From Gaza to Cymru: How Human Connection Can Build a Bridge to Safety

Zahraa Khwiter, Palestinian teacher, writer and mother from Gaza

I Never Expected Wales to Become Part of My Story

I am a Palestinian mother, teacher and writer from Gaza. Before the war, my world was centred on my family, my children, my teaching and my writing. Wales was far away from me — a country I knew mostly through its name and its history.

Then people from Wales began reaching out.

What began as conversations between people who had never met gradually became something much more meaningful: a human connection between families in Gaza and people in Wales who wanted to listen, understand and help.

For me, this connection has become a bridge.

When Wales Became Part of My Writing

It even found its way into my writing.

I wrote a children’s story about a red dragon carrying a message of hope from Wales to the children of Gaza. The dragon is not simply a Welsh symbol in the story. It became a way of imagining friendship travelling across borders when people themselves cannot.

I wrote because I wanted children in Gaza to know that somewhere beyond the destruction, there were people who saw them, thought about them and cared about what happened to their future.

And I wanted people in Wales to see Gaza not only through images of war, but through the eyes of its children.

This is why the work now developing through Communities for Palestinians UK means so much to me.

Building Communities, Not Just Campaigning

The campaign is not simply asking governments to change policies. It is trying to build the communities that could make welcome possible.

That distinction matters.

If Palestinian families from Gaza are ever able to come through a lawful community sponsorship or another humanitarian pathway, they will need more than a visa. They will need people around them.

They will need somewhere to live. They will need help navigating schools, healthcare and everyday life. They may need help learning or improving their English, finding work, continuing their education and understanding systems that are unfamiliar to them.

Most importantly, they will need to know that someone is waiting for them.

Communities for Palestinians is bringing together people who are asking what they can realistically offer. Some communities may be able to help with accommodation. Others may be able to offer practical support, education, professional connections or friendship. Faith communities, local organisations and individuals can each contribute something different.

The aim is not to depend entirely on an already overstretched private rental sector. It is to ask whether communities can come together and share responsibility for welcoming a family.

The Bridge Between Gaza and Wales

There is also a team working in Gaza, known as The Bridge, helping connect Palestinian families and individuals with people and communities abroad.

The name feels appropriate.

Because what we are trying to build is not simply a route for people to travel from one country to another. We are trying to build relationships before people arrive.

Imagine a family in Wales getting to know a family in Gaza.

Imagine knowing the children’s names before they arrive. Knowing what they studied, what work they did, what they dream about and what they are good at.

Imagine a Welsh community discovering that the family they hope to welcome is not an anonymous group of refugees, but a mother who is a teacher, a father who is an engineer, a child who loves drawing, another who dreams of becoming a doctor.

And imagine the family in Gaza knowing that somewhere in Wales there are people preparing to welcome them.

That is what human connection can do.

It allows us to see each other as people before we see each other as categories in a migration policy.

Wales and Palestine

This is particularly meaningful to me because Wales has a long history of solidarity with Palestinians and concern for the suffering of Palestinian people.

During this year’s Eisteddfod, Palestine was also addressed publicly by the First Minister of Wales.

For someone in Gaza, these gestures matter.

They tell us that our suffering has not disappeared from the world’s conscience.

But solidarity can be more than words.

It can become practical.

That is why the debate around the UK’s new Named Community Sponsorship scheme matters.

Why Gaza Should Be Included

The scheme is intended to give communities a direct role in welcoming refugees. We believe Palestinian families from Gaza should have the opportunity to be included from the first phase.

This is not a request to choose Palestinians over other refugees.

The suffering of people fleeing war and persecution in Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere is real and deserves compassion.

Our request is simpler:

Please do not make Gaza invisible.

If the Government believes that communities can play a meaningful role in welcoming refugees, then communities that are already preparing to welcome Palestinian families should have the opportunity to do so.

And if the normal referral mechanisms cannot work for Palestinians in Gaza, that should be a reason to find a practical alternative — not a reason to exclude them.

I Am One Mother, But I Am Not One Family

For me, this is not an abstract policy question.

I have five children.

We have lost our home. We have lost our normal lives. My children have spent years trying to continue their education remotely while schools around us have been destroyed or severely damaged.

Like every mother, I want to know that my children have a future.

But I also know that my family is only one family.

There are many others.

Some are teachers. Some are engineers. Some are students. Some are doctors, writers, tradespeople or workers. Some have university degrees. Others do not.

Some have lost homes and livelihoods. Some have lost loved ones. Some are living with injuries.

They are not a list of qualifications.

They are people.

What Could a Welsh Community Do?

This is why I believe Wales has something important to offer.

Not simply a place to live, but a tradition of community, solidarity and welcome.

A Welsh community does not have to solve the crisis in Gaza.

It may simply need to ask:

Could we help one family?

Could we offer a room, a home, practical support, friendship or professional advice?

Could we help a child enter a Welsh school?

Could we help a parent find work?

Could we simply be the people who say:

“You are welcome here.”

Communities for Palestinians can help communities understand what is involved, connect them with Palestinian families, and support them in navigating the practical steps involved in sponsorship and welcome.

This is where the bridge becomes real.

From Solidarity to Human Connection

For me, Wales is no longer simply a place on a map.

It is the people who reached across that distance.

It is the stories I began writing because of them.

It is the red dragon carrying hope to children in Gaza.

It is the possibility that a family in Wales might one day know a family in Gaza not because of a television report, but because they have become neighbours, friends and part of one another’s lives.

And perhaps this is what we need most in a time dominated by politics and war: to remember that change can begin with people meeting people.

An Invitation to Wales

So my invitation is not only to politicians.

It is to the people of Wales.

If you are part of a church, synagogue, mosque, community organisation, university, workplace or local group, ask yourselves whether you could help welcome a Palestinian family if a lawful pathway becomes available.

If you cannot provide a home, perhaps you can provide friendship.

If you cannot provide employment, perhaps you can provide a professional connection.

If you cannot do any of those things, perhaps you can speak to your MP and ask why Palestinian families from Gaza should not be included in the first phase of Named Community Sponsorship.

And if you are simply a person who believes that people should not be forgotten because of where they were born, you can help by sharing their stories.

Because a bridge is not built from one side.

It is built when both sides reach towards each other.

From Gaza, we are reaching.

Cymru — Wales — has already reached back.

Now perhaps together we can make that bridge strong enough for families to cross.

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