In June 2024 Gaza native Ezzeldeen Alswerky was accepted into the Trinity Biochemistry and Immunology department to work as a research assistant under associate professor Amir Khan. However, he has been unable to leave Gaza to take up this position.
Alswerky is a graduate of the Biotechnology program at the Islamic University of Gaza. After his graduation in August, he continued his graduate project on biocementation while working as a volunteer research assistant in a cancer lab. A year’s worth of Alswerky’s research was disrupted and lost when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bombed the Islamic University of Gaza on October 10th, 2023.
In an effort to flee the war and continue his scientific career, he applied to institutions in Brazil, the U.S.A and Ireland, eventually choosing Trinity over the others due to Ireland’s sympathetic stance towards the Palestinian plight. However, the means of finding refuge in, or fleeing Gaza are painstakingly slim.
The IDF claim to target Hamas hideouts, however the group are known to burrow under residential neighbourhoods, blurring any clear boundaries between the civilian and militant world. At 365 square kilometres, with a population of 2.1 million, the Gaza Strip is even more densely populated than New York City, the result being that there are few, if any, safe places to hide or travel to the border.
Palestinians may legally enter Egypt with a foreign passport, a foreign country lobbying on their behalf, approved medical aid, or, as a last resort, the payment of a coordination fee. Since the outbreak of the war, these costs have hiked up from €225 – 630, to €5,000- €6,750, making them unaffordable for most.
In order to apply for an Irish visa, Alswerky will have to first find a way into Egypt, and fears being unable to afford the coordination fee. His contract has been postponed to November in the meantime.
“I am stuck here and suffering from starvation and traumas everyday” he said in a statement to the University Times, “this war has cost me a brother, a family business, and my home”.
Alswerky’s Principal Investigator, biochemistry associate professor Amir Khan, asked the administration to facilitate and expedite the process of the contract. Alswerky has received no other support from Trinity.
Postdoctoral researcher at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Research Donna Rodgers-Lee is in regular contact with Alswerky and stated that the Palestinian researcher has had no contact from Trinity with regards to his safety, despite living in an active war zone and having secured a contract with the College.
