Action Alert

Hani Almadhoun's op-ed and moving personal account about being trapped in the Gaza Strip appeared in Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune. Please write your letter to the editor Sunday or Monday to show your support for Hani.

Letters should be sent to letters@sltrib.com. E-mail letters lacking full name, postal address and daytime telephone number and those sent to other e-mail boxes will be deleted. E-mail with attachments will be deleted. The letter must be submitted as a plain text in the body of the message. Please note that letters should not be more than 200 words.

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http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13422260

Salt Lake Tribune

Gazans unfairly trapped by Israel
By Hani Almadhoun

Israel's winter bombardment of Gaza is over, but the situation for Palestinians there remains grim.

I grew up in Gaza and recently returned on behalf of the Jerusalem Fund, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit providing humanitarian and educational assistance to Palestinians. As the organization's grants and accounting associate, I visited facilities helping the disabled, kindergarteners and those suffering from mental health issues. I also checked on medical supplies we deliver.

Due to my Gaza ID card, I had priority getting into the war-torn area in late June. Evidently, I do not have priority getting out despite possessing an American green card.

Confined to this narrow strip, essentially 25 miles long by 7 miles wide, I long to return to the life I have built for myself in Washington, D.C. I have joined 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza as foreign powers wrestle over the intricacies of how best to consign us to Gaza without starving us. As Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister in 2006, infamously put it, "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger."

The Israeli restrictions and siege on Gaza devastate the local populace. Children are permanently harmed by malnutrition. After food, what people want most is freedom of movement. Confined to Gaza, they do not have it.

I have tried on several occasions to exit, always unsuccessfully. The Rafah crossing, the only outlet Gazans have to the world, used to process 3,000 travelers a day. Now it takes days or weeks.

The local government has its own priorities and has wait-listed me and countless others. The Egyptians have bigger regional concerns. Israeli officials will not allow me to use the Erez crossing because they discriminate against me as a Palestinian. Fifteen Palestinian Americans I know here face the same treatment.

My biggest disappointment during this ordeal comes from American officials. One official abrasively told me, "You are on your own." It's demoralizing. I have no doubt that if my name were Joe Smith, rather than Hani Almadhoun, I would already be back in my office in Washington. Allowing an ally to trap me and American citizens is not consistent with the principles of Obama's America.

The officials at the American Consulate in Jerusalem told me they would help evacuate me and other trapped Americans only if there was war. No sane person would hope for war in order to get back home.

I want to return to Washington and get back to work funding the humanitarian projects I visited. And I miss my burgers at Five Guys.

But there is a fundamental truth that weighs on me: Once my release is secured, 1.5 million Palestinians will still be effectively imprisoned. President Obama ought to use every meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, like the one earlier this week, to speak up for the rights of Palestinians and Palestinian Americans locked in Gaza.

Hani Almadhoun is the grants and accounting associate at the Washington, D.C.-based Jerusalem Fund. He received his bachelor and master's degrees from Brigham Young University.