It’s No Secret Why The Kids on Gaza’s Beach Love To Sail—In Conversation with Nabil Amra

interview by Tariq Luthun

This interview is featured in Mizna 19.1: The Playing Field. Click here to order your copy and subscribe today to get the latest in Arab lit!

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Beginning on July 1, 2018, sailing under the Palestinian flag, Palestinian American Nabil Amra is circumnavigating the world single-handedly and nonstop as part of the Golden Globe Race. To capture the spirit of the original event that took place 50 years ago (the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, 1968-1969), the current race restricts its entrants to materials and technologies that were available during the 1960s, such as Ham radio and modified astrolabe. A self-taught, avid sailor, Nabil made an intentional decision to depart from his life as a foreign exchange trader and work to qualify for one of the race’s limited spots. Amra and the 17 other sailors in the race are expected to cover 30,000 miles in approximately 9 months. On his boat, he is carrying 80 gallons of water and a year’s worth of freeze-dried food, including ice cream from Milkjam Creamery and hummus from Holy Land Deli-items from favorite Palestinian-owned businesses in his hometown of Minneapolis. He is also carrying a doll of Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager jailed by Israeli forces in March 2018.

Nabil will be sailing his Biscay 36 yacht as a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people who struggle under occupation, bringing attention to the injustices they face at the hands of the Israeli military. He aims to specifically spotlight the Palestinian Sail and Surf Federation. Not only are many Gazans not permitted access to the shore, the PSSF’s boating fleet was recently destroyed by the military. If he wins, Amra will use the money to purchase racing dinghies for the federation.

This interview was conducted by Tariq Luthun in May 2018 and edited for length and clarity by editorial team member Miray Philips.

It’s No Secret Why The Kids on Gaza’s Beach Love To Sail

TARIQ LUTHUN

Sailing isn’t exactly the most prominent form of athletic endeavor. How did you come to it? And how did you get to a point where it was something you could see yourself competing in for a challenge of this magnitude?

NABIL AMRA

I’m a lake sailor in Minneapolis, purely for pleasure and rarely competitive. I found sailing later in life. It helped me cope with a stressful day. On the water, the days’ stressors melt away, leaving you in a place where you could deal with the morning’s rat race. The day starts anew, with the sun. World sailors seemed to have also been prolific writers; the books they’ve left have been consumed and wisdom from them remembered. 

While many yachtsmen would have you believe that sailing is a complicated skill not far from rocket science, I feel otherwise. The sailing part isn’t that complicated, though there are all sorts of variables that the lake sailor can take for granted to a much larger extent than the blue water sailor. This includes weather, navigation, mending, feeding, hygiene, hardship, and attitude-these all add up to a type of low-level anxiety that stays with you until the conclusion of any voyage. They have to be dealt with; there is no getting around them.

Maybe we will see that mentality will be my biggest variable. A Palestinian’s superhuman ability to persevere might be the best attribute to the success of this endeavor. Although sadly, just to get this far has already taxed some of my reserves and I haven’t even gotten started yet.

Also, the ability to roll with the punches is an essential attribute to success in a challenge like this. Many things will not go as planned, and you have to be able to accept it and move on. You have to find another way, adjust something else, accept the newly added inefficiency to your plan, and replan accordingly. There is no other way. This, then, brings you to resourcefulness. There is no one else aboard, and you must have the initiative to do it. It’s not an easy challenge, and I probably wasn’t born to be the guy to try. But if not now, when? If not me, who? It would have been my preference to watch someone else instead, but I fear I would grow old waiting.

TL

What is your cause? And what does it mean to you to be undertaking an experience that many Palestinians cannot, to essentially be their avatar?

NA

I consider it an honor to be associated with the most heroic and defiant people on God’s green earth. Your eyes must be shut if you don’t see that. There are many fantastic sailors and hopefully this effort, in some way, will help them get to a place where they can showcase this for themselves. The world must know that Palestinians want to compete, but are being kept from it.

I could have picked a different cause to hold up, and it would have been much easier to get the financial support and press attention to get to the starting line. But without the Palestinian flag, this wouldn’t have held any interest for me.

Being vocal about the Palestinian plight has made this endeavor increasingly difficulty in a way that I had not anticipated. I could have gone cruising, which is what I like to do. The money spent in the race would have funded 20 years of cruising to exotic locations without worrying about finances. Instead, I’ve had to self-fund nearly the entire undertaking. I’ve had to lean on family and friends and ask for help, which are things that I detest. I’ve always been the guy to help, not ask for it. It’s forced a new level of humility in me that I never knew possible. It’s not really part of Middle Eastern culture to show support in this particular way. While we are exceedingly charitable, charity has culturally been something reserved for the poor. Trying to convince people to support a solo sailing attempt around the world’s great capes for Palestine is a challenge. It doesn’t seem to be a worthy thing to get behind. At least at first glance. But I would argue the exact opposite.

In the best cases to hope for, we are portrayed as victims, the worst, terrorists! How has that worked out for everyone? Nobody is better than us. Nobody can do something that we cannot do. Nobody is smarter than us. While not fair, it appears to me we have to earn ourselves a seat at the table. As equals, at least equals. Our history would have crushed a lesser people. The world has no idea what it’s really like inside of the modern concentration camp that is Gaza. If aliens arrived tomorrow, you could present them a Palestinian as a specimen for all of humanities’ greatest strengths.

TL

What are your goals? How have people responded- whether they are family, friends, or otherwise?

NA

I do have some people trying to make me reconsider: my overprotective mother can’t seem to stop asking if I’m making the right move. The back-and-forth with her always leaves me smiling. But ultimately, my goal is to finish. My goal is to make sure there are others who will be able to come after me, repeatedly, to do this or whatever it is that they want to do. My goal is to show sports associations that there are other potential contestants who want to compete in their events. They are Palestinians who would show well for their people. But ask them why they don’t come?

I probably won’t win. There are very talented, lifelong sailors in this race. There is a big difference between cruising and racing. While I will still claim that sailing isn’t a complicated affair, if you want to squeeze everything out of it and the boat, like anything, it becomes complicated. Sailing at 80% and sailing at 98% are two very different things. But maybe if I can show you that the 80% can go far with relative success, maybe others will go out and try. There is much to enjoy from cruising: new ports, experiences, and adventure.

TL

How does it feel to traverse the sea? Something that erases the path behind you in an instant? Leaving no record, no witness?

NA

It’s amazing, it’s what keeps me coming back. Nothing can hurt you anymore: issues at home, financial worries, concerns as an occupied people. These constant worries-in everyone’s life, not just my own-slowly get quieter. Every day at sea slowly silences these voices. Every day added to the journey cleanses the mind a little more. It’s no secret why the kids on Gaza’s beach love to sail. It would do anyone some good, anyone with normal day-to-day stresses, and it could certainly be therapeutic for the extraordinary people under brutal occupation.