Earlier this week, 10 international locations recognised Palestinian statehood. With them, the variety of UN member states recognising Palestine as a state have reached 157 out of 193. This implies the overwhelming majority of the world accepts the Palestinians have a state. And but they proceed to be handled as if they don’t, with many experiencing the soul-crushing actuality of statelessness at borders and in immigration detention.
As a contract English-Arabic interpreter with Reply Disaster Translation, I regularly assist asylum seekers in detention. I’ve seen firsthand what it’s to be a Palestinian caught within the more and more inhumane US immigration system.
I met Mohammad (not his actual identify) whereas deciphering throughout his authorized proceedings, and over time I interpreted for him on a number of events as his lawyer sought to safe his launch from detention by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Mohammad determined to flee Gaza earlier than Israel launched its genocidal battle. However when he fled his residence, he didn’t discover freedom.
The journey was brutal and stuffed with precariousness. He was stranded in international locations that refused to recognise his homeland or the paperwork he was carrying; he was kidnapped by cartel teams, crushed, threatened, and robbed of his cash. Finally, he reached the US. There, believing that, maybe, the “American dream” might provide him security, sanctuary and freedom, he encountered ICE.
Mohammad had escaped one jail solely to be thrown into one other. The cruelty was so relentless that he went on a starvation strike – when he stopped consuming, the voice of his starvation was his loudest and solely voice, a determined plea for launch.
His starvation strike was greater than a refusal of meals. It was a refusal of invisibility. A physique breaking itself to be heard. He reported being humiliated, positioned in solitary confinement, and subjected to psychological strain throughout his starvation strike. The starvation strike – meant to say dignity – grew to become one other website of punishment.
Mohammad was pressured to interrupt the starvation strike after the court docket made clear that it could solely take into account him for launch if he was deemed mentally secure and medically clear. To fulfill this requirement and have an opportunity at leaving detention, he had no alternative however to interrupt his starvation strike.
When Mohammad ultimately determined to just accept deportation, the court docket heeded his request. The choose and prosecutor agreed: If he didn’t want to keep, he could possibly be deported. However deported to the place? The paperwork learn “Palestine”, a phrase that holds that means for him however exists solely fleetingly within the US immigration system. The US doesn’t recognise Palestine as a state, so the court docket defaulted to “Israel”. However Israel, which occupies the Palestinian territory, doesn’t grant Palestinians free entry to Gaza, nor can they merely enter the West Financial institution.
For Palestinians, particularly from Gaza, borders will not be merely traces on a map – they’re partitions of metal, paperwork and legal guidelines. You could say that entry is feasible via neighbouring international locations. Earlier than the battle, Palestinians from Gaza might solely return residence via Egypt or Jordan. Egypt’s Rafah crossing is now closed. Jordan bars entry until a Palestinian holds particular permits, uncommon and nearly inconceivable to acquire. Even when “residence” is written on a deportation order, it could stay unreachable.
Mohammad’s imagined “redemption” – which was going to the battle – was a mirage. Leaving the US system didn’t imply regaining freedom. It meant going through the merciless fact: To be a Palestinian right now is to reside with out exits, with out protected havens, with out the assure of a return even to the unknown. Even deportation, a course of that for others could imply going “again”, for folks from Palestine is simply one other entice.
Mohammad nonetheless insists on going again to Gaza. He has up to now resisted being deported to different international locations. He stays in ICE detention. Attorneys defined that there are monetary incentives to lengthen detention, since non-public amenities obtain every day funds per detainee. Even with a court docket determination, launch is commonly delayed.
In the long run, his story just isn’t solely about one man’s failed asylum declare. It isn’t solely concerning the US’s persevering with refusal to recognise Palestine as a state.
It’s about what it means to be stateless in a world that calls for paperwork earlier than it affords dignity. It’s about how “residence” turns into each a wound and a dream. For Palestinians from Gaza, the dream of freedom and dignity collapses into fluorescent-lit detention centres, and deportation turns into a journey not in the direction of security however in the direction of one other closed door and darkish future.
Courts can signal papers, immigration authorities can escort folks to aeroplanes, however no authority can erase the blockade that cages Palestine, or the insurance policies that deny its folks the best to return and transfer freely.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
