Um Imad

A large apartment block pockmarked with artillery fire towers incongruously over a dirt road and rubble-strewn lots. We climb the stairs to the apartment Um Imad (Khadra Abu Alees) shares with her daughter’s family. A gust of air-conditioning greets us as we enter, lush drapes and elegant furnishings contrasting sharply with the building’s stark exterior. Um Imad and her daughter bustle to make us feel welcome, the ingredients for sumagiyya already artfully arranged on the kitchen counter.

Um Imad’s daughter and son-in-law are both administrators and professors at the Islamic University in Gaza City. They are scholars who earned their graduate degrees abroad and who now work hard to keep Gaza’s universities operating at an international level, despite repeated bombardments and the near-impossibility of acquiring books or laboratory equipment.