Abdallah Aljazzar, a student who was evacuated from Gaza to take up a scholarship in Maynooth University. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times
“I need a haircut,” I told my barber, Mohammed.
“Okay. The usual?”
“No, I am proposing to my love tomorrow.”
The lie came easily. I’m single. I have been for a long time. But I needed the barber’s hand to move with extra purpose and care, because this was no normal haircut.
A little while before, the Irish Government had called me. It was a Tuesday in August. “Prepare to leave Gaza for Ireland. Maynooth University is ready.”
For more than a year, I had rehearsed my departure from my home in Gaza like my little brother Ali practises flying kites. Now, the rehearsal was over.
I had big plans, but how do you leave your life? How do you give up your home? I wanted to leave with my spine straight, my dignity intact. One of my American friends told me, “Stay focused.” Great. Focused on what?
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