[News] Targeting Palestinian Mothers

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Reham Alhelsi – Targeting Palestinian Mothers

By 
<http://palestinethinktank.com/author/reham-alhelsi/>Reham 
Alhelsi • Mar 24th, 2010 at 10:09
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/24/reham-alhelsi-targeting-palestinian-mothers/

Targeting the weakest and the most vulnerable is 
neither new nor surprising when it comes from an 
entity that stands on the ruins of Palestinian 
villages and is swimming in the blood of its 
Palestinian victims. It is the mentality of 
Zionists who in cold-blood aim to kill 
Palestinian children, who write on their helmets: 
Born to Kill and who wear T-Shirts with images of 
dead Palestinian babies and guns aimed at 
Palestinian babies. It is an entity that is proud 
of slogans showing images such as that of a 
pregnant Palestinian woman with a target sign on 
her belly and the inscription: 1 shot, 2 kills.

During the Nakba, the Zionist usurpers committed 
countless massacres. Often it was the women and 
the children who were first targeted and brutally 
murdered as a warning and to frighten others and 
force them to leave. Accounts of the Deir Yassin 
massacre (9-10.4.1948) mention that among the 254 
Palestinians victims were 25 pregnant women who 
were bayoneted in the abdomen while still alive. 
Another 52 children were maimed in front of their 
mothers before having their heads cut off by the 
Zionist terrorists. After the village of Beit 
Darras had been surrounded by Zionist terror 
groups and further Zionist mobilization was on 
the way to occupy the village, the Zionist terror 
groups called on the Palestinian residents to 
leave the village safely from the south side. The 
villagers decided that it was safer for the women 
and children to leave, since it was the village 
the Zionists wanted. Upon leaving the village, 
all the women and children were massacred by the 
Zionist terrorists. During the Khisas massacre 
(18.12.1947) the 12 victims killed by the Zionist 
terrorists were all women and children. Other 
massacres such as Sa’sa’, Balad Il-Sheikh, Abu 
Shusha, Beit Daras, Tantoura, Dawaymeh and many 
others show the same pattern of killing unarmed 
pregnant women, mothers and their children. 
Targeting mothers and children continued after 
the Nakba. During the Kufr Qasem massacre 
(29.10.1956) whole families were massacred, and 
women were butchered with their children. In 
Qibya (14-15.10.1953), after the Zionist 
terrorist militia ordered the residents to remain 
in their homes, it blew up these homes, killing 
entire families. On 07.02.1951, Zionist 
terrorists killed 10 unarmed residents of 
Sharafat, including 3 women and 5 children. 
Similar patterns follow in the massacres of 
Azazmeh, Beit Jala, Qalqilia, Gaza and others more.

During the first Intifada several mothers were 
shot dead by the IOF. Also pregnant women were 
targeted and a number were killed mainly by the 
poisonous gas used by the IOF against unarmed Palestinians:

1. Wujdan Hafith Rajab Faris (35 years old) from 
Khan Younis, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired by 
Israeli soldiers on 10.1.1988, she was pregnant in 7th month.

2. Amira Ahmad Omar Abu Askar (35 years old) from 
Jabalia, Gaza. On suffocated by gas fired by 
Israeli soldiers on 11.1.1988, she was pregnant.

3. Nabila Ali Al-Yaziji (35 years old) from 
Ash-Sheikh Ridawn, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired 
by Israeli soldiers on 26.3.1988, she was pregnant.

4. Dawlat Daoud Al-Masri (18 years old) from 
Jabalia, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired by Israeli 
soldiers on 27.9.1988, she was pregnant in 6th month.

5. Aziza Salim Jabir (27 years old) from Hebron, 
was shot dead by a Zionist settler on 06.08.1990, she was pregnant.

Another Zionist method of murdering Palestinian 
mothers is the network of over 630 Israeli 
military checkpoints/roadblocks in the West Bank, 
aka the "traps of death". Patients in need of 
urgent treatment and medics rushing to save lives 
are often delayed at Israeli military 
checkpoints, constituting another war crime added 
to the ever-growing list of war crimes committed 
by the Zionist entity. Alone between 2000 and 
2005 137 Palestinian patients, including 37 
women, died at checkpoints because Israeli 
soldiers either prevented ambulances from passing 
and reaching the patients or prevented them from 
transporting patients to hospitals beyond the 
checkpoints. In many incidents, Palestinian 
mothers, including the elderly, the sick and the 
pregnant, were stopped and humiliated at 
checkpoints. Pregnant women are delayed at 
checkpoints and often prevented from reaching 
hospitals, causing many to give birth at these 
checkpoints. The deliberate delays at checkpoints 
have resulted in several premature births, 
stillborns and even the death of some of the 
mothers as Israeli Soldiers ignore the cries of 
suffering women and demand they get a special 
permit. Because of these checkpoints, Palestinian 
mothers are forced to deliver on the road or 
inside cars at the checkpoint. Many have to 
travel up to 4 hours and longer to reach a 
medical centre. One example is baby Zaid who died 
only moments after his birth when the Israeli 
soldiers refused to let his mother Nahil Abu Raja 
(21 years old) from Qasra, south of Nablus, to 
pass the Huwwara checkpoint and go to Nablus 
hospital. The medics who reached the checkpoint 
one hour after Nahil gave birth could only 
declare the baby dead. Around 6 pregnant women 
were also beaten or shot at by Israeli soldiers 
at checkpoints. Many mothers are forced to give 
birth at home, despite fear of complications 
because they fear they will be stopped at 
checkpoints and won’t make it in time to the 
hospital. In Azzun Atma near Qalqilya pregnant 
women are even forced to take up residence 
outside the village until they deliver out of 
fear that they might not be able to get the 
necessary medical treatment. The village, 
encircled by the apartheid wall, is separated by 
a gate from the rest of the West Bank. This gate 
is not manned at night, making the village a 
prison to its residents. According to a B’Tselem 
report, alone during 2006 some 20 out of 30 
pregnant women from Azzun Atma were forced to 
relocate outside of the village because of their pregnancy.

Since the beginning of Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 
and till 2006 at least 69 Palestinian women gave 
birth at Israeli checkpoints in front of Israeli 
soldiers. This led to 35 miscarriages and the death of five mothers:

1. Rana Adel Abdel-Rahim Al-Jayyousi (17 years 
old) from Qour, Tulkarim: went into labor on 
09.03.2002 and because of the closure of roads 
she was forced to give birth at home. Her baby 
was stillborn and when her condition deteriorated 
her family tried transporting her to hospital in 
Qlaqilia. They were stopped at an Israeli 
checkpoint for half an hour and when the 
ambulance arrived, Rana was already dead.

2. Aisha Abdel-Kairm Nassar (28 years old) from 
Al-Janyeh, Ramallah: on 23.1.2001 was in a 
critical condition after giving birth, but was 
stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and 
delayed for 45 minutes. She died before reaching the hospital.

3. Rihab Nofal (30 years old) from Husam, 
Bethlehem: she went into labor on 18.10.2001 but 
Israeli soldiers stopped her at a checkpoint and 
prevented her from reaching the nearest hospital. She died.

4. Umayyah Hamad-Allah Imran (25 years old) from 
Azzoun, Qalqilia: on 24.09.01 she suffered from 
heavy internal bleeding after she had given 
birth, but was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint 
and her transport to the hospital was delayed. 
She left to hospital at 3 pm and reached it at 8 
pm although the hospital lies only 20 km away. 
When she finally got there, Umayyah was dead.

5. Laila Husam Baheiri (18 years old) from 
Qalqilia: went into labor on 31.07.2002 but was 
prevented by Israeli soldiers at a military 
checkpoint from reaching hospital which led to her death.

source: © 
<http://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/>http://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/




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