Alaa From Gaza
@alaafromgaza92 • 11,288 subscribers
Mom, Teacher, Writer, genocide survivor in Cairo. I write analysis articles on Palestine and the Middle East on my Substack.
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I was able to recover a few videos and photos from my life in Gaza. This one ripped my heart to pieces. It is a beautiful memory with my son Kinan, who was just nine months old. I had just come home from work and he was waiting for me at the door, sitting in his baby walker. The way my children greeted me every day after work erased every trace of stress and exhaustion. I watch the video over and over, taking in every detail. I see the floor tiles and remember how many times we struggled to choose them, how many stores we visited searching for the most beautiful, the best. Those days were tiring, but they were full of joy. I see the living room curtains in the background, the couch, and I think of how perfect they were. My home was beautiful. I chose everything with care, the best and the most beautiful for that home. Now I have nothing from that video. Not my clothes. Not my child’s clothes. Not his walker. Not the couch. Not the curtains. Not the tiles. Nothing. All I have left is the ache of longing for my home.
Alaa From Gaza575,114 Aufrufe • vor 10 Monaten
The past three days have been extremely stressful and draining. The attack led by Suella Braverman Patrick Christys and amplified by their followers and GB News viewers, simply because I want to bring my three children (all under five) and my husband with me during my MA journey, has been vicious. Suella Braverman, your own parents came to the UK as immigrants and built their lives there. If the rules you are advocating today had applied then, you might have grown up in India or Africa, not in Britain. I don’t understand why Suella Braverman hasn’t been asked to comment on my case on GB News . Maybe it’s because her own parents were immigrants? I acknowledge that deleting my viral tweet and deactivating my account after receiving a wave of hateful messages was a huge mistake. I will not hide. I will not stay silent. I will defend my rights that are defined and permitted under the UK visa system. Being accused of visa fraud before I have even set foot in the UK is deeply unjustifiable. My sole intention in coming to the UK is to pursue my MA.
Alaa From Gaza101,792 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten
Anyone who knows #Lebanon knows this song. It is the most iconic Lebanese resistance song, memorized by every Lebanese and Arab, performed by the legendary singer Julia Butros. Watch this video and see how the audience sings with passion and pride, shouting every word, from children to the elderly. Lyrics 👇 We refuse to die; tell them we will remain. Your land, your homes, and the people who keep struggling. Everyone, O South of Lebanon, has sold you empty words, Justice is crucified, bleeding out peace. We will remain here, even if the whole world fades away. Not a grain of your soil will ever be lost, O South. Don’t be afraid, O South, of time’s betrayal, Of the horrors of war, of the pain of deprivation. After all that has happened, after all that has happened, This home will always be ours, and the laurel trees will return, Blooming with dignity across your land, O South.
Alaa From Gaza70,167 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
As Refaat’s student, I am honored to carry forward what he always dreamed of. He wanted to translate the Syrian series that tells the story of Palestine between 1933 and 1976. At the Islamic University of Gaza, he led a team of students who began this work. They didn’t translate full episodes, only a few short clips. That effort died with Dr. Refaat. To continue the legacy of my professor and big brother, I’ve assembled a team of four displaced Gazans in Cairo to complete the work. We are translating the full series, all 31 episodes, totaling 22 hours.Below is a short clip from the series. Please share widely.
Alaa From Gaza237,887 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
One of the most striking scenes in Al-Taghriba Al-Filistinia is a dialogue between three young Palestinians. They debate Nazism, British colonialism, and the Zionist project with moral clarity — rejecting Nazism on principle, rejecting colonialism on principle, and refusing false choices between two evils. I've translated almost half of the series here on Al-Taghriba Al-Filistinia is a powerful drama that follows one Palestinian family through exile, resistance, and survival from the British Mandate to the Nakba, showing how ordinary lives are shaped and broken by history.
Alaa From Gaza56,662 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
I’m deeply proud of what I consider one of my most meaningful achievements: translating a Syrian TV series produced in 2004. It traces the Palestinian story from the 1930s under the British Mandate, through the Nakba, and into the decades of Israeli occupation that followed. At its heart is a rural Palestinian family. Through them, the series reconstructs an entire world, its rhythms, its language, its quiet dignity, with a level of detail that still astonishes me. I often find myself wondering how the writer and director were able to capture our grandparents’ lives with such honesty and precision. I’ve said this before, and I mean it: if there were any justice in this world, this series would have won an Oscar long ago. Here’s the promo. I’ve completed translations for 23 episodes so far, with only 8 left. You can watch it here.
Alaa From Gaza27,716 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
Please share! I do not understand how a series like Al-Taghriba Al-Filistiniyya, produced in 2004, was not translated before. This series is a masterpiece that portrays the lives of Palestinians between 1934 and 1976 with remarkable precision and depth. Its writer, Walid Seif, is a true genius. He did not depict Palestinians as superheroes or flawless angels incapable of making mistakes. Instead, the series presents class differences between peasants and city dwellers, the injustices women were subjected to at the time, and many other social problems that existed in any society of that period. Anyone who wants to truly understand the Palestinian cause and Palestinian culture should watch this series. This clip devastates me. It takes me back to the moment we were forced to evacuate our home in Gaza City and head south. I did not know it would be the last time I would ever see my home. I stood there not knowing what was worth taking, and in that hesitation I left almost everything behind. I truly believed we would return in a week or two. I did not know I was saying goodbye forever. I have translated 15 episodes of the series here:
Alaa From Gaza46,904 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
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A few minutes ago, Israel bombed a residential building. An injured child, a dead man, and a dead little girl were thrown to the roof of a neighboring building!!!!!!! The neighbors are climbing up the stairs to save the poor kid! Look closely! We need to admit that we are not in a position to fight back. We are the weakest in this genocide. We can't fight the US and Israel and win. This is common sense. What arms are we asking Hamas to give up? What's this all about? “The destruction of the Kaaba stone by stone is easier in the eyes of God than the shedding of the blood of a single Muslim.” These are the words of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The Kaaba—not even Al-Aqsa. The holiest symbol in Islam, held in higher regard by all Muslims than Al-Aqsa itself. This is the religion Hamas claims to uphold.
Alaa From Gaza23,662 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
I watched Al-Taghriba Al-Filistinia more than twenty times before the genocide. But I couldn’t bring myself to watch it again—until last week, when I began translating the series. Watching the scene of forced displacement at the very beginning of our 1948 Nakba broke my heart. We never imagined we would live through the same pain these days , yet here we are. Our suffering has never stopped. It only changed shape, faces, and years. The wound is still open, and we are still being torn from our homes. Consider supporting our project to help us translate the full series.
Alaa From Gaza18,425 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
The wait is over. ⌛️ Next Saturday, July 5, we launch the first episode of Al-Taghriba Al-Filistinia in English. For the first time, this groundbreaking drama, considered the most important work about the Palestinian struggle, is being brought to the English-speaking world. Witness the story of a family torn by colonization, massacres, and exile, but never stripped of their reselience and hope. Follow us and don’t miss the premiere. Streaming on Patreon. More details soon.
Alaa From Gaza17,886 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Please share the post widely 🙏 🌟 New Year, New Language! 🌟 🎯 Make learning Arabic your 2024 resolution! Beginners class: 15 hours for 45£ ONLY! What if by this time next year, you could read, write, and speak Arabic with confidence? In just 6 months, you can reach an upper intermediate level and start holding conversations! Whether you're starting from scratch or picking up where you left off, this is the perfect chance to invest in yourself. ✨ Why learn with me? 🔸 Real progress in just months 🔸 A supportive and fun international learning environment 🔸 Classes designed for complete beginners and intermediate students But don’t take my word for it – watch the video and hear from my amazing students! 👉 Ready to take the first step? Register here: Let's make 2024 the year you achieve something incredible! #LearnArabic #NewYearResolution #LanguageLearning #ArabicForBeginners
Alaa From Gaza23,045 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
I made this video in March 2024 to show the world the story of my three children. To tell people about our life in Gaza and to ask for help so we could collect the evacuation money, 17,500 dollars, to escape the genocide. Every time I watch it, I still cry. I look at the walls, the furniture, my children’s toys, their little outfits, and I keep wondering how that life vanished so suddenly, like it was never there. You won’t believe it, but I barely remember much of that life until I find a picture or a video that pulls me back for a moment. Genocide does that. It steals your memories. It erases the details of ordinary days, the ones you once thought would last forever.
Alaa From Gaza17,489 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
This is the reality unfolding at the American aid centers in Gaza today. Aid in one hand, a bomb in the other. Complete chaos. No structure, no order, no dignity. There is no registration process in place to track who receives aid or when. Some individuals take a box, leave, then return again and again to collect more, while others receive nothing at all. It is a system built on chance, not need. A family that has waited for hours might end up with an empty cart, while another collects multiple rounds of aid. There is no equity, no oversight, no accountability. Even the aid boxes themselves vary in quality. Some contain just enough food to keep you alive, never enough to truly feed a family. Others are relatively better, with more supplies. It has become a game of luck, not a system of humanitarian relief. To reach these centers, people walk for miles under the burning sun. The weak, the elderly, and those with disabilities are left behind. There is no aid for those who cannot endure the journey. For many, the road to food is a road of risk. Several people have been injured or killed near these centers, caught in stampedes or stray gunfire. In a place where hunger has become a daily battle, randomness is not mercy. It is cruelty disguised as charity. And what is offered as help today may easily spark a conflict tomorrow. This is not aid. This is chaos. Owen Jones
Alaa From Gaza14,968 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
"There were mistakes made on October 7, and from the beginning, there were things that could have been handled more swiftly. The issue of civilians, for example, I consider this a major mistake. Netanyahu and Israel exploited it to commit acts of genocide. Some of the civilians who were taken—non-military individuals—were brought into Gaza. The movement should have realized at the time that this was neither planned nor accounted for. These civilian hostages should have been handed over immediately to parties like Egypt, the Arab League, Qatar, or any country that could have helped deescalate the situation and relieve the pressure on Palestinians. That would have prevented Netanyahu from using this event as part of what Naomi Klein calls the shock doctrine, an excuse to carry out actions beyond what is reasonable or imaginable. The resistance failed to anticipate that the Israeli response would be so brutal and would involve crimes of such barbaric scale against humanity." This admission is not minor. It is, in fact, unprecedented. For nearly eight months, Hamas’s official rhetoric has revolved around defiance, glory, and calculated silence. But as the war grinds on and the humanitarian catastrophe deepens, with over 60,000 killed and most of Gaza turned to ash, a growing number of Palestinians inside Gaza have started to raise uncomfortable, necessary questions. Read my full article here
Alaa From Gaza13,972 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Support our project if you can, please 👇 I have assembled a team of five displaced Gazans in Cairo to translate Al-Taghriba Al-Filistinia. Palestinians who understand every nuance of the dialect, history, and emotion embedded in this series. We are working together to translate all 31 episodes. That is 22 hours of storytelling. We began in June 2025. This Syrian historical drama follows the Yunis family from rural Palestine in the 1930s. It takes us through British colonization, the rise of Zionist militias, and the devastating events of the 1948 Nakba. It captures the pain, dignity, and resistance of a Palestinian family fighting to survive amid loss and forced displacement. Share widely to spread the word!
Alaa From Gaza10,724 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Today, in Nasser Hospital, an unimaginable scene unfolded. A man, with a heart full of sorrow, was placing the new shoes his martyred grandchildren had worn upon their coffins. He spoke softly, almost as if in a dream: "This is Nana's shoe, the one that shines so brightly. This is Ahmad's. And this one belongs to Issa, as it matches his outfit perfectly. And here, the small pair, my precious Shahd's shoes." Israel knows no limits. It's the first day of Eid in Gaza. It's the children's happy occasion, but never happy in Gaza from now on.
Alaa From Gaza11,199 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
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