Ahmad Khalil Al-Agha: A Long Journey of Palestinian Struggle Around the World By Mohammad Al-Agha

Ahmad Khalil Al-Agha: A Long Journey of Palestinian Struggle Around the World

By Mohammad Al-Agha

Al-Jazeerah, October 7, 2006

Ahmad Khalil Al-Agha (Abu Mohammad): Educator, father of 9, born in 1924 and taught many generations both in Gaza and Kuwait for over 35 years, died peacefully in his home town of Khan Younis at the age of 82.

Abu Mohammad married Najah in 1951 who was a member of a family from the Yaffa (Jaffa) City, fleeing the Israeli massacres committed by Zionist terrorist organizations in many Palestinian villages across Palestine. He got married after graduation from the Arab College in Al-Quds (Jerusalem). It was said that he was the first in his home town to study in that college. As a result he was appointed a Headmaster of the UNRWA-run Ahmad Bin Abdulaziz afternoon school for the Muhajereen (refugees), a name given to the Palestinians expelled as a result of the Israeli massacres across the land of Palestine. By 1959 he had 4 children, Mohammad, Mahmoud, Randah and Hala. In that year he was interviewed by the Kuwaiti committee recruiting educators to work in Kuwait and he got a job as teacher in Odhailiyah school, an elementary school in the distant Kuwaiti village Juleeb Al-Shuyoukh. The next year he brought his family from Khan Younis to Kuwait on the hope that he would spend a maximum of 5 years in Kuwait, enough time to make money to start his own Bayara (orange grove) in Nusairat, Gaza Strip. In 1967 his Bayara was almost complete when he woke up to the fact that not only his Bayara was lost but his whole country had fallen under the Israeli occupation. He remained in Kuwait until he reached the age of retirement.

Abu Mohammad (Father of Muhammed, as many Arabs are addressed) during his residence in Kuwait had 5 more children, Sawsan, Najat, Suad, Khaled and Takreem. His motto in life, like most Palestinians of his caliber was frequently breached to his children: Your capital in this life is your degree and your education; study, study and study, do your best and be respectful so that you will be respected anywhere you go.

When his elder son completed his secondary school in Kuwait, Abu Mohammad toured some Arab countries to secure his son a place at a university. Palestinians were required to score very high marks to be able to get into an Arab university such as Cairo, Baghdad or Damascus; a measure designed in most cases, and adopted by most Arab governments to limit the movement of Palestinians among the Arab countries. Abu Mohammad returned to Kuwait with disappointment. He then decided to send his son to the UK to study Engineering. Although that was a dream beyond the family’s financial means and capabilities, Um Mohammad (mother of Mohammad, his wife) said we would send him to study even if we have to have only one meal a day and sleep on the floor.

The following years, Mohammad and Mahmoud graduated from UK universities and later Mohammad went to Kuwait while Mahmoud went to the UAE. When Abu Mohammad intended to get Mohammad back to Kuwait he entered into a process, the least described as inhumane. He almost begged the authorities for a visit visa for his son to enter Kuwait where the family lived and resided. The Kuwaiti law, like most Arab government laws, states that any foreign resident leaving the country for more than six months will automatically lose right to return. Abu Mohammad managed to get a visit visa for his son after weeks of long queues on the doors of the Immigration Department under the Kuwaiti flaming sun, Abu Mohammad was so happy to have managed to invite his son to Kuwait.

Mohammad worked in Kuwait as instructor of computer science for the government PAAET, and Mahmoud, who did not want his father to undergo the same procedure, was contracted in London to work for Abu Dhabi - ADNOC in the oil industry. Khaled went to study in the USA and got a degree in HR and worked for IBM and Fidelity for many years. The daughters of Abu Mohammad were all married and they and their offspring are now spread across the globe from New Zealand to the USA.

Abu Mohammad was a holder of an Egyptian Travel Document. It was a burden rather than a means to facilitate travel. The children inherited this travel document which was basically a useless pack of badly printed paper with a picture of the holder and a list of physical description. In most cases this list only contained a strike out line with a note to look for the description in the photograph, including the height and color of eyes and job title. A holder of the Egyptian Travel Document had mixed feelings when traveling and entering borders between Arab countries. By default, a holder felt guilty of possessing it as if it were a conviction document. An immigration officer at any border point would flip the pages and suspect the authenticity of the document. One story relating to the Travel Document says that the immigration officer flipped the Travel Document and accused the holder that it was forged. To his amazement, the holder asked the immigration officer to hand back the travel document and then he placed it on the counter, reached for his shoe and started hitting the Travel document. He looked at the immigration officer and said that if he would forge a passport he would definitely do so for a decent one. The Egyptian Travel Document was the worst thing that could happen to a human being. Although it was issued by the Egyptian government, it did not automatically grant its holder the right to enter Egypt. A holder needs to apply for a visa to Egypt, a process that might take from two weeks to two or more months depending on the political atmosphere between the Arab governments and the PLO.

When Abu Mohammad reached the retirement age after working for the Ministry of Education in Kuwait for over 25 years, he was given two weeks notice, after which he was required to leave the country or make his own arrangement of residency in Kuwait. A situation of such in the civilized world would grant the resident full citizenship. Abu Mohammad was later allowed to remain in Kuwait and his residency permit was annexed to that of his son Mohammad.

Abu Mohammad and his wife, Umm Mohammad, had a dream of building a small house in Al-Areesh North Sinai, as close as possible to the land in which they were brought up – Khan Younis, so that their children could visit them in summer and the family could have a reunion from time to time.

They decided that they would leave Kuwait and live in Egypt because the weather was milder to people of their age, in addition to the fact that Suad, their daughter, was now married and living in Egypt. That dream was unfulfilled. They realized that they needed to renew their visas in Egypt every six months let alone the impossibility to own their own house. Their stay in Egypt was interrupted many times due to the laws governing the stay of Palestinians there.

They left at one time to Libya and stayed for a few months and Um Mohammad went and stayed with her in-laws in Yemen for a few more months and went to Syria to stay with her grandchild Sallam who was studying Medicine in Latakia University. None of their children could arrange to visit their parents or to be visited by them because of the movement limitations on travel document holders.

During this period; in 1990 Saddam invaded Kuwait. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled Kuwait, mostly to Jordan. The eldest son, Mohammad could not leave or remain in Kuwait. All Palestinians after the return of the Kuwaiti government lost their right to remain in Kuwait and were expected to leave. Holders of Egyptian Travel Documents could not remain in Kuwait or leave to Egypt or to any other country in the world.

Later, Mohammad managed to get a visa to UK and applied for asylum which took about 10 years to materialize. During this period Um Mohammad had a heart problem and was taken to Jordan where she underwent an open heart surgery. Abu Mohammad and Um Mohammad managed to get a visa to visit their daughter in Egypt. They stayed there for a few years until Um Mohammad had a stroke and died at the age of sixty. She was buried in Al-Areesh. None of her 9 children was around except Suad who was living there.

Abu Mohammad’s health deteriorated after his wife’s death and was then using a wheel chair. His daughters who had Jordanian passports (as a result of being married to holders of Jordanian passports) managed to visit their father in Egypt frequently, but not those with travel documents. In 2005 the Israelis adopted a unilateral solution and started to withdraw from Gaza. This political decision created chaos on the Rafah border-crossing terminal between Egypt and Palestine, a situation which helped achieve one last wish for Abu Mohammad; to go back to Khan Younis where he could spend the rest of his days on the spot he was born. Aysha, his sister, although old and frail, and still living in Khan Younis, managed to benefited from the situation amidst the chaos prevailing at the border for a few days, arranged for the return of her brother to his home in his homeland. Abu Mohammad was literally smuggled on his wheelchair from Sinai to his own home town.

Abu Mohammad is the eldest son of Khalil Al-Agha, who owned a small lot of land in Khan Younis and who was drafted in his youth to the Ottoman army and fought against the allies in WWII. As the war ended, he returned from Turkey to Palestine on foot with other fellow soldiers. He died in 1961. Abu Mohammad had 3 brothers; Ibrahim, living now in Saudi Arabia, Omar who has lived in Qatar since the early 1960s, and who returned to then died in Khan Younis last year, Jaser who lives now in Cairo, Ruqaya (their sister) who lived and died in Gaza, Aysha (sister) who lives in Khan Younis, and Hamida (sister) who lives now in Saudi Arabia.

The Palestinian educator who devoted his life to the education of his own children and to generations of other Arab children, the man who was characterized by discipline and deep Islamic ethics was frequently happy to hear, while on his wheelchair, the voices of his children and grandchildren on the phone, dialed from Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, UK, North Carolina-USA, and Wellington-NZ.

May God bestow mercy on his soul.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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