Palestinians in Ireland: ‘I have survival guilt now that I’m in a safe place and my family are not’

Two weeks ago, on November 12th, Faten Sourani logged into her Facebook account to check in on her parents and siblings in Gaza city. With phone communications frequently down, the law graduate who lives and works in Dublin, knew Facebook was the quickest way to keep up to date with her family. Nothing could have prepared her for the post which appeared on her screen when she signed in.

“My sister, her husband and their daughters had decided to flee south because they were worried about their safety. They went out holding white flags and walked through the streets that were designated as a safe corridor for people to evacuate during the specific hours when people are allowed to evacuate from north to south.

“But they were hit by a tank bomb and my brother-in-law and my niece, she’s five, were killed. The Facebook post said my brother-in-law was still breathing on a sidewalk but ambulances were not allowed to enter the area. So he died, he was left there. My niece was injured with shrapnel, no one could give her care either, so both of them died.”

Ms Sourani is a member of Ireland’s small Palestinian community. The 27-year-old originally came to Ireland to study for a masters in international criminal law through the Ireland-Palestine Scholarship programme and returned to Dublin last year after securing a job with the human rights organisation Front Line Defenders.

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The Department of Justice said 35 Palestinian nationals came to Ireland seeking international protection in 2022. That number had almost tripled by November of this year, with 91 Palestinians seeking asylum in Ireland to date. However, arrivals remain significantly lower than those seeking asylum from other countries.

I was going to spend Christmas with them at home but that doesn’t exist any more

—  Faten Sourani

“It has been absolutely horrible, it’s felt like a very long nightmare,” says Ms Sourani about watching the Gaza-Israel conflict unfold from afar. “For me personally living through previous aggressions on Gaza Strip, I already have a lot of PTSD. But also I have the survival guilt now that I’m in a safe place and my family are not.”

Ms Sourani’s friends back in Gaza say she’s lucky to be in Ireland because “Irish people really understand Palestinians and we have a long shared history of solidarity”. And while she did feel scared being in Dublin during last week’s riots, Ms Sourani firmly believes those responsible “do not represent Irish people but are one small racist group”.

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“I love seeing the big numbers of people that show up to the marches and the empathy they have for Palestinians. What I love to say about the solidarity in Ireland is that it’s unapologetic. They are standing with Palestinians on all terms and not censoring themselves.”

She believes the Irish Government should show similar assistance to Palestinians as it has shown Ukrainians. “Ireland’s calls for a ceasefire when other European governments weren’t doing that was commendable but they should also bring a small number of people here for treatment or temporary relocation.

Ms Sourani says her sister, who was badly injured in the bombing which killed her niece, could benefit from western healthcare supports. “She has shrapnel in her eyes and there’s no capacity at the moment to do an eye operation in Gaza. I’ve been appealing for her to leave the strip with my other niece who is six and saw everything.”

Ms Sourani last saw her parents, who are still in Gaza city and unable to leave because of her father’s poor health, three months ago. “I was going to spend Christmas with them at home but that doesn’t exist any more.”

No Palestinian wishes to leave their home, no Palestinian wishes to be displaced

—  Amir Abu Alrob

Amir Abu Alrob, an artist and data analyst who came to Ireland seeking asylum four years ago from the West Bank, is “proud to be in Ireland because I have the freedom to raise my flag and walk proudly as a Palestinian person”. However, Mr Alrob, who is now a refugee living in Dublin, adds that he has not felt comfortable walking around the capital since last week’s riots.

He believes temporary safe spaces should be created for Palestiniains in countries like Ireland but also notes that Palestinians do not want to leave their homes.

“Everyone deserves to be able to stay in their home and be safe and we do not want to create another refugee crisis. We need to fix the issue at the source. If everyone leaves what will happen to Gaza?”

Mr Alrob, who received his papers to stay in Ireland as a refugee nine months after arriving, believes that a temporary solution would be to open the border dividing Gaza and Israel and allow Palestinians caught up in the conflict to join friends and family in the West Bank. “It’s a painful process for any Palestinian to go through the asylum process – I know, it’s years of suffering trying to settle down. No Palestinian wishes to leave their home, no Palestinian wishes to be displaced.”

Yara Alagha, a research development assistant at the University of Sheffield, who is originally from Dublin, agrees that most Palestinians do not want to leave their homes but feel forced out by the conflict and regional instability. Alagha, whose cousin Ibrahim was evacuated with his wife and children across the border into Egypt earlier this month, describes her family’s return to Ireland as “bittersweet”. “The day they left Gaza it felt like Christmas, we’d spent the previous 39 days in utter despair so we do celebrate the small moments. Their main motivation for getting out was for their children – for their future and their safety. But people aren’t asking to leave, they just want to be able to live on their land without the threat of annihilation.”

Alagha and her family are trying to get other family members out of the Gaza Strip and believes Ireland should accept more refugees from the region. However, there is a risk of “reducing this crisis to another refugee problem” and “ultimately isolating it from the larger political debate around human rights”, she says.

“I understand there’s only so much Ireland can do and say. But there is still more we can be doing, we can use our UN channels to help stop the destruction of the entire strip.”