Mohammed: The Student Who Teaches Me

 

I have worked in higher education for over two decades through my career in academic libraries, and during this time I have encountered students and educators who have affected me deeply, who I have collaborated with and learned from, but in all my life, I have never met a student quite like Mohammed. He has a light inside of him that refuses to be dimmed, even in the darkest nights when there seems to be nothing but shadows. He has a love for life and for learning that sustains him, that gives him strength, strength which he shares with everyone he knows, including me.

Mohammed is from Gaza, Palestine. He is currently still in Gaza, but there is the possibility that he may be able to come to the university where I work to complete his undergraduate degree, and I am determined to do everything I can to make this possibility a reality. Mohammed is also the primary contact for one of the families who I have been trying to connect to my local community here in Bellingham. I have spoken about Mohammed during the public presentations, “Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices,” presentations which were developed in collaboration with the featured families. Mohammed has generously shared many things with me, and he has also given me much to share with my local community. In doing this, he has helped me raise support not just for his own family, but for other families in Gaza too.

Back in May 2025, when I told Mohammed I would be giving a version of this presentation at Western Washington University, and when I explained how I also wanted to talk about what I see as our obligation and responsibility as students and educators to our peers and colleagues in Gaza, he was very excited to tell me more about his educational journey, and to share more about his love of learning.

He has been enamored with education from an early age, and his middle school and high school years were filled with numerous achievements and awards. He excelled in his classes, and his successes inspired him to become even more dedicated to pursuing his education. When he graduated from high school, he ranked among the highest percentile of his peers.

As Mohammed explains, “I’ve always loved studying and cared deeply about knowledge, and I’ve dreamed of being successful in my academic life. I’m still striving for that to this day. Now that I've reached the university level, I dream of excelling in my studies and hope to be able to complete them successfully.”

Mohammed is currently an engineering student, and he has been taking classes online in Gaza this entire time, even in the midst of the forced starvation and falling bombs, and he has done really well. He is also as dedicated to his family and his community as he is to his studies. And every time we speak, he demonstrates a rare emotional depth and understanding based in integrity and compassion that affects me profoundly. I always tell people that I respectfully and affectionately refer to Mohammed as “The Student Who Teaches Me,” as he shows me time and time again that wisdom is not something that only comes with age. I am grateful every time we have a chance to talk. He has taught me so much about commitment, about what it means to hold on to life, to love, to beauty and morality, even in the face of devastation, destruction, and suffering. I am proud to know him, to be his friend, and to have his friendship.

Over this past year, I have also tried to find more supporters for Mohammed at WWU. A student at Western once asked me if I thought Western would benefit from Mohammed joining the university as a student, to which I replied absolutely and unequivocally, yes. Western would be lucky to have him as a student, and Bellingham would be lucky to have him in our community. I have no doubt that we would be the ones gaining so much through his presence.

Towards the end of this past academic year I received a verbal commitment from WWU to fund the remainder of Mohammed’s undergraduate education, as they would offer support to him as a student displaced because of war whose educational journey has been disrupted, if we are able to help Mohammed apply as a transfer student and once he is formally accepted to the university. This is our focus right now, and we are facing each new challenge as we work on pulling together the materials he will need for his application, while also fundraising to cover the costs of the various fees, documents, and other expenses he will need. This is all happening while every day is still a struggle for survival, and as Mohammed continues to take care of his family.

I write and share these words today with Mohammed’s blessing and permission, as we make another attempt to reach more people in new ways, in order to expand our circle of supporters. I hope if you are reading these words, you will take advantage of this opportunity to give your support to a student who deserves the chance to pursue his dreams and rebuild his life. You can make a difference by helping a dedicated student at this critical time. You can help by giving your support to Mohammed’s educational fundraising campaign and his family’s survival campaign.

Thursday, August 28, 2025 - Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices

On Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 7pm at the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center here in Bellingham, I will be giving another presentation of "Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices." I hope if you have not already attended (or even if you have!) that you will come and join us for this special event. It is an opportunity to learn more about families in Gaza who are trying to survive the ongoing accelerated genocide, and find out about how you can add your support to that of so many of us in the Bellingham & Whatcom County (and also Whidbey, and now also Tonasket & Okanogan) areas and communities.

The featured families themselves have given us so much, and are still sharing with us all that they can. We owe it to them to listen to what they are saying, and to do everything possible to help them survive.  

I really hope to see you there. 

(Special thanks to the eight featured families, to Whatcom Families for Justice in Palestine, to the Whatcom Coalition for Palestine, and to the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center).

Displacement

I recently read an article, "Displacement as trauma and trauma as displacement in the experience of refugees," by Monica Luci, about displacement and trauma, the impacts on survivors, the scars it leaves. There was a passage that talked about the "irreversible loss of  home," and explained how: 

"There is a powerful sense of rightness in being at home: safety, meaningful connections to others, nurturing and stability, and other conditions that favour growth and prosperity. Home is where one dwells, concretely and metaphorically: it is the core of our existence as human beings, something very fundamental and also very symbolic."

Displacement. Again, I struggle with words that are not strong enough, that cannot adequately communicate the depth and full spectrum of all they are intended to encompass. How is this word supposed to capture the full extent of the damage and impact, its physical, psychological and emotional effects, its legacy of intergenerational trauma, the ever-present anxiety, its instillation of fear? No safety. No rest. 

The specter and reality of displacement looms heavily over every Palestinian, no matter where they may be. They carry it in their bodies, in their hearts, in their families. 

Displacement is a form of violence. It is integral to this genocide. Displacement is stressful and traumatizing. It is a tortuous harmful infliction, an expensive and painful process, something that carries the weight and feeling, the devastation and loss of previous displacements. Displacement is traumatic, dangerous, difficult, and filled with suffering.

This article goes on to explore the relationship between one's home and one's sense of self, and also touches on not just the trauma of displacement, but how trauma can also cause displacement within one's own self--the trauma of displacement, of the displacement within one's own self, in addition to their displacement from their physical exterior environment. 

"...there is an inner displacement in the self due to a dramatic change in the interplay between inner and outer worlds that profoundly alters the previous organization between the ego-complex and other autonomous complexes. The word displacement derives from the French deplacer, which is ‘the removal of something from its usual place or position by something which then occupies that place or position’. Other meanings of the word are more technical, but the emphasis is always on not only the movement, but the extraction of something from a natural place and its substitution/replacement by something else. There is implied in the meaning a sense of territorial contention..."

The removal of something from its natural place by something which then occupies that place. Displacement. Occupation. Trauma. Words that contain and carry more than they can hold, for people who are enduring more than anyone should ever have to experience. Luci also talks about the split that can happen, how trauma can divide a person's self.

"Often what happens in trauma is that, when psyche and soma are forced apart, their cohesion is sacrificed to the need to survive psychically, and the body insists on witnessing what the mind cannot bear. This means that memories are encoded in the most primitive way, as motoric or sensory body memories divorced from emotion and cognition, which are easily aroused after trauma."

Every family I speak with in Gaza--every single one, not only the eight families who I am most committed to, but dozens and dozens of families--have all witnessed and been exposed to extreme violence and experienced trauma, and have all been forcibly displaced multiple times. And it is happening again, right now, as Israel is expanding its violence and moving forward with its plan to completely destroy Gaza City and the surrounding areas, terrorizing and targeting civilians without any pretense or guise, flying drones nearby to enhance psychological terror, drones that play gleefully threatening audio messages exclaiming, “Wait and see, people of Gaza, wait for what’s coming to you!” ensuring there is no rest, no safety, not even a single moment devoid of fear or terror. 

Yesterday, the U.S. and Israel announced another deal between Israel and Boeing to purchase two Boeing-made KC-46 military aerial refueling tankers in a $500 million deal to be financed with U.S. military aid. The Israeli Occupation already uses four Boeing-made KC-46 aerial tankers in this genocidal war, but the Ministry Director General Amir Baram said in a statement on August 20, 2025 statement that the aircraft would "strengthen the military's long-range strategic capabilities, enabling it to operate farther afield with greater force and with increased scope." 

With greater force and increased scope. 

They are bombing children. They are bombing families. They are bombing every form of life, every structure, every piece of land and all who inhabit it. Every animal, every stone, every tree, every memory. And they have announced their intention to do this throughout Gaza. They are implementing a plan to completely destroy every remaining structure, every house, to travel street by street, to kill and uproot those who remain, to cut off water and food from those still in the north, and now with even more support from the U.S., they can do this with greater force and increased scope. 

To those who read these words, I ask if they make you feel as sick as they make me feel? And does this sickness compel you to act? And again I say, for those of us in the U.S., what is being done to the Palestinian people could not be happening without this country, without our taxes, our government, our institutions and businesses and media upholding this genocide, while also providing material support, political cover, and weapons of mass destruction. We bear responsibility, and we have a moral and human obligation to do all we can to end this. And we must also at the same time provide as much support as possible to those who are trying to survive. This is not charity. It is not us offering gifts. It is owed. It is the bare minimum of what we should be doing.

It is not an exaggeration for me to tell you that every single family is in more danger than they have ever been in before, and desperately needs all the support we can offer. We must do all we can. 

Connecting Gaza & Palestine to Bellingham: About ‘Eight Families in Gaza’

 

This video offers an overview to why and how I've been trying to connect my local community in Bellingham, Washington (in the United States), to Gaza, Palestine, through the sharing of in-person presentations developed in collaboration with eight families who I am personally close to who are in Gaza trying to survive the genocide. 

I have tried to do this through writing, speaking, tabling, and participating in other community events and both local and online organizing. This video explores these activities and connections, and also touches on the responsibility Americans have to do everything they can to end the genocide, while also doing everything we can to provide support to Palestinians who are trying to survive. 

It is intended to be the first video in a series still in development, and to be used as a way to expand the reach of the in-person programs, while also generating more awareness, action, and support.

May We Be Bridges Toward the Liberation of Palestine

From Anas Al-Sharif's Twitter, August 10, 2025: 

"This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. 

Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half. 

I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls. 

I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you to take care of my family. I entrust you with my beloved daughter Sham, the light of my eyes, whom I never got the chance to watch grow up as I had dreamed. 

I entrust you with my dear son Salah, whom I had wished to support and accompany through life until he grew strong enough to carry my burden and continue the mission. 

I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers brought me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah grants her strength and rewards her on my behalf with the best of rewards. 

I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan), from whom the war separated me for many long days and months. Yet she remained faithful to our bond, steadfast as the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend—patient, trusting in Allah, and carrying the responsibility in my absence with all her strength and faith. 

I urge you to stand by them, to be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles. I testify before Allah that I am content with His decree, certain of meeting Him, and assured that what is with Allah is better and everlasting. 

O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me with mercy, for I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it. 

Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.

---Anas Jamal Al-Sharif 06.04.2025 

This is what our beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom."

Anas Al-Sharif was killed by Israel, along with four of his colleagues who were also media workers,  Mohammed Qreiqa, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and their crew driver, Mohammed Nofal.  May we not let borders restrain us. May we be bridges toward the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over their stolen homeland.