Tell me about life inside Gaza since the 15-year closure.
Omar Shakir (OS): The closure penetrates virtually every aspect of everyday life, from people’s freedom of movement to the ability to pursue educational or professional opportunities, to seek medical care, or to visit family elsewhere. It has also contributed to decimating the economy in Gaza, where 80 percent of the population relies on humanitarian aid and most families cannot access reliable electricity, quality health care, and clean water. Israeli authorities bar most Gaza residents from traveling via Erez, the passenger crossing from Gaza into Israel, to study abroad, attend conferences, or take vacations, activities most of us take for granted. While an American or French tourist can tomorrow board a plane and visit the Old City of Jerusalem, Ramallah or other parts of the occupied West Bank, most Palestinians in Gaza cannot. Many young people, who make up much of the population, see no future there.
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GAZA FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
FEATURE FINAL SCRIPT
WALAA
I feel the horizon in Gaza is bleak and closed. The people of Gaza have no independence in the future, their ambitions, their ideas or even their dreams.
HILAL
My hope was to become a professional in my homeland, my country, Palestine. But, as always, the travel restrictions imposed on Gaza players destroy all our dreams.
AHED
The right to free movement and to travel are human rights. And therefore, every human being should be able to enjoy this right.
TEXT CARD
For 15 years, Palestinians in Gaza have been trapped in what is effectively an open-air prison.
Israel bars the vast majority of Gaza residents from leaving through Erez, the only passenger crossing to the West Bank via Israel.
Palestinians should have freedom of movement, especially between Gaza and the West Bank.
HILAL:
Football is what inspires me. It’s been my hobby since childhood, and my only job. I only feel free when I am on the football field. When I play football, I forget about all of the pressures inside me.
Of course every player in Gaza wishes to travel and become a professional player because football in the Gaza Strip is considered amateur and not professional.
Most of the Gaza players want to become professional, either in the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan or any other country. I had the opportunity in 2019 to play professionally with Balata Center Club in the West Bank, in Nablus. I submitted two travel permits through the Palestinian Football Federation. The [Israeli authorities] received the application but did not review it.
It was ready on the Palestinian side. I was offered another professional opportunity from Hilal Al-Quds Club in Jerusalem. They submitted a travel permit on my behalf. It was rejected. It was a really important opportunity for me to become a professional and grow, I could have joined the national team. It’s typical of the travel restrictions imposed on us here in Gaza.
AHED:
Regarding the future of the Palestinian cause, how can we find a solution that is...
I work as a program coordinator at the Zimam Palestine Foundation in the Gaza Strip. The vast majority of our work in the institution is with young people. We educate young people on the Palestinian cause.
The main office for Zimam Foundation, where I work, is in Ramallah. It [was] important that I meet in person with my colleagues in the West Bank, in order to facilitate our work as employees in the same organization. But unfortunately, I was surprised by the Israeli security ban.
I’ve tried more than once to go to the West Bank but unfortunately... I’ve tried four times, but every time they deny me on the grounds of ‘nonconformity’. So I couldn’t leave.
Honestly, [these refusals] really affect me, as a Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip.First, it is my right as a Palestinian citizen to travel anywhere in Palestine.
WALAA:
Being a female filmmaker in Gaza is difficult. It takes twice the effort that it takes for men in the same field. In order to develop your skills as a filmmaker in Gaza, you have to travel, to leave. There is no film institute or college [in Gaza].
There are Palestinian filmmakers with a lot of experience and they make beautiful films, but we’re not able to connect, to meet, and talk as Palestinian filmmakers. We live in two parts of the same land but we are unable to meet, to collaborate.
There’s no airport in Gaza to travel direct so there are many things to consider when thinking of travel.
TEXT CARD:
Due to Israel’s restrictions, Egypt’s Rafah Crossing has become Gaza residents’ primary outlet to the outside world.
But Egypt’s restrictive policies, in addition to delays and mistreatment by border officials, contribute to the closure of Gaza.
WALAA
I had a workshop in Tunisia, an artistic residency for scriptwriting. The Rafah Crossing remained an option. My name was far down the list [of people allowed to travel]. I tried to move it up to be sooner. Early one morning, I finally received a notice by text message.
[I would only be allowed to travel] three weeks after the opportunity [had passed]. I’m unable to find a solution for these obstacles. They exist. They’re always there. So now I work for a community organization [instead].
TEXT CARD
The sweeping and arbitrary closure is one component of the Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.
AHED
The word ‘future’ brings about feelings of fear for any young person living in Gaza.
HILAL
My destination changed. Today I am not able to reach the West Bank. Today I have a dream that I want to realize. My dream is to become professional player.
WALAA
I think we have to keep imagining what life would be like without the occupation, the blockade, and the restrictions. It's the one breath of hope that allows you to keep living on this land and holding on to any bit of hope in life.
TEXT CARD
Israel should end the generalized ban on travel to and from Gaza, and allow freedom of movement subject to, at most, individual screenings for security purposes.
Egypt should end its restrictive policies, including delays and mistreatment of travelers, that magnify the effects of Israel’s closure policy.
Abier Almasri (AA): Palestinians in Gaza cannot decide if they can travel, or where, or when. Those who are lucky enough to receive a scholarship or job opportunity abroad might spend months preparing for those positions, only to be denied the ability to leave Gaza.
Many of these opportunities to train and develop professionally are not available inside Gaza, and people we spoke with described how missing out has impacted not only their personal or professional development, but also their mental health. These are motivated, educated people who are graduating from school and do not see a future for themselves living under closure. They want to travel and get training, or even see the world outside, but are unable to. One person, who was repeatedly denied a permit to travel, said, “There is no future in Gaza.… There is only a death sentence.”
How does Israel justify the ban and continued closure?
OS: Israeli authorities justify the closure on security grounds and point to the rise to power of Hamas in Gaza in 2007. But Israel’s policy presumptively denies free movement to people in Gaza, with narrow exemptions, irrespective any individualized assessment of the security risk a particular person poses. Palestinians have the right under international human rights law to freedom of movement, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, that Israel can only restrict on narrow grounds such as in response to specific and concrete security threats. These blanket restrictions clearly do not meet that requirement.
How does the travel ban work? Do people have any options to travel outside Gaza?
OS: Israel imposes a generalized travel ban on Gaza’s population. The majority have never left Gaza, especially those under 30. To leave, one must obtain a rarely issued Israeli permit that is restricted to a narrow set of exemptions, such as for an urgent medical procedure.
With travel through the Israeli-controlled Erez Crossing effectively impossible for most Gaza residents, the Egyptian-administered Rafah Crossing has emerged as Gaza’s primary outlet to the outside world. But Egypt often shuts its Rafah crossing. Even when that is open, as has been the case more regularly in recent years, Egyptian authorities heavily restrict travel, including through prolonged delays and, in some cases, mistreatment of travelers.
To circumvent these restrictions, Palestinians can turn to private Egyptian travel companies, some with links to Egyptian authorities, or Palestinian mediators, and pay large sums of money to reduce the risk of denial of entry or mistreatment and expedite their travel. But this option is unaffordable for most of Gaza’s population, and often forces people who are desperate to travel for medical reasons, or to care for a sick relative, or to not miss the start of university, to take on a huge financial burden.
With so few opportunities for advancement in Gaza, many take that risk and travel through Rafah. From Egypt, some have sought to travel irregularly to Europe, risking the perilous journey with the aid of smugglers in hopes of finding freedom and opportunity in Europe.
Can you tell me about some of the people you’ve talked to who have tried to make these journeys?
AA: I spoke with the father of Saleh Hamad, who graduated from secondary school in Gaza and wanted to get a job. With few opportunities in Gaza, Saleh decided to leave. His father told us that Saleh paid US$1000 to expedite his travel out of Gaza via Egypt in 2018, then to Turkey and then paid smugglers there even more to embark on risky travel by sea across the Aegean. Reaching Europe, Saleh ran into difficulties obtaining status in Greece and then traversed multiple countries by foot before drowning while trying to cross a river that divides Bosnia and Serbia, his father told me. Saleh just wanted a job and a better life.
Another man I spoke to, Yahya Barbakh, is the sole breadwinner for his wife, two children, his mother, and his sister. He just wanted to put food on the table. Seeing no way to do that in Gaza, he traveled irregularly to Europe in January 2022. He borrowed money and sold his mother’s jewelry to fund the travel, including the cost of expediting his travel out of Gaza via Egypt.
Between Turkey and Greece, the wooden boat that smugglers provided to Yahya and other migrants hit rough waters and sank, drowning three people. Yahya said he and the other survivors were rescued and taken to a refugee center in Greece. As rescuers sought to save others, he left a voice message for his mother on a friend’s phone saying in tears, “Mom, this is Yahya. Mom, we were drowning for two hours. The [authorities] just pulled us out.… Mom, the guys with us died … Mom, the fish ate us.” Yahya decided to return to Gaza. He is traumatized by his experience, vowing never to take that risk again, despite being unemployed and facing the same uncertain future as before. “What forced us to take this risk is the prison we live in,” he said. “I see the pain in my kids and my mother when they have nothing to eat. I don’t have a job and don’t know how to feed them.”
The outcome was different for Khalil al Najar. Khalil told us he wanted to travel for a scholarship he had been awarded in the United Kingdom. He tried several times to travel via Egypt, but Egyptian authorities repeatedly blocked him. He paid US$1,500 to expedite his travel out of Gaza via Egypt but was detained by police at the Cairo airport and deported back to Gaza. He said he missed his scholarship because of the delays but was determined to leave Gaza to find opportunities elsewhere. He left and paid smugglers to reach Europe by sea. After multiple attempts, including ones in which a boat almost capsized and arrests by different authorities (one by Greek authorities lasting four months), he eventually made it to Germany, where he currently resides.
What should happen to make peoples' lives better in Gaza?
OS: The hardships imposed by the closure, including economic devastation, speaks to the desperate situation in Gaza. The lack of opportunity for people in Gaza is part of a deliberate policy imposed as part of the Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians. This needs to end.
Israel must lift the generalized closure and permit free movement to and from Gaza. If Israel considers that its security requires vetting of those who enter its territory, its screening process should be individualized and subject to appeal. It has had plenty of time to develop such a system. By its generalized nature, the current travel ban is unlawful.
Abier, you were recently finally able to leave Gaza to work and pursue opportunities abroad. What is it like hearing these stories from others?
AA: I have my stories and I carry other peoples’ stories because I share a lot with them. I’m luckier than most in Gaza and work for an international organization, but even I only managed to leave Gaza for the first time in 2018, when I was 31. When I see how easy it is for others around the word to move freely, it is hard to accept the reality for Palestinians in Gaza. It is painful to know that so many are deprived of the basic right to move freely just because they are Palestinians living in Gaza.
I recall speaking to Khalil and hearing him describe life outside Gaza. He described how horizons have expanded now that hard borders and arbitrary restrictions no longer dictate his life choices and how his dreams have become plans that he feels he can achieve. Reflecting on his journey, he told me that he misses his family, community, and life in Gaza, but that, ultimately, “freedom is priceless.”
*This interview has been edited and condensed.
