My friend Esraa wrote a letter to the world as the genocide in Gaza enters its fourth year. Esraa should be in Ireland right now, studying for a master’s degree, but her visa was denied by the Irish government in an act of bureaucratic cruelty targeting her and 50 other students in Gaza who hold full scholarships from Irish universities. A legal challenge has been posed and the process is ongoing. Recently three of the denials were overturned, with the next hearings for more students, including Esraa, being held before the High Court in Dublin scheduled for tomorrow.
Dear World,
In case you don’t know, I managed to graduate this year, after so much struggle, with a degree in English Language and Literature. I graduated after my university, its library, and all the universities in Gaza were destroyed.
Three years.
I lost the home I had lived in my entire life. My beloved home. We stayed in it even after it was partially damaged, enduring rainwater leaking through the roof, until we lost it completely when it fell within what is now called the Yellow Line.
We had a piece of land where we grew olives and figs. A place big enough to hold my entire family. But the genocide swallowed that too.
Three years.
I used to sit around one table with my family, sharing stories about our ordinary days. Now, even the internet can barely carry our voices to one another. The war has scattered us, and each of us is trying to rebuild a life from zero.
Three years.
An ordinary day has become a dream.
As Esraa, I spend my days wondering what comes next. I think about my future. I received a full scholarship to study in Ireland, but my visa was refused. Now I live in an exhausting wait, holding on to a hope whose limits I cannot see, because it is almost all I have. But I don’t want to lose myself waiting for things that may never come.
I want to wake up and smell jasmine, not ashes.
I want to make a cup of mint tea without struggling to find water or light a fire.
I want to run through the corridors of my university, continue my education, and create art with all the materials I have ever dreamed of using, instead of drowning in overthinking.
I want to live.
Is that too much to ask?
Esraa
October 19, 2026