Spirit of a fighter

The streets of the Palestinian West Bank were filled with tear gas and bullets as Palestinian protesters carrying signs and throwing rocks came under a hail of gunfire from Israeli soldiers stationed atop houses.

That was the last memory one of the protestors, Waddah Sofan, remembers before Israeli soldiers shot him and shattered his spinal cord with a hollow-tip bullet. Sofan woke up in an Israeli hospital in pain and disoriented after laying in a coma for seven days.

“I did not realize what happened to me. I didn’t even know the bullets went though my spine,” Sofan, 38, said. It was during this time that he learned he was permanently paralyzed and would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Sofan was shot on Sept. 28, 1989, two years after the uprising of Palestinians in response to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He grew up in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and was not a stranger to the chaos that he experienced the day he was shot.

Most of his life he and his family lived under occupation of Israeli military.

“You see soldiers, checkpoints, houses being demolished. You wake up to the sounds of bullets, the smell of tear gas. It raises fear in your soul and the question ‘Why is this happening to my own people?'” Sofan said.

After growing up in these traumatic conditions, as a teenager Sofan began to respond in protest along with other Palestinians. This led to him being arrested and beaten at the age of 15, leading to a yearlong stint in jail for nonviolent resistance.

He would be arrested two times after that, before that day in September that would change his life forever.
After the shooting, he found out that he lost a friend who was also shot by the Israelis. Sofan eventually was taken to a Palestinian hospital, followed by a trip to a European hospital to begin three years of rehabilitation.

Despite his disability, Sofan managed to keep a positive attitude.

“It’s not really hard. You know, having the spirit of a fighter, a spirit of believing in my people,” he said.

In 1996, Sofan came to the United States, sponsored by Good Samaritan Ministries, to do social work. He was originally planning for only a six-month stay, but realized the unique opportunities he had in America. With the help of the community and friends he was able to stay permanently and eventually go to college.

“I can achieve a lot more to help my own people being in the United States,” Sofan said.

He went on to receive a degree in computer science at Portland State, but soon realized with that line of work he felt “very isolated.” He then decided to go to for a master’s degree in conflict resolution here at PSU.

Sofan is also involved in several community student organizations including the Student Fee Committee. He also helped start the student group Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights last fall. Sofan said the group “prepares events and bring awareness about what’s happened in West Bank and Gaza.”

Not only is he an advocate for ethnic minorities, but is an advocate for those with disabilities also. He is outreach coordinator for the Disability Advocacy Cultural Association (DACA). Sofan also coaches a wheelchair basketball team.

Because of all of Sofan’s tireless efforts in the PSU community, he will be receiving the first John Hakanson Student Advancement Award from the PSU Alumni Association.

“What first amazed me about Waddah is that he gets shot by Israeli military, but he doesn’t have a negative bone in his body toward them,” said Hala Gores, an attorney and PSU alumnus.

Sofan echoed Gores’ statement and said that he did not have any bitterness toward those who shot him.

“I believe they are victims like am. Israelis are really victims themselves of their own government as well. What happened happened,” Sofan said.

Gores said that the more people with Sofan’s outlook are essential to healing the rift between the Palestinian and Israelis. 

“If we could clone Waddah, we would,” Gores said.

Sofan believes that healing is in Israeli’s hands.

“Israel has to stop the aggression attacks on the Palestinian civilians,” he said. “Come to negotiation tables and talk about equal justice and equal social justice for everybody. War and killing is not going to help anybody out. It’s not going to take us anywhere. It happened to me. I ended up shot. And I regret being shot.”

But he added that he does not regret what he has been able to accomplish because of the chain of events in his life.

“I don’t feel sorry. I know it’s better to be walking than being in a wheelchair. Those are things that you cannot change it. It doesn’t matter what happened to you, what matters is how you react to it.”