Central Illinoisans are among the over 4,000 people from the United States who went to Egypt as part of a peaceful march to the border with Gaza.
Thousands of people from across the globe had planned to march to the Rafah border in June and push for food and other humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in the territory.
That’s as the United Nations reports that 100% of Gaza’s population is approaching “catastrophic hunger.” Israel has maintained a blockade on foreign relief supplies into Gaza while permitting limited aid deliveries.
Hana Inman-Grabow, an activist who grew up in Kankakee, attended the march and returned from Egypt last week. A substitute teacher at Champaign Central High School, Inman-Grabow said she could not bear to see more images of the violence on social media.
“Every single day I get on Instagram and try not to cry. I just [see] … baby’s heads, like, blown up and decapitated and starving, and I just sit here and cry every day, wishing that I could do something,” she said. “I go to protests, I boycott… I post constantly about it. So when this opportunity came along, it just felt like something I had to do.”
Inman-Grabow said she has gotten some pushback for her decision.
“My mom’s family is very … they said some very hateful, critical things to me about this,” she added. “They told me that I am not Palestinian, so this doesn’t directly affect me, and so I shouldn’t be doing this.”
But Inman-Grabow said it’s important to have empathy — and she could not stand by without trying to do something.
IPM General Assignment Reporter Mae Antar spoke with Inman-Grabow about her experience. She shared her findings with IPM Senior Editor Arjun Thakkar.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
ARJUN THAKKAR: So, Mae, what can you tell us about this teacher from Central Illinois who went to Egypt?
MAE ANTAR: Yeah, her name’s Hana Inman-Grabow, and she’s a substitute teacher here in Champaign. And she was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois. She traveled to Egypt in June to join the Global March to Gaza to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
THAKKAR: Yeah, and what happened when she was there, and how did the planned march go?
ANTAR: Yeah, so the march did not go as planned at all. They weren’t able to get to the border, and most people weren’t able to get to the first checkpoint even, including Hana. The Egyptian police was really cracking down on activists, and there was violence. There [were] arrests, happening left and right. Hana was very afraid in her hotel room, trying to stay safe and hidden from police, trying to feign being a tourist rather than an activist. But yeah, she was very, very scared, just trying to stay safe and get messages to other activists and Palestinians in the area trying to stay safe. There were people arrested in her hotel. 10 people were arrested in her hotel. So, yeah, she was very afraid.
HANA INMAN-GRABOW: It is a police state, and there’s police everywhere, and just not like knowing if you’re safe, you know what I mean? Like, I think the scariest part was just waiting to see if you were the next one to get arrested.
THAKKAR: She flew back to Illinois last week. How does she feel the protest as a whole went?
ANTAR: Yeah, so she has very mixed feelings about the experience. On one hand, she says the protest felt like a failure because she was not able to get aid, the activists were not able to get aid into Gaza. But on the other hand, she felt like she was really raising awareness, and felt inspired by the people who who felt the same way and were willing to take flights to Egypt and fight for the same cause and to help the Palestinian people.
INMAN-GRABOW: Thousands of us were willing to go to Egypt to march to Gaza and like, help these people, and I think it just shows — it brought a sense of a better sense of humanity to the world.
ANTAR: She also said she was able to help some Palestinian families living there without legal status. Palestinians who were let into Egypt often don’t have visas, so they have limited access to services, like health care and housing. So Inman-Grabow said she helped raise money for a family facing eviction and a woman who needed a C-section, and she was very, very grateful to have had that experience.
INMAN-GRABOW: It was also just very like powerful to meet these families and just see the strength and resilience and, like, the life and the happiness that they still have, and the generosity and kindness. We go in their house and they don’t even ask you if you want to drink, they just come out with a tray of drinks for everyone and give you cookies. The hospitality and, like, generosity — despite, first of all, everything they’ve been through, and second of all, them barely having anything, but then sharing it with us — was just very like, it was just like, very touching,
THAKKAR: As we just discussed Inman-Grabow is back in Illinois now. What are her plans moving forward?
ANTAR: Yeah, so she, she felt like this trip was very eye opening for her. She learned a lot about the Palestinian struggle in Egypt, not only in Gaza, and she hopes to go back someday, and, you know, be a teacher there, because she’s a teacher here, but in her spare time, to volunteer with that organization that helped that family out of being evicted and getting that woman a C-section. So yeah, she she definitely wants to go back and continue fighting for this cause.
THAKKAR: Thanks for sharing your reporting with us, Mae.
ANTAR: Thank you.
Correction: This story has been updated from a previous version to correct the spelling of Hana Inman-Grabow’s name.