Amr Hassan Sayed

In 2013, after I was accepted at @nyuniversity, I applied for a visa interview at the US Consulate in Jerusalem. All I needed was a one-day permit to do a 15-minute interview there. It took me four months to get the permit. At Erez, I was held in a small room for hours, without my phone, water, or the ability to talk to anyone. I saw cancer patients being held there as well. I was stripped naked, and the soldiers took their time patting me down from head to toe. I was then forced to be interrogated by an intelligence officer for hours. I was then forced to carry a large piece of paper, with my name and ID number written in Hebrew, and they photographed me as if I were a criminal. Then I was sent back to Gaza and kept missing my visa interviews until @Gisha_Access intervened and helped me. I was able to go to Jerusalem for a day and return to Gaza. Those were some of the worst months of my life, full of waiting, uncertainty, humiliation, and trauma. I can't recall any hope or coexistence.