A Gazan’s dream beyond borders

“I didn’t like watercolours. I hate them. I will hate them forever,” Joudi Alafranji said, giggling. But she still uses them because right now, they’re the only art she has access to.

Alafranji is a 24-year-old visual artist from Gaza City who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in dentistry at Al-Azhar University in the spring of 2023. Alafranji was accepted into Concordia University last fall. But, instead of starting her graduate diploma in community economic development, she has been trapped behind closed borders. 

When Alafranji isn’t painting or taking photos, she’s assisting with dental work in a tent in the Middle Area of Gaza. She hopes to work in humanitarian aid.

The Israel-Palestine war has been ongoing for over 15 months. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 45,000 Palestinians and 1,500 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. 

Last spring, Alafranji interned in facial reconstructive surgeries at the Al-Aqsa Hospital. 

“I had to see injured people, to see people pulled out from the bombings, I had to see people living in the hospital,” Alafranji said. 

Just finding a medical scrub was a struggle. 

“Get me out of here,” she said in between laughs on a call interview, which would cut mid-sentence as she lost her Wi-Fi connection.

This is the seventh war she lives through. 

“The seventh of October, in the morning, we were all in disbelief of what was happening … Nobody understood really anything,” Alafranji said. 

She described six endless days of bombing and extreme horror, during which she sheltered in a corridor of her house alongside her family of nine.

“There was no distinction between the days. I don’t remember how many hours I slept throughout these six days. It was intense bombing. They never stopped,” said Alafranji. 

Alafranji remembers fearful thoughts of suffocating under the ceiling or witnessing her loved ones killed.

“I wasn’t really scared of death itself. I was scared of things that wouldn’t make you die,” she said. 

Displaced

On Oct. 13, 2023, civilians in the North were urged to evacuate to the South of Gaza immediately. Alafranji felt a sense of relief.

Alafranji and her family packed anything they could take with them. The artist initially packed her beloved art bag but told herself: “No. I will never be able to draw with this horrific situation.” She left the bag behind.

She beats herself up over that decision every night. She had nightmares about that small bag of art supplies for three months.

As she evacuated her home with her family, Alafranji saw collapsed buildings for the first time and could hear explosions nearby.

“When I got out of the car and finally, we were here, I was reborn. I could look at the sky,” she recalled. “We saw my relatives that weren’t alone. Everyone else was suffering. […] I felt, ‘Okay, there’s still life.’”

She is now living in the South of the Middle Area of Gaza, in a packed house with 34 other displaced relatives, creating difficult living conditions.

Surviving

With the temporary ceasefire in late November 2023 came famine for Alafranji and her family. There were no food markets in her area, and they survived off of flour until aid arrived. 

In April 2024, Alafranji began her dentist internship in the maxillofacial surgery department at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah of the Gaza Strip.

“I hated it. I hated everything about it, really. I was just in our ‘home’ for months and hadn’t really faced what the reality is,” she said. 

It wasn’t until she saw people’s faces at work that she felt artistically inspired again for the first time since the war began. Alafranji could barely find any of her usual art supplies, charcoal, and graphite, after being displaced. This forced her to explore new mediums, like pencils and watercolours.

Alafranji crafted her own sketchbook titled “War Journal” out of paper, a piece of cardboard, and cloth taken from a World Central Kitchen grocery bag. She filled it with watercolour drawings, some of which document her life during the war, using photos she took as a reference.

Friendship

In the earlier months of the war, Alafranji fostered a long-distance friendship with Montrealer Brenda Keesal.

Keesal is a 63-year-old artist and activist. She identifies as a “Jew who grew up in a Zionist world.”

“It really wasn’t until I was a young adult and even more into adulthood that I started to learn about the Palestinians. And it was life-changing for me,” said Keesal.

After Oct. 7, Keesal contacted Alafranji’s uncle, who she had met years ago at an event in Montreal, to check in. He responded almost instantly. He assured her that he and his immediate family were safe but shared that his other relatives weren’t, including his niece. 

A few weeks later, Keesal received an email from Alafranji, who wanted to tell her story. Their back-and-forth email chain fostered a remarkable friendship. They called almost every day for months, despite difficulties with Alafranji’s internet connection and the seven-hour time difference. 

“She told me, ‘I’m an artist,’” recalled Keesal. “Another thing that she said to me was, ‘My lifelong dream has been to study abroad,’ and that’s really what got me.”  

With her network in Montreal, Keesal reached out to various people to kickstart Alafranji’s university applications and encouraged her to get back into art. 

Waiting 

Last spring, Alafranji was accepted into the International Masters for Health Leadership program at McGill University. The program was mostly online, which made it difficult for her to obtain a student visa. Her poor internet connection meant she would be unable to attend classes.  

She was later accepted into Concordia University’s Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development for the 2024 Fall semester.

“I hope that universities can be spaces that facilitate people finding new paths when they have been in the midst of the kind of violence she has experienced,” said Anna Sheftel, principal of Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs. 

“We did everything we could to accelerate and support her application within the context of Concordia’s admissions processes and were well-supported to do so,” said Sheftel.

Left with no choice, Alafranji deferred her acceptance until the winter semester, which is still in question.

Keesal describes Alafranji’s situation as a dreadful “waiting game.” 

The border has been closed since early May 2024, when the Israeli military invaded the Rafah crossing into Egypt. 

Alafranji is currently undergoing dental training in a private clinic in the Middle Area, which is in a tent close to where she currently resides. The clinic works solely on solar energy, as there is no other source of electricity in the region.

Alafranji’s student visa application to study in Canada is pending until she completes biometrics in Egypt. 

Resilience 

Alafranji is currently job hunting. 

“It’s part of accepting this horrific reality that I have been delaying it,” Alafranji said. “I don’t want to look for a job in a place that I don’t want to stay in. But I have to.” 

Keesal helped Alafranji start a GoFundMe page to share her story and seek financial support. While some of the funds will go towards supporting her family of nine, it will also cover tuition fees, visa expenses, flight costs, the fee crossing the border through Egypt when opened, and other essentials. 

Alafranji emphasized that there are no more universities left in Gaza. 

“That is why I need to do this program and to raise funds to do it because everyone has the right to learn,” said Alafranji. 

Alafranji dreams of having her own art exhibition in Montreal. In the meantime, she’s finding ways to stay positive. 

“A year ago, if you told me this, I would literally burst out laughing — I was never ever a positive person,” she said happily. 

“I would always mourn my life and cry. I was so depressed. […] But ironically, I started focusing more on reading more self-help books, exploring religion, exploring God, loving my art, loving myself, loving learning, wanting to experience everything, believing that I actually can be an international student.”