tahrir). Abed was the first person I ran into when I was asking for help.
He quickly figured out that I was from the USA, probably due to my accent. He told me that he was from Gaza. Since I had spent a month in Palestine recently, I was intrigued. People from Gaza are very hard to find since they cannot even travel to the Palestinian West Bank since it would require traveling through Israeli territory.
I told him that I was on my way to see my Egyptian friend Ahmed, who I wrote about in an earlier post. He then told me which direction to go to meet Ahmed at Tahrir Square. Neither of us probably imagined that we would see each other again.
Last night I was walking out of the public bathroom at my hotel, and sure enough, Abed was there. Out of all the hotels in Cairo that Abed could have stayed at, he ended up at the same one as me. We talked for an hour about the political situation in Gaza, the political situation in America, we shared our beliefs, and agreed to go to the pyramids together today.
Abed Shares His Story
Abed simply wants to live his life peacefully, and doesn't wish to harm anyone. He doesn't want to fight the Israelis, and is sick of the ongoing warfare. He is tired of having the houses of his peers bombed and destroyed in Gaza by the Israeli Air Force. He wants to travel to America, and to see more of the world.
Abed is a good man.
He knows that the Israelis treat his people poorly, but there is little that he can do to stop it. There aren't any guns in Gaza, he told me. He and his peers could not even adequately fight the Israeli military if they tried. Yet, many of the world's leaders (including Trump) do extremely little to help his people.
Instead, the USA government sends billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel. Who in turn uses them on his own people. The USA government doesn't even recognize Palestine as a country, something which over 136 other countries (most of the world) does.
He realizes that the people of the USA are not the problem, it is the political leaders. However, the political leaders of both Israel and Palestine aren't exactly perfect either. In Gaza, he cannot go to movie theaters or drink alcohol. Alcohol, in particular, is heavily looked down upon in Islam.
Much of his homeland is continually destroyed by Israeli bombs. This is part of the reason that electricity and fresh water are scarce there. There is a giant wall which separates Gaza from Israel and the rest of the Palestinian territories. If Abed tried to go anywhere near the wall, he would be shot and killed. It would be difficult not to notice that something completely wrong is going on here.
Freedom for Palestine?
Palestinians are human beings, just like the rest of us in the world. However, they are treated as animals. They do not receive freedom of movement, freedom to access clean water, more than two hours of daily electricity, or peace. Abed's people are some of the friendliest people that I have met during my travels. Yet death and warfare are daily realities for his people.
Until Abed and his people are able to travel around the land which Israel claims as its sovereign territory, there will be no peace. Abed wants to go to Jerusalem and the West Bank, but cannot do so since the Israelis (wrongly) assume that he is a potential terrorist. If I can see the humanity and excellent character qualities in the Palestinians, so can my country and the rest of the world. Free Palestine.