Center for Freedom and Justice – Colorado July 18, 2021 Interview with Raghad al Afifi, Palestinian educator who lived through the May, 2021 Israeli air bombing of Gaza

Here is the YouTube link to the interview. It is worth listening to and has already gotten more than 500 hits in a few days

Shortly afterwards, Ms. al Afifi posted this commentary on social media, Below are some of her remarks having been able to leave Gaza for the first time in fourteen years:

“What must be talked about here too is that this is my first time traveling outside of Palestine in 14 straight years and that is of course because the blockade forced on Gaza. My family and I initially signed up our names to travel when the border finally opened during the past 11 days war back in May as an escape. Our names came out to be allowed passage through the border 2 weeks after the war ended and we decided to go anyway as a means to vent out the stress and heal the psychological damage that was caused by the war. Traveling out of Gaza and back was never the fun journey. Frankly, the trip back to Gaza was one of the worst experiences I had to live in my life. All Palestinians heading to the border were set to take a different road than usual -a longer, more torturous way-. Everyone had to wait 3 days in their vehicles in the hot summer mornings and cold nights till their turn to be fully checked by the Egyptian army. Much of the time was waisted in vain as random personnels in the army decided to just keep us waiting. Normally the trip takes 5 hours to get from Cairo to Gaza, but we had to wait for Godot, and not at any point we were sure that we’re actually going to make it back. When I’m talking about travelers here, I’m talking about people from different ages and life conditions who many of them were traveling for medical assistance and God knows how they made the trip and many others were international students going back to see their families whom they hadn’t seen in long.My hope for all Palestinians to find near salvation and safety. Free, free Palestine”