Becoming an Arab American: From Gaza to Seattle

posted on: Oct 19, 2016

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

Anas Alfarra is fulfilling his own American dream. After enduring a childhood of constant movement and near death experiences, Anas is determined to bring good into this world through technological innovation and business acumen.

Anas was born in Egypt, not unlike many Palestinians from Gaza who fled the area to avoid the crippling economic effects of the Israeli occupation. In 1993, when he was two years old, Anas and his family moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in search for a better quality of life for the family. But after the first Oslo Accords took place, the Alfarra family seized an opportunity to move back to Gaza, where hope of peace and freedom were stronger than ever.

However, that hope subsided as quickly as the Oslo agreement was violated. Once again, the Alfarra family found themselves living in Egypt, but they were struggling to keep their business open because the Egyptian government imposed strict limitations to Palestinian enterprises.

When the Israelis left Gaza once more in 2004, the Alfarras took advantage of another chance to return to their homeland and settle down for good. By 2005, they were back in Gaza where Anas finished high school at age 15.

“I started college in Gaza at the age of 16 and took an engineering major, but then the war started,” Anas told Arab America. The engineering building at Al-Azhar University – Gaza was partially demolished and the program lost recognition.

“I would either have to sacrifice my education or change majors,” said Anas. “So I switched to business. I would walk across the Gaza Strip every day for 4 miles during the war just to catch up on the material,” Anas said, recalling the sight of incoming F-16 missiles. “I had two choices after seeing concrete buildings change into 10-meter wide dump holes in seconds. The choices were either to possibly die at home, trying to take shelter, or to possibly die in the street pursuing life. I chose the latter.”

Anas declared his new major, Business Administration, only three weeks before finals, but still managed to graduate in the top 5 percent of his class.

Determined to find a way out of Gaza, Anas spent his spare time volunteering with NGOs and earning money by building lamps out of torn down olive trees. He bought destroyed tree branches from local farmers, cured the wood, embedded calligraphy and designs onto the wood, and installed lighting.

From the destruction, Anas sent light into the world. “I was very disappointed with the international community, so I wanted to send them a message from my heart. I had so many ambitions and capabilities, but I was trapped. I had to leave Gaza to pursue what I wanted, but also to be safe.”

Anas was an exceptional student, but without sponsorship from an American or European program, he would not be able to leave Gaza. He applied to every Western program he could until one day, a friend invited him to take the international baccalaureate test with her, which earned him a spot in an American program. He was admitted to the Near East South Asia (NESA) exchange program operated by the U.S. State Department and Georgetown University.

“I scored lower than my friend, but I still qualified and they only said one person could go and I got it,” Anas said, recalling this fortunate moment where he was chosen instead of his friend. “So my mom told me to leave and never look back.”

After getting approval and clearance from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Gaza, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S., Anas began a 10-month program at Jackson State University – an historic black college in Mississippi.

“Mississippi was definitely a very interesting place and a cultural shock. It was a different language and skin color and ethnicity and religion. Something as simple as learning the difference between ‘you all’ and ‘ya’ll’ was a challenge,” Anas remembered jokingly. “The Southern accent was an added challenge to learning English.”

Initially, people approached Anas with judgment and assumptions because of his Arab background, but the barriers were quickly overcome by the university’s eagerness to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Arab customs.

Anas had much to learn about American culture, too. “The hardest thing to adapt to was the culture… Americans value different things and ignore others. I had to let go of certain things in my culture, such as the religious aspects, and others I had to hold onto very tightly,” Anas remembered.

Thus began Anas’ journey to finding his identity. As a Palestinian, Anas will always be reminded of his statelessness, and growing up in several different places has detached his identity from one specific nation. But in America, Anas was granted the opportunity to curate his identity through personal values and begin practicing who he wanted to be, making him a stronger person.

Anas fit into his new community well and strived to be an accomplished person. In another achievement, Anas was granted an extension to continue his studies in America. He was the first person in 47 years to be given the chance. By the end of his extension, 700 students and 2 university presidents petitioned the U.S. government to allow Anas to stay in the country for good. Fourteen hours before he was supposed to board a flight back to Gaza, Anas was granted permission to stay in the U.S. to finish his studies at Jackson State University and live in America.

After earning a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Jackson State, Anas moved to Seattle and began working at Ossia to help develop the company’s wireless cell phone charging technology. He has since been promoted to Intellectual Property Manager, a role that requires deep technical expertise and a keen eye for future plans. But Anas has dreams to help others the way he has been helped in his journey to becoming an American.

“I want to build a venture capital incubator company to establish companies that can really make a difference. I want to be involved with companies that do social good, like providing sustainable power in Gaza or empowering women in the Middle East.”

The young engineer finds encouragement from the “educated, open minded, and well-established Arab Americans of Seattle. These people are the best of many different worlds,” Anas said proudly.

He has become an active member of the Arab American community in Seattle. He serves on the board of the Network of Arab American Professionals and helped coordinate the Arab American festival in the city last year.

Anas is fitting in nicely, but still feels like he’s a “unique animal” who is always being challenged to prove himself. “I always lived in places where I don’t fit in 100 percent, but I find my place. And it’s a challenge to always work to prove who you are, but I’ve learned that I don’t have to look and act like those around me to feel like myself.”