Hala Aqel

Hala Aqel used to take part in Hands up Project online intercultural link ups through her teacher in Gaza, Amal Mukhairez and different remote volunteers around the world. She also acted in various Hands up plays, most notably as the narrator in this remarkable piece about bullying, ‘See something, say something’. This play was recorded live during the pandemic, when nobody was going to school, and the only way that young people in Palestine could produce remote theatre was with one student per camera. Watch the video below and you’ll see how, despite the weak internet connection, the result is highly innovative and powerful. Watch to the end for an important message that the whole world needs to hear right now.

Hala has now become a very well established poet, writing one of the winning poems in our 2024 competition, and published in Oh big blue. She then went on to be one of the poets in the Hands up Project/SOAS mentorship scheme. Here’s what Hala wrote in the introduction to her three longer poems which are included in our latest poetry collection, From dust we rise.

“ I’m Hala Aqel, 18 years old, a Palestinian girl from the Gaza Strip and I’m very proud of this. I’m a survivor of the Gaza war. I was born in December 2007, growing up under the weight of the ongoing siege. My life took a positive turn in 2013 when my family moved to Malaysia. There, I thrived in school, made friends from all over the world, enjoyed a peaceful, happy life and felt free to dream.

Returning to Gaza was tough, It was hard, but I adapted because I have so much love for my country, and I found success, winning awards in spelling, writing, acting, and engineering projects. I also learned about AI and UX/UI design.

This year, I reached a goal I’ve had for as long as I can remember. I finished my Tawjihi exams (my last year of school). I studied through the Gaza war, through fear, through nights filled with bombing and power cuts. Education has always grounded me. It gives me something solid to hold on to.

Now I wait for my results and hope to continue my studies in Engineering. I want to keep learning, and finding ways to rebuild what has been lost. At the moment the war has stopped, and now I’m displaced with my family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. I can’t return to the north of the Gaza strip because my home was completely destroyed .

I’m living in a completely destroyed city. Wherever you turn your face, you find a lot of destruction and rubble . I’m feeling very confused. I do not know what I should do now or what is next. I cannot return to my normal life; at the same time I cannot get used to this tragic situation that I’m living in. My city is destroyed and devoid of any services

Everywhere in Gaza you will find tired people thinking. Every family in Gaza is devastated; either their home was destroyed or a member of the family has been martyred. Joy was stolen from the city and all the beautiful memories were stolen with it.

I hope that 5 years from today, I will be in a quiet and peaceful place, away from wars, and that I will have obtained a bachelor’s degree in Artificial intelligence Engineering at one of the prestigious universities, and that I will have published my first poetry collection. Through this collection I will be able to convey my voice to the world.

I hope I can live a beautiful life after two years of the torment that we lived through in the Gaza Strip. As I face the challenges of rebuilding my life, I find comfort in writing. Through my words, I hope to share who I was, who I am now, and whom I dream of becoming . I hope to become a great and famous author and have many wonderful books and poems. I write to leave a beautiful impact on this big world”

And finally here is one of Hala’s poems ‘Eighteen winters on the path of wars’ published in From Dust we rise, and performed tragically and majestically by Hala herself.