Basel Abu Ramadan was a Palestinian exchange student in Redding in 2014. Now he and his family risk annihilation in Gaza.
Consider this a public service announcement.
Two months ago, I wrote a story about two Palestinian exchange students who’ve been hosted by Shasta County families during the past decade. Ali Alijamal, 15, and Basel Abu Ramadan, 24, both hail from the Gaza Strip, that tiny sliver of land in southwestern Israel that has commanded the world’s attention these past eight months.
Since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ successful surprise attack on Israel last Oct. 7 that killed 1139 Israelis, the Israeli Defense Forces have obliterated the Gaza Strip, destroying half the homes, 80 percent of the businesses and killing at least 36,731 Palestinians, including 15,000 children, according to the most recent death count.
In hindsight, the timing of Ali Alijamal’s exchange student visit to the United States was fortuitous. He attended Redding School of the Arts from last September—just before the Oct. 7 War began—to this June. This week, he’s being granted asylum in the United States. His mother, father and older brother have safely relocated to Cairo.
But Basel Abu Ramadan and his family haven’t been so lucky. Basel attended Central Valley High School a decade ago as an exchange student before returning to Gaza where he worked as a computer programmer before the Oct. 7 War started.
Basel Abu Ramadan and his parents at his college graduation in Gaza.
His father is a retired anesthesiologist who spent more than four decades at Al-Shifa Hospital, now one of 14 hospitals out of 34 the IDF has destroyed in Gaza. He and his wife Eman, who raised six children, need daily medications to survive but supplies are limited due to the conflict.
Their second oldest son Mohammed is an agricultural engineer. Bashar is a civil engineer. Ola is an English teacher in a government school. Sarah is in middle school. All their lives have been uprooted by the current conflict with Israel.
The family home has been destroyed and the IDF has herded the Ramadans along with 1.5 million other Palestinians to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and site of the IDF attack on a refugee tent encampment two weeks ago. I received an Instagram message from Basel shortly after the latest IDF atrocity.
“We are all still alive, we are close to Rafah where the massacre happened, when people were burned alive in their tents,” he said. “We heard the bombing, but we didn’t know what was happening, the situation is horrible, but we are still alive.”
Basel mentioned the family is still alive because that’s the first thing I ask him when I send a message. You never know if you’re going to get a reply from Gaza. Are you still alive? Basel sent me this ominous message last week:
“It’s currently 12:05, I am writing to you while the sound of the drones and the bombings and the combat is getting louder and closer, like it’s right next to us!! While the bombing is getting louder and harder, we hear from a tent close to us a little girl screaming (Mama! Mama), and then we heard lots of people shouting and screaming (IT’S A TRAP, DON’T GET OUT TO RESCUE THE GIRL, IT’S A DRONE THAT WILL SHOOT YOU!).
“It’s incredibly difficult living through these circumstances and describing the shouts and screaming of men and women and children who are being killed, and we can’t do anything to help them and we don’t know when the drone will come to us and shoot at us and if they were really screaming or traps, it’s a never ending nightmare that reminds of the Hunger Games movie, unfortunately it’s our reality, and this reality keeps repeating itself endlessly! We need to leave this nightmare; we don’t know if our luck will serve us one more night.”
Mustafa Abu Ramadan, the oldest son in the family, lives in Cairo. He and Basel’s Shasta County host family, Leonard and Inga Lusher, have established a GoFundMe page for the seven members of the Ramadan family currently trapped in Rafah. It costs $6000 per person to enter Egypt, and the Ramadams hope to raise $42,000 for safe passage into Egypt.
“They really need it,” Inge Lusher said. The Lushers have kept in touch with Basel since they hosted him as an exchange student 10 years ago. “I know they’re not alone, there’s so many who want to leave and are in the same hell. But I know him, and it pains me greatly to know how much they’re suffering.”
If you’ve felt helpless watching the death and destruction in Gaza during the past eight months, here’s your chance to make a small difference. Donate to Basel Abu Ramadan’s family.
Basel Abu Ramadan and his family are counting on you.
