I was hounded as an immigrant student – strangers stepped up
£40,000.
Staring at my phone, I couldn’t believe strangers had donated to us. Our family had finally met our goal.
For a moment, everything went quiet inside me. I hugged my husband, and then I started crying, not just out of relief, but out of disbelief. People we didn’t know had chosen to support my dream to study in the UK.
We ordered a cake, celebrated, sang and danced. My three children, all under five, couldn’t fully grasp the scale of it, but understood something life-changing had happened. They thought it was a birthday cake, so we let it be one.
After everything we had survived fleeing Gaza in May 2024, we were celebrating the new life we had just secured – in defiance of the hateful trolls who wanted to see us fail.
My dream was always to pursue my MA in Britain. In 2016, at 24, I received three unconditional offers, but I couldn’t secure a scholarship or funding.
I put my dream on hold as I started my career as a teacher, getting married, and having children, but I never forgot about it.
Our life was good before the war broke out, despite the recurring Israeli attacks. We had stable jobs and had built a beautiful home for our family.
Then, during the war, we fled to Egypt, where we are currently based, to protect our children. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, where I worked as a teacher, placed my colleagues and I on forced exceptional leave, but we continued teaching our students in Gaza online.
My husband and I then began teaching Arabic online to students around the world to support ourselves and help our families back home. At the same time, I started writing articles, sharing my experience of the conflict in Palestine.
I have around 2,000 subscribers across the world on Substack. My followers often reach out, telling me there is something powerful and rare in hearing directly from Gazans about what we’re enduring.
Before the year of exceptional leave ended, my contract was terminated in January. The war had already taken our home, now it had taken our jobs, alongside any sense of stability we had left.
That was the moment I decided to go after my dream again.
I began researching universities in Britain, and found myself drawn to media and communications. Goldsmiths felt like the right place.
Within a week, I took the International English Language Testing System, preparing intensively for five days, wrote my personal statement and research proposal, and received an unconditional offer for a Master’s by Research.
It was not easy, especially as a parent, but I was driven by an unbreakable determination.
To fund my MA and cover living expenses for my family, I created a GoFundMe on March 13, which raised around £600 in three days. I shared the page on X on March 17, hoping I could raise a few thousand.
A few hours later, Reform MP and former Home Secretary shared my post, saying universities should stop ‘selling immigration instead of education.’
She questioned my right to bring my family with me when I came to study, insinuating that I was abusing the system.
What made her words so cruel was she made it seem like an optional luxury.
Soon after, awful attacks and hateful messages flooded in, saying we were ‘not welcome’, ‘95% of the country’ didn’t want us, and they hated people like us.
Thankfully, this negative online attention resulted in a surge in donations from those who did help us, pushing the total to about £16,000.
I received many kind messages, such as ‘Good luck with your studies,’ and ‘For every horrid comment, there are ten more people who will be delighted to welcome you and your family here’.
But I was still shocked and devastated by the volume and intensity of the hate. I had no choice but to delete the X post, which had reached over 6.5 million views in 10 hours, and temporarily deactivate my account.
Those sending hate even reported my fundraiser, claiming it was a scam. GoFundMe paused the transfer of funds. I had to go through an exhausting verification process and direct confirmation from Goldsmiths of my MA, to keep my donation page up.
On March 29, Owen Jones interviewed me and I spoke about the attacks and my experience. The response shifted, and donations came flooding in.
Two days later, I finally reached my goal of £40,000.
I have now paid my deposit to Goldsmiths and am waiting for my confirmation so I can apply for my student visa. I am hoping to move to London in August 2026, a few weeks before my MA begins.
We plan to support ourselves fully while in the UK. My husband will be able to teach full time and, as an international student, I can work up to 20 hours per week.
Once my master’s is complete, I hope to progress onto a PhD, and keep writing and speaking about Gaza.
For months, my life had been shaped by uncertainty, waking up each day not knowing what would come next or how we would keep going. Now it feels like we can finally breathe again.
It reminded me that even in the darkest moments, there are people out there who choose kindness, and champion you, despite never having met you.
That feeling will always stay with me.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jessica.aureli@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.