[News] We overcame our fear

[Anti-Imperialist News]

We overcame our fear
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6003.shtml


Jameela al-Shanti, The Electronic Intifada, 9 November 2006

[]

A Palestinian girl protests Israel's latest incursion into Gaza at a 
Hamas rally in the northern Gaza Strip, 3 November 2006. 
(<http://www.maanimages.com>MaanImages/Wesam Saleh)

The unarmed women of the Gaza Strip have taken the lead in resisting 
Israel's latest bloody assault

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my 
home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my 
sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the 
same raid Israel's artillery shelled a residential district in the 
town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 
injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 
members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the 
youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit 
Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

This is Israel's tenth incursion into Beit Hanoun since it announced 
its withdrawal from Gaza. It has turned the town into a closed 
military zone, collectively punishing its 28,000 residents. For days, 
the town has been encircled by Israeli tanks and troops and shelled. 
All water and electricity supplies were cut off and, as the death 
toll continued to mount, no ambulances were allowed in. Israeli 
soldiers raided houses, shut up the families and positioned their 
snipers on roofs, shooting at everything that moved. We still do not 
know what has become of our sons, husbands and brothers since all 
males over 15 years old were taken away last Thursday.

They were ordered to strip to their underwear, handcuffed and led away.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love 
disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 
1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew 
last Friday - and set about freeing some of our young men who were 
besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the 
Israeli military machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers 
were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except 
each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the 
first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the 
suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel's so-called defence force 
did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close 
friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last 
breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a 
kindergarten. Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In 
the last week 30 children have died. As I go round the crowded 
hospital, it is deeply poignant to see the large number of small 
bodies with their scars and amputated limbs. We clutch our children 
tightly when we go to sleep, vainly hoping that we can shield them 
from Israel's tanks and warplanes.

But as though this occupation and collective punishment were not 
enough, we Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic 
siege imposed by the so-called free world. We are being starved and 
suffocated as a punishment for daring to exercise our democratic 
right to choose who rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the 
west's claims to defend freedom and democracy more than what is 
happening in Palestine. Shortly after announcing his project to 
democratise the Middle East, President Bush did all he could to 
strangle our nascent democracy, arresting our ministers and MPs. I 
have yet to hear western condemnation that I, an elected MP, have had 
my home demolished and relatives killed by Israel's bombs. When the 
bodies of my friends and colleagues were torn apart there was not one 
word from those who claim to be defenders of women's rights on 
Capitol Hill and in 10 Downing Street.

Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the 
ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee 
camps, and the denial of our most basic human rights, without 
protesting and resisting?

The lesson the world should learn from Beit Hanoun last week is that 
Palestinians will never relinquish our land, towns and villages. We 
will not surrender our legitimate rights for a piece of bread or 
handful of rice. The women of Palestine will resist this monstrous 
occupation imposed on us at gunpoint, siege and starvation. Our 
rights and those of future generations are not open for negotiation.

Whoever wants peace in Palestine and the region must direct their 
words and sanctions to the occupier, not the occupied, the aggressor 
not the victim. The truth is that the solution lies with Israel, its 
army and allies - not with Palestine's women and children.


Jameela al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative 
Council for Hamas. She led a women's protest against the siege of 
Beit Hanoun last Friday. This article was published first in the Guardian.


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20061110/6c4d6287/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 765d7c2d.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 111485 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20061110/6c4d6287/attachment.jpg>