A narrow bridge to freedom: Flee, flee Palestine

I have a friend in Gaza. Let’s call him Khalil. 

We met online shortly after the war began, an unlikely friendship forged by curiosity, and a shared hope for stability in the region. When I sent a draft of this op-ed, his response was, “This article expresses every word inside me.”

We have written almost daily since the war began. Above all, he tells me one thing: he wants to leave. 

But there’s no way out – no open borders, no visas, no safe passage. Like countless others, he is caught in a cruel paradox: people debate the morality of the war, but few seem to believe or care that Palestinians like him are desperate to leave.

There are those, both in Israel and in the broader Arab world, who think Palestinians should stay in Gaza forever, whether as a matter of nationalist principle or political strategy. The world has tons of sympathy for the Palestinian cause, yet refuses the Palestinian people refuge anywhere in the world. How many of them would choose to stay if their own families were displaced, if their own neighborhoods and livelihoods had been completely destroyed? 

I will not pretend resettlement of Gazans would be simple, but for moderates who want to live in peace, the opportunity to flee Palestine right now is a dream. Discussions about allowing them to volunteer to move from Gaza are being followed with great scrutiny as well as hope. I imagine priority will be given to those who have hosts willing to take them in. If that is the case; my wife and I are willing to host Khalil, his wife, and their two daughters in our home in Fort Lauderdale, if possible. If there is a process, we will follow it. If there is a petition, we will sign it. If there is an application fee, we will pay it. 

But right now, there is no system in place, no path for people like Khalil to escape. He’s not asking for handouts or pity. Only the same basic right that every human being should have – the right to seek a better life for his daughters. 

And while the world debates the source of their suffering, nobody bothers to ask: What do the people of Gaza want? 

As Yehuda Teitelbaum recently posted on X, “Palestinians have been reduced to a concept. In the eyes of the Western left, they’re not real people with real agency.”

I've spent the last 24 hours watching news coverage, scrolling through X, and reading Reddit threads about Trump’s comments on Gaza. And in all that time, not once, not one single time, have I seen anyone suggest the most basic thing: maybe ask the people of Gaza what they want.…

— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) February 5, 2025

Khalil is not a militant and wants nothing to do with politics. He is simply a man who wants to take his family to safety, to build a new life. But not even the wealthy or sick can cross into Egypt at the time of this writing. 

Countries around the world that pride themselves on being beacons of human rights have yet to offer meaningful refuge. There are 22 Arab nations and not one has opened its doors to the people of Gaza. Offering only bombastic rhetoric while refusing to provide sanctuary. 

So we must ask: Why? 

Why does the world feign solidarity with Palestinians, while insisting they remain stateless, displaced, and powerless? Why is it acceptable for Ukrainian, Syrian, or Sudanese refugees to flee war and build a life elsewhere, but not Palestinians?   

The answer is uncomfortable but undeniable: Palestinians outside of refugee camps in Gaza lose all their value. Their suffering is a commodity, traded by politicians, organizations, and activists who have no interest in their actual well-being. 

Palestinian journalist Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab shared a piece (Arabic) this week that received no attention in the West:

We Palestinians have known killing and massacres, displacement and exile, wars and fleeing. We have known every form of suffering for over a hundred years. The disasters we have suffered were caused by our own brothers, our own people, who thought that riding the waves of nationality, nationalism, organizations and religion was the way to attain the longed-for homeland… They want us to be refugees and beggars, while they, the masters, continue to enjoy the pleasures of life in Vienna and their children live in Dubai, Amman, and Paris, whereas our children live in the refugee camps.

Palestinians like Khalil do not owe their lives to some romanticized notion of resistance. They do not exist to serve Hamas, or Fatah, or the narrative of activists. They deserve the right to leave, to live, to build a future for their children, just as Jews did when they fled persecution to build their own state.

As Teitelbaum wrote in his X post, “The entire narrative, the whole ‘open-air prison’ and ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ schtick, falls apart if you admit that Palestinians aren’t hostages of Israel, but hostages of a movement that treats their misery as a political necessity”

And that is the truth no one likes to say out loud. 

If Khalil and his family remain in Gaza, it will not be because they chose to stay. It will be because the world prefers to see them suffering in squalor for the sake of their Free Palestine.