A Palestinian-American mother shares her harrowing story about her fight to get back to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sireen Beseiso traveled to Gaza in June 2022 with her 11-year-old son Aden for summer break. The single Palestinian-American mother from Salt Lake City, Utah, was planning to stay for just two months to visit family but ultimately decided to extend their stay and enroll Aden in the American International School in Gaza City because he enjoyed living there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in Gaza, both of their passports expired. Beseiso had planned to go to the American Embassy in Jerusalem months before the expiration was up but told Prism that Israel never issued a permit for them to cross the border to attend their appointments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to email the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and it was very stressful. And I was freaking out. I wanted to go back home,\u201d Beseiso said. \u201cAnd then we got stuck in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sixteen months after arriving in Gaza, Beseiso and Aden became one of the more than 1,200 people<\/u><\/a> with ties to the U.S.\u2014including citizens<\/u><\/a>, permanent residents, and their families\u2014who were stuck in the besieged territory and trying to make their way back home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Hamas\u2019 attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, resulting from 16 years of Israel\u2019s violent<\/u><\/a>, illegal blockade<\/u><\/a> of Gaza and the mass imprisonment of Palestinians<\/u><\/a>, the Israeli military has unleashed more than 100,000 artillery shells<\/u><\/a> and mass starvation conditions<\/u><\/a> on the highly dense strip, killing more than 21,731, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor<\/u><\/a>, almost half children, as of Dec. 6. According to U.S. officials<\/u><\/a>, more than 1,100 U.S. citizens and family members were able to leave Gaza as of Dec. 8. On Oct.16<\/u><\/a>, the State Department partnered with a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship and evacuated more than 150 Israeli U.S. nationals and their immediate families. The State Department also offered more than 5,000 seats on chartered flights boarding from Tel Aviv. Beseiso said 63 of her family members and 48 friends have been killed in the current bombardment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen war started, Aden started to tell me, \u2018They\u2019re gonna kill us all. I\u2019m gonna die,\u2019\u201d Beseiso said. \u201cBecause we didn\u2019t have food sometimes, he used to tell me, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m hungry. I\u2019m gonna go try to sleep [and] pray now. I\u2019m gonna eat in heaven.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Israel\u2019s assault on the besieged Gaza Strip began, Beseiso said she and her mother, who is also a U.S. citizen, called the U.S. Embassy multiple times, pleading with them to help her family evacuate. The State Department didn\u2019t respond until weeks later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were like, \u2018We can\u2019t help you because you\u2019re in Gaza. We only help people from Israel,\u2019\u201d Beseiso said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018What\u2019s the difference? We have American citizenship. What\u2019s the difference if we\u2019re located in Gaza or Israel? What\u2019s the difference?\u2019 And they couldn\u2019t help us. We called so many times. And they didn\u2019t help us. We had to wait till 27 days in the war in Gaza for the American Embassy to let us out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prism contacted the State Department for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As instructed by Israel, Beseiso, Aden, and several other members of her family moved south but still experienced constant bombardment in the southern region. On Oct. 29<\/u><\/a>, as Israel began its ground invasion, they plunged Gaza into a communications blackout, cutting all internet and phone lines. Beseiso said this was a particularly fearful time for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beseiso and her family went to the Rafah crossing a total of five times, even under threat of Israel\u2019s bombing. On Nov. 2, they were finally able to evacuate to Egypt. Beseiso and her son are still working out passport details and are anxiously waiting until they can arrive back home in the U.S. Her parents have safely returned to Salt Lake City, but the people of Gaza, many of Beseiso\u2019s friends and family, are still faced with the terror of Israel\u2019s attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have to stop this genocide as soon as possible,\u201d Beseiso said. \u201cWe need a ceasefire as soon as possible. Because a lot of innocent people are dying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Palestinian Americans living in Gaza have faced very different experiences from Israeli Americans in accessing support by the U.S. State Department to reenter the country. Israel\u2019s constant bombardment of Egypt\u2019s Rafah Crossing (the only gateway to leave Gaza that is not directly controlled by Israel) and its ongoing siege on humanitarian supplies coming into the region have made it impossible for Americans to leave the strip. According to UN data<\/u><\/a>, between January and July of this year, the crossing has only been open for 138 days out of 212 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rafah Crossing officially opened on Nov. 1<\/u><\/a>, allowing a small number of foreign nationals and injured Palestinians to leave Gaza after 26 days of constant bombardment on the strip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In early October, the Arab American Civil Rights League<\/u><\/a> (ACRL) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee<\/u><\/a> (ADC) created a call to action and a dedicated hotline to assist U.S. citizens who were trapped in Gaza. Ghassan Shamieh, a Bay Area-based immigration attorney, is one of the assisting attorneys in partnership ACRL and ADC who filed several lawsuits against the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense to ensure the safe evacuation of Palestinian American citizens. In the lawsuit<\/u><\/a>, both organizations \u201caccuse the US government of unconstitutionally discriminating against Palestinian Americans by not securing their safety and well-being.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter Oct. 7, people were scrambling to try to get their families evacuated out of Gaza. And it was quickly realized by these families of U.S. citizens that there was no coordinated effort by the U.S. government to get these people out,\u201d Shamieh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Shamieh, the State Department intended to bring U.S. citizens from Gaza onto chartered flights from Tel Aviv, but because of Israel\u2019s tight control on the borders, no one from Gaza can make it to Tel Aviv; the only possible route is through the Rafah Crossing in Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shamieh, together with the ACRL and ADC, identified citizens in Gaza and filed lawsuits against the State Department to pressure the government to bring them home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShortly after filing one of the lawsuits, my client, an 81-year-old woman, was put on the list to be evacuated,\u201d Shamieh said. \u201cAnd we think the lawsuits nationally combined have put pressure on the government to force them to take a second look at this. Once our clients do make it into Egypt, these lawsuits are dropped or withdrawn because at that point our goal has been accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shamieh also shared that their clients who safely evacuated Gaza have also experienced additional interrogation and detention at the airport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s happening to those people who have ties to an Arab or Muslim country. Green card holders or visas [are being targeted], but it\u2019s [also] happening to U.S. citizens. And they\u2019re being held for hours on end, phones being searched. Now, legally, the Border Patrol has the right to do this. But we are calling out the disparate treatment and discrimination that\u2019s coming along with this,\u201d said Shamieh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n