A scream from among the rubble
Video placeholder
Hello! If you’re watching this video today, today is October 30th, and we are together at the Language Rights Forum, I’m Mohammed, a 24-year-old Palestinian, joining you from Gaza.
In the summer of 2023, about 25 months ago, I was like any other student in another country, thinking about where to spend the summer. That summer, my choice was to spend it among the warmth of home, family laughter, and the beach.
So, my flight ticket from Berlin to Gaza was ready. But unfortunately, the outbreak of war was faster than my return ticket, and the speed and horror of events were faster than anyone’s ability to make a decision, even faster than my mind could keep up with.
Suddenly, I found that, as the eldest son in my family, a very large responsibility was imposed on me, and simply, I couldn’t leave my family in these circumstances. So my stay here in Gaza lasted longer than the period allowed by my German visa. The ticket from Berlin to Gaza, unfortunately, a one-way ticket.
During these two years, among the ruins of this house, and despite all the chaos and disorder that I was living through like any citizen experiencing war in Gaza, I was able to find a path with Respond Crisis Translation and get to know the Respond team, who always gave me the love and hope I needed to continue despite everything happening.
Under the rubble of this house, I lost my books, my clothes, and all my devices. But the loss was much greater than that, beneath the ruins of this house, much warmth, memories and children’s toys are still buried.
Under the rubble of this house lies stability, and lies a private space that is no longer private. Under the ceiling of this house, through Repspond, I was able to help many people by translating their asylum papers for European countries. I was, of course, very happy to help people create a life that suits them better. But sometimes, there were difficult moments when I thought about how deprived I am of being able to create a life for myself in a place I love, simply because of where I was born.
During the long months of war, the media certainly conveyed much of what we experienced here in Gaza. But what’s certain is that the individual experiences and battles that every person living through this war faced were far greater than any media in the world could convey. These battles and experiences were, unfortunately, lost amidst the struggle to survive and the ever-increasing death toll. I, Mohammed, as a student and translator here, faced a huge struggle and a very strong battle to try to maintain the necessary balance during these two years, so that after the war, I could continue what I had been building. That is, trying to maintain a certain lifestyle that allows me to balance the harshness of the war and not collapse while everything around me is falling apart.
Sometimes, the stages were even more intense than the parallel war [personal war] itself, making me question whether there really is a post-war phase. If there truly is, will I even be there at that time? Or am I just wasting time, while the next explosion will silence my time, and this entire story will be buried with just one more person lost in the genocide? Despair slowly seeps into me, and the accumulated pressures grow stronger than my ability to resist them.
This is a story that isn’t meant to be buried. This is Mohammed’s story from inside Gaza, standing shocked between staying alive and resisting.
If you want to help my people in Gaza, this is the right time, and the opportunity to take a step forward in development or in psychological and social rehabilitation. And if you believe I deserve the best and want to help me, I personally, truly need your support, so that I can afford a suitable home for myself and my family - a home that gives us a sense of stability allowing me to take a step forward and continue developing myself.
This was me, Mohammed, briefly, and this was a scream from among the rubble. I hope it reaches your hearts.
Thank you so much, Respond, for conveying my voice to everyone listening, and thank you very much to everyone who is listening.
Peace.
