Khalid is a Communist from the West Bank. He recently fled the country for persecution for being Palestinian, LGBTQ, and a Communist. He was a victim of severe repression and abuse before, and especially after October 7 while working in Tel Aviv. Members of the RCP spoke with Khalid about his time in Palestine, how he became a Communist, and what students and workers in Canada can do to fight imperialism.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Some details have been changed for privacy.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Palestine, in Nablus.
What was life like before the war?
Life in the West Bank was really hard. Especially when going between cities. There is IDF everywhere, occupation everywhere. To go to an airport we had to go through Jordan and three checkpoints. But last year I was working in Israel, and was coming back home once or twice a week. I was a cleaner in a mall. It was nice at the beginning before Oct. 7, it was really good. And while I received a lot of racism I had a lot of friends.
You were in Tel Aviv on Oct. 7. What was that day like?
It was early morning. I was walking to play some sports. Then I heard the rocket alarm and though “what the fuck is going on?” I hadn’t heard any news of a war. So I ran to a bomb shelter. Then a security guard asked, “where are you from?” I was afraid, and I thought about lying, but I said Palestine. He told me I had to get out. And I said no, and we began arguing. Then he called the police, and 10 of them showed up with big guns, pointed them at my head, and told me to leave, yelling in Hebrew. I told them I might die if I leave, and they said “if you die, we don’t care. It’s not our problem.” I ran into a field because at least there a building wouldn’t fall on me. After the bombs, I went home. From then on, we were told not to speak Arabic at our hostel.
What were the days like after Oct. 7?
Really crazy. Everyone had guns on the streets, even civilians. It began to get really dangerous for me. I stopped going to work and stayed away from people.
I made a social media post saying I did not agree with the tactics of Hamas, but what the IDF does in the West Bank every day is also terrorism. The IDF is a terrorist army. Immediately I received intense hatred and abuse. They told me they will burn my people alive. I also received calls from private numbers, who I’m almost sure was Mossad, telling me they would arrest me if I made another post.
I was offered a job at a place I worked at previously to prepare food, but it was for the IDF going into Gaza, so I immediately declined it.
In July I found a job at an aluminum shop, which is when I applied for asylum. I interviewed at the Canadian embassy and was approved.
It was really hard to leave. It is better here because I have rights, I can go to a hospital, but at the same time it’s painful. It’s really painful seeing the news everyday. I feel like I can’t live my life. And I’m not just thinking about Palestine, but countries like Sudan and Ethiopia going through the same thing. Same with the Congo, where the American and European capitalists occupy and kill them and take their land and steal their resources.
How did you become a communist in Palestine?
Palestine has a long history of resistance, and communism. When I was in Israel for the first time I was really afraid to meet anyone because of how dangerous it was. So I used a dating app, and while I received a lot of abuse, I met one guy who asked where I was from. When I said Palestine, he sent a picture of a trashed Israeli flag. I thought this guy for sure is Mossad. He wants to kill me. But I said you know what, I will see who this is, I’m not afraid.
Then he began to speak to me in Arabic. And most of the Israelis who speak Arabic are probably Mossad, or police, and by then I was convinced he was a spy. In any case, I met with him, and he was a member of the Communist Party of Israel. He took me to their center, where I saw Palestinian and LGBTQ flags, and I was really proud of them.
I started to go to protests with them, and they explained the ideas of communism and Marx. I realized this is what I was believing before, and I felt like I had been a communist already. I was already atheist, and believed we needed to unite in struggle. The Communist Party felt like my family.
In all of Israel, I didn’t feel safe, except with them. Even in protests against the war, they would look out for me.
Why do you think the IDF launched their newest attacks into the West Bank over the past few months? Why now?
They’re trying to take the rest of the land. They’ve had this plan for a long time. Israel ministers have said their people need to live in all of the Middle East. That it’s their promised land. They want to take it, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and then Egypt, Sinai. In Canada, they killed the natives and they took their land. That’s what happened in the Middle East. The Israeli don’t even want to take just the West Bank. They do this with the collaboration of all the Arab leaders, who are working under the Americans and the capitalists.
What would you say to a student or worker here who tells you we need to put an end to this, but they don’t know what to do?
We need to take power. The imperialists are doing horrible things across the world. We need to take over the government by power.
We need to replace it with a communist system. Under capitalism, the Arabs are slaves in their own land. We need to overthrow the state to put an end to the suffering, not just in Palestine but around the world.
What do you think about the movement for Palestine in Canadian universities?
I went to Vancouver UBC and I saw the encampment, and it gave me a lot of hope to see people still working and doing things. I read how the students here helped stop the war in the 1960s, and I wish for us to do the same.
What do you think about the campaign for a student strike for Palestine?
I think this will push the movement ahead. Right now, all over the world there are protests for Palestine. Millions of people. If there was really democracy, they would stop the war right now. But there is no democracy. So I believe we must do this next step, we must do it.
What would you say to someone who feels like they can’t do anything? Like they’ve marched, and yelled, but the genocide goes on?
That’s a really hard question. But we need to try our best. We can’t stop. We need to do everything we can to try and stop this in any way possible. And we need to show our anger and our pain for Gaza. I believe we need to continue until we overthrow this government and all of the bullshit in this world.
