06-08-2025
Australian-Palestinians feel impact of Gaza War
Sabra Lane: Palestinian Australians say their community here is struggling with what's happening in Gaza and they're asking the rest of us to be understanding about the emotional toll some are enduring. A Brisbane principal who's lost more than 130 members of his family in Gaza is among them. He's reluctantly stood aside from his job in his warning of deteriorating mental health. National Education reporter Connor Duffy has the story.
Conor Duffy: As he strums a mournful tune on his lute, Principal Sami Muammar is trying to escape survivor's guilt and recurring images of his family in Gaza begging for help.
Sami Muamar : I am standing up in a step and under me is a lot of hellfire and I've seen a lot of people putting their hands up and pick me up, pick me up.
Sami Muamar : Sami Muammar left Gaza in 2002. His comfortable suburban Gold Coast home is no longer a refuge. Technology brings constant news of death and hunger. Sami Muammar says he stopped counting when the number of family members killed reached 130. He provided a list of 112 names. AM was able to verify 103 of them using a database of war dead from the Gaza Ministry of Health. Sami Muammar fears the list will continue to grow.
Sami Muamar : When I look at the group chat, I'm thinking of my sisters and I can show you her photos. I talked to her the other day. She's a skin and a bone from hunger. There's no food. And I told her, what do you eat? And she started crying.
Conor Duffy: The constant stress and worry has meant Sami Muammar has had to step down as principal of Islamic College of Brisbane, a busy private school.
Sami Muamar : The school means a lot to me. The school is my community, my friends, my colleagues. The students are like my kids, really. I love them so much.
Conor Duffy: The school's CEO, Ali Qadri, who is also a leader in the Islamic community, supports the decision but warns others are suffering too.
Ali Kadri : The challenges are immense. I mean, people think that this is happening far away, but it's not really happening far away. It's happening on our mobile screens, it's happening on our TV screens, and it's human beings suffering.
Conor Duffy: Dr Mohamed Mostafa is one of the few Australians who's visited Gaza since the war. The trainee doctor describes brutal scenes.
Mohamed Mustafa : Children are coming in dismembered. We don't even have proper sutures, painkillers. You know, it's like being a butcher. It's not being a doctor, it's being a butcher.
Conor Duffy: Dr Mostafa says the wider community is struggling and needs empathy.
Mohamed Mustafa : Do you know, there's so many emotions. They're watching either, you know, the destruction of Gaza and what's happening there. They're watching family members being killed. It makes it very, very hard to be a Palestinian.
Conor Duffy: Back on the Gold Coast, Sami Muamar is retreating to his garden and hopes the time away will lead to new growth.
Ali Kadri : When you plant a seed and you see it coming back, it gives you hope of life. When I've seen that Gaza is really destructed, I have hope which I could plant a seed and make a new generation come. It makes you that there is hope for a co-existence.
Conor Duffy: School Principal Sami Muamar endingthat report from Conor Duffy.
