by AMJAD AYMAN YAGHI
In the heart of the Aksaray neighborhood of Istanbul, groups of Palestinians gather at the Hamada restaurant for lunch and dinner. The restaurant serves shawarma, Gaza-style, with tahini, onions and crushed sumac, all wrapped in taboon bread. On their menu, this sandwich is called the “Gazan shawarma.”
The restaurant, owned by a Palestinian from Gaza, is open till midnight, and the atmosphere is lively as Palestinians meet up with other Palestinians who have migrated to Turkey, whether for work, study or tourism.
For some Palestinians, it’s their first time to meet other youths from Gaza or the West Bank. And though they are all in Istanbul now, their journeys here were different.
While Palestinians from the West Bank can fly into Turkey from the Ramon airport in Israel (newly opened in August 2022 for Palestinians), Palestinians from Gaza must first travel to Egypt through the Rafah checkpoint. From there, they fly to Turkey via the Cairo airport.
Despite the arduousness of either journey, many Palestinians from Gaza say that Turkey is the best and easiest destination for them, because they can actually get tourist visas and work accommodations with relative ease.
The conversations that take place at Hamada, then, can be pressing: discussions of Israeli checkpoints, mutual hardships, the Israeli siege on Gaza. And, of course, they also talk about their dreams and their hopes for their future, which, for many, is why they came to Turkey in the first place.
“Unfortunately, the Gazans believe that Turkey is a country of dreams for them,” says Rageh Nassar, the head of a nonprofit organization in Turkey called the Palestinian Community in Istanbul. “The conditions in Gaza are very difficult, but in Turkey it is also difficult.”
Many Palestinians from Gaza who have come to Turkey are now understanding the difficulty of starting a life in the country, and they are finding that it is not the “country of dreams” that they had anticipated.
“There is no prospect of a future”
The Electronic Intifada interviewed 83 Palestinians from Gaza in Istanbul (63 men and 20 women), and 78 said they wanted to travel beyond Turkey. Of these, 68 said they had no objection to undocumented migration. Additionally, 20 had come to Turkey on scholarship and did not want to return to Gaza.
For instance, Haitham al-Ashkar, 34, has been in Istanbul since May 2018, when he left Gaza to look for work.
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