We In Gaza Were Given Hope By Ireland, Only For It To Be Crushed

I am the University of Limerick’s fully funded scholar. My classes start on the 7th of September. The next evacuation is September 14th. But instead of arriving in Ireland, I am trapped in Gaza.

In around one week, my MSc program at the University of Limerick begins. There is an unconditional seat waiting for me. But instead of walking into a lecture hall, I am fighting a bureaucratic block that is keeping me under bombardment. 

We were given hope. We believed Ireland’s vocal solidarity with Palestine meant an open door for our scholars. But waving flags and making passionate speeches on international stages means nothing when an administration hides behind rigid red tape to keep an admitted Palestinian engineer out and countless other students. 

Surviving the destruction was one fight. Enduring this relentless, cold administrative wall is another. Days bleed into nights of compiling legal appeals, answering arbitrary objections, and watching crucial September deadlines evaporate. The mental and emotional exhaustion of fighting paper walls while time runs out is overwhelming.

Recently, we learned there is a new evacuation process scheduled for September 14th. If the Irish Department of Justice does not approve my visa appeal by this date, I will miss this critical window to escape. Waiting another year is not an option. In a war zone, a deferral is a threat to my survival. 

We were encouraged to show a strict €7,000 minimum balance just to submit the visa appeal, as failing to do so may be grounds for refusal. However, Irish advocates advise securing a €15,000 safety net. As such, I have set up a fundraiser. The additional funds will cover unforeseen transit costs out of Gaza, emergency living expenses, and securing future PhD visas. Once this €15,000 is reached, any surplus will be redistributed to other students. 

We have done everything they asked and more. We officially submitted a 250+ page legal appeal, including over 50 supporting documents that successfully meet every strict financial and academic proof they demanded. We did our part. But the Department of Justice is taking an agonizingly long time to review it, and time is a luxury I do not have in Gaza. 

Death in Gaza is distributed completely at random, and it is closing in on me. My cousin was recently killed in an airstrike while simply working as a delivery driver. Shortly after, my parents were returning from a doctor's appointment when a strike hit right next to them. They survived by a miracle.

I am terrified to leave my house for any reason. I am paralyzed by the fear that if I step outside, I will become the next victim. I could be next at any second.

And yet, I am forced to sit here and wait. To the authorities delaying my visa appeal: you are contributing to my slow death. By stalling my fully funded scholarship over peacetime paperwork, you have sentenced me to death without guilt.

I want my next step outside of this door to be for survival. I want to step out to go to the border crossing, to the airport, and to my rightful seat at the University of Limerick. I refuse to let my final destination be a grave.

I am running out of time. The next evacuation flight is September 14th. We cannot let bureaucracy run out the clock on my life.