In the case of the Gaza Strip, the tent is not a piece of cloth that was designed on land other than the homeland. The tent in the Gaza Strip, and even if the Palestinians move as a result of internal ethnic cleansing (internal displacement) from one place to another, the tent (although it is a symbol of instability) still pins itself into the homeland. The tent rope is the umbilical cord that connects the Palestinian to his land, even if it is through a tent.

The fact that I reside 3,600 km from the Gaza Strip did not prevent a friendly Palestinian family, which was forced by the Zionist occupation, along with many other Palestinians, to leave their home in Gaza City to the southern city of Rafah in the south of the Strip, from contacting us immediately to ask for help in a state of panic. "They bombed a place near the area where we are located, and they told us that we must leave before noon tomorrow." 

Allow me to pause for a moment to provide some context before returning to the climax of the crisis.

We perceive the news differently compared to those in the Gaza Strip who are experiencing them firsthand, constantly facing the consequences of the crimes of the CleansOcide, specifically since the beginning of last October.

A family we are friends with and whom Netanyahu put in the crosshairs is faced with a matter of life and death. We did not think about the issue so intensely before the CleansOcide, but suddenly it became clear to us that we have hundreds of friends in the Gaza Strip. Some of them were injured, some were killed, some are still under the rubble (or perhaps their remains are now part of the Gaza pier), some have not shown any signs of life for months, and some have been repeatedly displaced up to this day.

Our preoccupation with the daily life of our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is multi-faceted and is being put to the test repeatedly and on several fronts. It matters somehow that I am Palestinian but not much in the broader moral context. Still, if I do not stand with my people in the most disastrous human calamities as a moral intellectual, when will I?

We have been focused on the academic and media aspects of the war since October 7, but all that we have done and have been contributing in defense of the Palestinians cannot resolve/handle a genocide that is this specific in time, geography, the number of its victims, and tangible demand.

One act of good on this earth (even under the threat of bombs) makes a difference and might save a life if done at the right time, while not acting at all can wipe a whole family out.

For a moment, let us avoid the discussion surrounding the academic and media contributions and delve deeper to present a concrete challenge that we have been facing since mid-May 2024.

It has been globally established and rightly so that all the eyes of the world are directed on the Gaza Strip and that the nervous system of hundreds of millions across the globe have been strained because of the televised crimes taking place in the Gaza Strip, which has become the most important “epicenter of the human earthquake” due to the crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide (CleansOcide) committed by Netanyahu and his criminal gang.

Undoubtedly, the Gazan Palestinian community is the most important because it is the victim of the most intense crimes that have been committed in the shortest time, having been concentrated in one small confined geographical area. It is true that solidarity with Palestine and the Gaza Strip is covered across the world, but the coverage remains general and remote and certainly without going into personal or private details, despite the effect of blood on the screens.

This is what makes everyone forget or not take into account, perhaps due to the intense media coverage: the impact of the CleansOcide on the social and psychological state of viewers, friends, or relatives who are in “exile”/diaspora, for example, the impact of the CleansOcide on people like us who are inherently connected with their cause from the marrow to the vein and but are currently residing in the Western world.

Returning to the story of the crisis: So, a family that was displaced from the Gaza Strip months ago contacted us. It is worth mentioning that some of them were killed, others were injured, and some remained and were forced to leave for Rafah. The wife told me, “Last night, there was a bombing in an area close to us, and a short while ago the occupation warned us that we must leave Rafah tomorrow, and certainly before midday.”

She added, "We must go to the center of the Gaza Strip (toward Deir al-Balah, for example). We do not know how we will get there with the family and whether we will be without food and drink, but we will certainly be without shelter. The biggest challenge before hunger for me, my children, and my husband is not to spend the night in "the open". Here, I stopped trying to guess and instead asked her, “Kindly, what do you need immediately that (made) you contact us in England?”

She said, “We need a tent to take shelter in." The speed of the scenes rolling down my memory lane in the following seconds after she said that was faster than the split of lightning.

I saw scenes of “The Climax of the Nakba,” which took place during the months of the Nakba in 1948, from various expulsions across land and sea until arriving from a place where everything was available, from Yafa, for example, to a place where life was reduced to the dust of a tent.

Tents, tents, and more tents were set up for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees at the apex of the Nakba in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon specifically, in addition to tens of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from Jaffa, Ramla, al-Lydd, Yabnah, Majdal, and others to the Gaza Strip.

After 76 years, these and other (about 1.5-2.5) million Palestinians are going through the same experience, even more bitter considering the global human development. This forced internal displacement during the era of the CleansOcide is as horrific as its frequency, because most of the buildings that have been left (even if it is not your home) have been destroyed either completely or partially, and it is often unfit for residence unless you are a fan of the pre-Islamic poet Tarfa bin Al-Abd and are in love with the ruins of his lover Khawla. And if you might happen to be!? Where you sleep, the carbon dioxide from your breath sticks to the walls and ceiling of the house and the hair on your head and body falls on its tiles.

I asked, "What are the ways to get a tent under the threat of bombing, starvation, thirst, and displacement these days?" Before this young mother could answer me, my thoughts became tangled, anchored to a Zionist missile that reduced my greatest ambition to a tent. Let it be. This is the need of the hour to survive. Thus, displacement became a place of temporary “stability”! This instability has become part of the Palestinian identity estranged from itself.

She said, “Unfortunately, one of the painful things is that some of the tents that arrive as aid are, due to need, sold in the markets for high prices, reaching between 2,500 shekels and 4,000 shekels (a thousand dollars). The truth is that they are available in the markets, mainly on the black market with ordinary people," because no tent has entered Gaza for two months and all the existing tents are old.

Although I continued to hear her, I stopped listening. My thoughts began to wander, searching for someone who could help them. On her part, she did not stop again and said, “We do not want (cash) money, but we thought that you had people or knew institutions that could provide us with a tent."

I said to myself that the crimes of CleansOcide proved to us that whoever wants to help does not necessarily have to be a neighbor behind the border!

How could such a request come from a Palestinian family in one of the greatest ordeals in the Gaza Strip to a person like me, who coincidentally is an Arab and a Palestinian originally from Jaffa residing in England? 

The circumstances were such that 37 years ago, (while I was working as a young journalist), I announced the outbreak of the first Palestinian Intifada. 

Of all the places on earth, I was shot in the face, and of all places in the world, my blood was not shed except in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, I was treated at Al-Shifa Hospital! The umbilical cord cannot be severed in this case, as the trauma is still unfolding before our eyes.

If it were possible to send money, we would have sent it. If the crossings were open, we would have sent a tent from one of the neighboring border areas. If there was a store in the Gaza Strip that sold tents, we would have bought a tent and guaranteed transportation.

Thus, the tent came to provide the dream of survival, despite the fact that the number of people who were assassinated through bombing and targeting in the tents increased and increased. We repeated it again in our mind like a person trying to convince himself that the tent currently (and not displacement) is the ideal solution: Is this the need of the hour to survive (in a tent) and live in peace? So be it.

Despite Netanyahu's desire to expel the residents of the Gaza Strip to Sinai, he did not succeed in implementing this in large numbers. In the case of the Gaza Strip, the tent is not a piece of cloth that was designed on land other than the homeland.

Following the family’s request, we, in our office, left every task we were dealing with and immediately went to global, regional, and local institutions and destinations asking for help in finding one tent for ten Palestinian souls.

This small-big request revealed a multi-layered structure, interests, and agendas among those who talk about Palestine and the Gaza Strip and the weakness of those who only raise slogans, those who brag, and others who sing about serving the Palestinians.

This experience was a harsh test in which we revealed, in less than 24 hours, the honesty of some people and the cunning of others, the laziness of one group and the despair of others, the superficiality of some of them and the exploitation of the CleansOcide by others as a whole. We saw closely the weakness of powerful institutions in providing simple assistance. Speaking rationally, I asked myself: Has the Israeli occupation succeeded in subjugating or intimidating everyone?

This was another sleepless night, as has happened many times since last October. My eyes remained wide open and my mind was flying. Late at night, I remembered someone who I thought had a certain connection and good logistical ways who might be able to help.

I contacted him without informing him of my request first... and he responded immediately. I explained to him the urgent need. After normal technical questions (on his part) to which I immediately provided answers, he said to me, “Please send me the name and phone number of a responsible person in the family.”

Do you think he will act and continue? Will he remember the story by next morning? I sent him another message stating that immediate action was crucial!

At eight in the morning, London time, the family told me that a specific representative contacted them by phone at six thirty in the morning, Palestine time, that is, hours before the exodus from Rafah to the center of the Gaza Strip, and told them, “We have a tent for you!”

Hearing the whizzing of bullets mixed with tense gasps and tears of joy, we couldn't but wonder how this can be implemented. Here, an unexpected commotion occurred, as the assistant informed the first person that the operation might not be completed because their name was not on the list!!!... While I was on another line, my office manager immediately contacted the first person and clarified matters.

We, the family and ourselves, only had two hours left. They have not yet been displaced from Rafah and have not received the tent. Another hour passed. I tried to contact the mother and father, but there was no answer. Were they displaced without the tent? Do they have money to top up their mobile phone balance? How are their children doing on the road? An hour left. We are disconnected. Is the mobile battery dead? Is the area between Rafah and Deir al-Balah without Internet coverage?

Our office became like a beehive without aim, with the honey, in this case, being the tent. A colleague of ours said seriously, "We have to send a drone to find out what happened." Faces became pale and tension rose in a few moments indicating the impact short messages had on the eye muscles and the nervous system.

Four hours later, we received the following message from the family, “Our dear beloved friend. We have just received the tent. Thousand heartfelt thanks to you: with love, pride, and respect.” Some in our office cried while others smiled broadly, carrying an intensity of joy on their faces. Another screamed loudly, "We have made it!”

I said to myself; Wasn't Jesus born in a tent in the Palestinian town of Beit Lahm? From the tent and to the tent we return, currently, steadfast in a tent as long as the tent is on the land of our homeland. The umbilical cord with Gaza has not been severed, and there is no shelter more beautiful than a tent on the sand of the Gaza Sea.

I felt that Maysoon bint Bahdal al-Kalbiyya (wife of the first Umayyad caliph and founder of the Umayyad caliphate, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, and mother of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Muawiyah) “watched” the entire episode and recited two verses of her poetry in which we changed the word house with a tent:

A tent in which the wind blows - more dear to me than a high palace

I only want my homeland as an alternative - and what an honorable homeland it is that we have.