Mick Hartley

Before October 7, 2023, travel from Gaza was just that. Not exile. Not mass displacement. Just an everyday reality. Each month, about 25,000 people crossed borders. Ten thousand through Rafah into Egypt, 15,000 through Erez into Israel, for medical treatment, education, work, or…

— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) January 30, 2025

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Before October 7, 2023, travel from Gaza was just that. Not exile. Not mass displacement. Just an everyday reality. Each month, about 25,000 people crossed borders. Ten thousand through Rafah into Egypt, 15,000 through Erez into Israel, for medical treatment, education, work, or simply a change of scenery.

Now, in 2025, if Trump suggests traveling to a safer place and returning when home is rebuilt, it is suddenly a crime against humanity. Forced displacement.

If the Palestinian leadership had even a shred of wisdom, which, let’s be honest, they don’t, they would be thanking those offering aid, funding, and a chance at stability. Instead, they keep generations trapped in a cycle of war, raising children in rubble under leaders who see them as nothing more than propaganda tools. No child should grow up inhaling the dust of their collapsed home or be taught to hate before they even learn to read.

And here is a wild idea. Instead of chanting slogans and waving watermelon flags, maybe countries like Canada and Ireland’s current governments could actually step up. Fund travel with open return tickets. Build safe housing. Create an education system that teaches peace instead of death, racism, and antisemitism. Right now, schools in Gaza and the West Bank do not just fail their students. They brainwash them into believing war is their destiny. If the world truly wants change, it starts there, by raising a generation that dreams of life, not death, and by moving them away from the current war zone.

This is not about forced displacement. It is about forced reality checks. The choice is not between exile and home. It is between war and a future where peace is actually built.

Oh, and by the way, while Hamas turned Gaza into a death trap, using babies, women, and even foreign workers as human shields, did anyone notice that Israel fought to free Thai farmworkers who were kidnapped?

The schools in Gaza which brainwash children into believing war is their destiny, and martyrdom while killing Jews their sole aim in life, are run by UNRWA – an organisation dedicated to the belief that Palestinians will always be refugees until Israel is destroyed. And we fund it.