Making the Agony Real

As a group from Partners for Palestine was arriving on Capitol Hill September 24th, the following email arrived from a long-time friend in Virginia, who has hosted Palestinian students in her home for decades:

“Friends, I’m asking for prayers or good thoughts or whatever you do for my friend Rabah M. Ghada, a prominent educator in Gaza whom I met when she was here in Georgetown visiting the Gaza students staying with me. We have been Facebook friends ever since. She was in Gaza City and got her family out before the latest Israeli incursion. She is now beneath a pile of rubble and was able to phone her friend from there. I have not had an update this morning, but prayers are being requested for her safety. I ask you to join also.”

We read the letter to the Congressional staff members meeting with us, reminding them that decisions made in these offices affect people half a world away, including this young woman whom we later learned was a beloved English teacher at the Catholic Holy Family School in Gaza. She had secured scholarships all over the world for her students.

Two days later, our friend wrote: "Rabah did not survive… [She] sent out several distress calls after she and her brother were injured by the bombing of her house …. When civil defense crews arrived at the scene, the house was exposed to a new bombardment…”

Israel often bombs or fires on rescuers who come to help others in the aftermath of an attack, and this has been happening for decades.

Ghada’s  family believed she had been killed. But the next day, she called again from under the rubble, pleading for help. Her family immediately appealed to the Red Cross and other international organizations which in turn contacted the Israeli army. For two days, the army refused to allow rescue teams to access the area where Ghada was trapped.

Her phone battery eventually died. Her voice was weak during the last call before contact was lost. On the third day after the incident, by evening, civil defense teams were finally allowed to reach the destroyed house. They called out for Ghada, but there was no answer. Lacking equipment to lift the rubble, they were unable to reach her.

CNN did a powerful report on Ghada’s death and on the lives she touched through her teaching. You can watch it here.