Salwa Abu Ghali, a Palestinian refugee, described her experience living in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp during an event hosted by Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern studies (JIMES) professor, David Warren, on March 5.

Abu Ghali is a cultural ambassador for NaTakallam, an award-winning enterprise that delivers “language and cultural services by highly skilled refugees through technology.” She touched on the forcible displacement that brought her to the Jenin camp and highlighted the changes in her life following the start of the Oct. 7 Israel-Hamas War. She also described her fears about her family in Gaza and Palestinian views on Israel and America since the war in Gaza.

Abu Ghali spoke about the intense impact sirens announcing Israeli forces in the camp can have on its residents. 

“Children vomit out of trauma and fear when they hear sirens announcing Israeli forces in the camp, but I’m used to them by now,” Abu Ghali said. “Life turns upside down [when the sirens sound], schools call parents to take children, everyone is in the streets, people leave work, the Israeli Jeeps, bombs, and drones are heard, people are scared, the IDF arrests someone, and when they leave, people go back to their jobs — its a normal day in Jenin.”

For her, the Israeli army killed nearly everyone in her village, in Jaffa, now southern Tel Aviv, when she was young.

“Some of my family managed to escape to the refugee camp,” Abu Ghali said. “We believe the camp was a temporary situation, so we pass down the key to our house in hopes that one day we can return home.”

After the start of the recent Israel-Hamas war, the West Bank became a militarized zone with “incursions every couple days.” So far, Abu Ghali said that hundreds of Palestinians and multiple Israeli soldiers have been killed. 

Abu Ghali says life in the West Bank was hard even before Oct. 7 and the conflict in Gaza. The separation wall Israel built for security between the territories, coined “apartheid wall” by Palestinians, “separated families and homes” and makes it very difficult for Abu Ghali to visit her family in Gaza.

“If I want to visit my family in Gaza, I have to leave [the] West Bank to Jordan, take a plane from Jordan to Egypt, and then go to Gaza,” Abu Ghali said. “It is very dangerous to go through Israeli checkpoints; many women I know have died at these. But taking this dangerous journey to Gaza is the only way to see my family.”

Abu Ghali describes the daily fear she feels about her family in Gaza’s well-being because of the ongoing violence in the area. 

“We know that Israel is supported by America[n government] in this war and occupation,” Abu Ghali said. “But I try to tell [Palestinians] that the government’s actions don’t represent the people. The people are protesting and calling for a ceasefire. We are seeing this all over social media and huge protests in cities around the world, and it comforts us knowing that people know we exist and that we aren’t alone.”

First-year Asmaa Hassan was interested in hearing the perspective of a refugee on the ground, something she found particularly insightful. 

“It’s different hearing from a refugee experiencing oppression in real time,” Hasan said. “It makes you realize that the Palestinians are human like us and not just stats in posts and articles.”

Abu Ghali emphasizes though life is hard, Palestinians in the Jenin camp try to make the best of the situation.

“We can’t change reality, but we can adapt to what we have,” Abu Ghali said. “On Friday, we get lambs and make a barbecue, we play football, we try to have fun. We are proud to talk about our ancestors and grandparents, and all the good, beautiful parts of Palestine, and amazing food, even in the sad reality of occupation.”