Rapid City Developer Gains Statewide Reach

Two days after Hani Shafai told his parents he was leaving his homeland for the United States, he was gone.

“I did not let them know I was leaving until I’d bought my tickets and had my visa,” he said. “It was tough on them. It was a sudden deal.”

The man who would go on to help shape the face of the modern Rapid City region was 19 at the time, born in 1961 and raised in Beit Lahia, a community on the northern tip of the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border.

Throughout the early years of his life and into his college years, conflict over control of the area raged.

Via Sioux Falls Business