Palestinian Americans in Minnesota wait for news from Gaza, often with a sense of dread
At her art studio in Minnetonka, Minn., 42-year-old Raghda Skeik carries a paint brush and holds up a recent portrait she painted of her father as tears roll down her face.
He’s in Gaza right now, along with her mom, four sisters and three brothers. Skeik grew up in Gaza and lived there until she was 18.
The neighborhood where she grew up, Al-Rimal, was one of the first and worst hit by Israeli airstrikes this time around.
Nowadays, she dreads when the phone rings. “It’s more fear, anxiety. It’s just mixed feelings of everything,” Skeik said.
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She says the conversations, when and if they happen, are brief.
“Are you okay? Are you still alive? Where are you now? Where did you move? ‘We’re here. We’re there. We’re still good.’ That’s all.”
Skeik says her family made the decision to spread out so if one area is hit, there’s at least hope death won’t strike everyone at once.
She says she sees herself in the children of Gaza today. “I see myself, I see my kids. They’re human beings. I mean, this should not be happening.”
The truth is, many Palestinians see themselves in the people of Gaza.
Nadia Wadi, who’s 21, lives in Blaine, Minn. She says for the past few weeks, she’s been in a constant state of disassociation. Paralyzed by pain.
“Well, being a Palestinian American Muslim living in America and watching our country just go up into flames and our people dying, and an entire genocide, being committed against our people,” she said.
“While the entire media, the entire world just seems to turn their back on them. It almost feels like we are not living with humanity anymore.”
Wadi says it’s been hard to focus at work or complete daily mundane tasks without being overwhelmed by guilt. She called it “diaspora guilt.”
“They’re going through all this, we come from the same background, the same morals, same ways of life. We share so many things in common being Palestinian, and they get to go through this because they stood up in our land,” she said.
Minnesota Palestinians come from different backgrounds but share similar perspectives when it comes to the plight of Palestinians.
Noelle Awadallah, whose mom is white and dad is Palestinian, grew up attending Catholic school and has family members in the West Bank.
“Although I’m not there, and experiencing the genocide, like I feel exhaustion in my body, from my ancestors, from our people, from the literal land, and I can feel it. It’s hard to move through. And I know all of us Palestinians can feel that,” Awadallah said.
A local Palestinian man who asked MPR News not to share his name to protect his livelihood, says he recently spoke up at his corporate job after the CEO sent a letter acknowledging the killing of Israeli civilians, without mentioning Palestinians.
“I don’t believe I was alone, I think many others who felt marginalized spoke up that there wasn’t representation of Palestinians and Palestinian lives. And I saw a change of direction in terms of how leadership was communicating with their employees by including Palestinian organizations by including the nomenclature of Palestine and Gaza and Palestinian lives,” he said.
Separate from Gaza, more Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank in the past few weeks than in any similar period in at least 15 years, according to data from the United Nations.
Israel claimed this is a war on Hamas — but Skeik says first-hand accounts from her family in Gaza tell a different story.
Skeik says she herself has experienced the result of Israel’s military occupation. Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, has been under a 16-year blockade — Israel restricts and controls the movement of water, fuel, medical supplies, among other things.
The constant bombardment since Hamas’s attack Oct. 7, worsened already dire conditions.
Skeik remembers having to run home from school on a weekly basis as Israeli military members stormed the schools.
“Ongoing airstrikes, or just for the matter of just, you know, disrupting the school day that said that this was a norm for us,” she recalls.
While the Hamas attacks caught the world’s attention, for many Palestinians, witnessing what is happening in Gaza adds layers to a painful history.
Many have parents and grandparents who were either killed or forcibly removed from their homes in 1948 and beyond.
While Skeik spends much of her time in her art studio, she says her mind and heart are in Gaza with her family.
She hopes the next phone call is an update that her family is still alive.
“I’m afraid to send any messages because by the time I get a reply it’s as if I’m dying every minute to hear something,” she said.