A Palestinian refugee studying in Ireland, Mohamed El Kahout tells Meredith Hicks about the ups and downs of a life removed from his family’s ancestral homeland

You probably know the saying that a journey of a thousand miles always starts with a single step. For Palestinian refugee Mohamed El Kahout, his many steps in life have allowed him to observe the world a bit differently than many others.
His personal path journey has now led him to Dublin, but how he arrived is an experience in itself.

“I was actually born in Doha, Qatar,” he says, “as my parents and their families had to move during the conflict with Israel.”
Despite that upheaval, El Kahout had relatively comfortable beginnings, the son of a dentist and Arabic instructor in the middle of three sisters, “It was nice,” he remembers about growing up in Qatar, “but living without many relatives is bittersweet for many people that have left Palestine.”

El Kahout’s parents were among the hundreds of thousands who left Palestine amid many decades of great turmoil for their people. Palestinians refer to 1948 as al-Nakba, Arabic for ‘the catastrophe’, whereby 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the Arab-Israeli war. Nearly 20 years later, the ‘Six Day War’ of 1967 left many thousands more displaced. In the years since, some, like El Kahout’s family, were lucky enough to find a good home in another country. But their essentially stateless background presented other problems.

“People [in Ireland] have heard about the Palestinians and Israelis, but not many know how this conflict still affects us deeply in many different ways,” says El Kahout. “Until recently, in order to travel anywhere we had paper documents from the Egyptian government with our photos glued on the surface. Although it was a legal document, it was hard for authorities to believe them.

“Now we have been given documents that are created to look like a normal passport which is called an ‘Egyptian Travel Document for Palestinian Refugees’ on the cover.”

After completing the equivalent of the Leaving Cert in Qatar, El Kahout looked at the possibility of his moving to Ireland for his studies, as he has an uncle here who immigrated many years earlier.

Now in Dublin, studying Journalism and Media since 2012, El Kahout says he’s found very little to dislike about his life in Ireland.

“I am having a wonderful time here! I have travelled to Ireland before with my family to visit my uncle, but it is a new experience to live in a new country,” he smiles.

Have their been any issues with his culture or Palestinian background in Ireland? He shakes his head.
“A couple of weeks ago I went to a nightclub with my cousin and friends and we gave the bouncer our IDs. When he looked at my ID, which is from Qatar but says that I am Palestinian, the bouncer said that our Irish friends would have to pay but for us Palestinians, we wouldn’t have to.

“We all laughed, and he was joking, but just the fact that he said that made me appreciate that some people do understand the Palestinian cause and conflict. It really meant a lot to me.”

Still, while he enjoys Irish culture and Dublin’s diversity, El Kahout says there are still some differences he’s found hard to accept.

“I have noticed that social life here involves a lot of alcohol, regardless if it is with family, friends, or colleagues,” he says. “Back home it is more straightforward, and because we don’t drink we go out to a restaurant and perhaps go to the movies.”

Returning to more solemn matters, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues, the delicate levels of complexities and discourse remain.

“It’s not fair not being able to enter a country, or being interrogated for hours before entering a country, solely based on where you’re from, so yes, it is sad and very frustrating,” laments El Kahout.

“My travel document – I don’t even have a passport – says that I am a refugee but in my heart I am a young person who loves his homeland, and enjoys life with his friends and family.”

And El Kahout leaves us with more positive food for thought: “Maybe people over here who can travel should visit different places, they should be open to see other parts of the world and the way we all live.

“It is not all as green as Ireland, but it helps make our world a bit smaller. This also creates more respect instead of fear.”