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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/gazas-women-stand-trump-and-israel/23211">https://electronicintifada.net/content/gazas-women-stand-trump-and-israel/23211</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Gaza's women stand up to Trump and Israel</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/sarah-algherbawi">Sarah
Algherbawi</a></span> <span class="field field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-02-05T17:25:00+00:00">5 February 2018</span></span>
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<p>Randa Harara is adamant that she will stand up to
Israel’s forces of occupation again – once she has
made a recovery.</p>
<p>On 11 December, Randa – aged 21 – was shot by a
sniper hiding at Nahal Oz, a military checkpoint
separating Gaza from Israel. She was taking part in a
<a
href="http://alsaa8.net/post/5028/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%A9-12-%D8%A5%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B9">protest</a>
against the announcement by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/donald-trump">Donald
Trump</a>, the US president, that he recognizes
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.</p>
<p>“My injury will not prevent me from taking part in
further clashes [with Israel],” said Randa, who was
wounded in the left leg. “This is our duty towards
Jerusalem.”</p>
<p>An accountancy student at Al-Azhar University and a
campaigner with the Progressive Student Action Front
in Gaza, Randa knows that the cost of confronting
Israel can be high. “But that doesn’t mean that women
should be absent from the battlefield – especially
when it comes to the issue of Jerusalem.”</p>
<p>Randa has the backing of her family.</p>
<h2>“Cause headaches for Israel”</h2>
<p>“I have given my daughter full freedom to do what she
believes in,” said her father Kamal, who has
accompanied Randa to some of the protests at the
boundary area between Gaza and Israel. “We can’t give
up our land. It is important to put pressure on and
cause headaches for Israel.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ahed-tamimi">Ahed
Tamimi</a>, who turned 17 on 31 January, has come to
epitomize the courage of women and girls who challenge
the Israeli military. Here in Gaza, many people admire
Tamimi for demonstrating her anger at soldiers who
suffocate her home village, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nabi-saleh">Nabi
Saleh</a> in the occupied West Bank, by slapping one
of them.</p>
<p>Leila, a 14-year-old from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jabaliya">Jabaliya</a>
refugee camp in northern Gaza, used to mainly check
social media websites for fashion tips. More recently,
she has been searching the Internet for updates on the
detention of Tamimi and her trial in an Israeli
military court. She has also begun to read more widely
about Palestinian politics.</p>
<p>“Ahed is my hero,” Leila – not her real name – said.
“I wish I could be like her – an influential person in
our struggle with Israel.”</p>
<p>Leila wishes to take part in the protests held along
Gaza’s boundary with Israel each Friday. Yet she does
not have parental permission to do so. “My mother says
it [protesting] is like suicide,” Leila added.</p>
<p>With Israeli forces frequently opening fire on
protesters, confronting the occupier can be fatal.
Eight protesters from Gaza were <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-december-2017/22846">killed</a>
by Israel along the boundary area in December 2017
alone. More than 480 were <a
href="http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=10288">injured</a>
during that month, according to the Palestinian Center
for Human Rights.</p>
<p>It would be wrong to claim that people in Gaza are
generally enthusiastic about the idea of women and
girls confronting the Israeli military.</p>
<p>I asked a sample of 26 people – equally divided
between men and women – their views on female
participation in such confrontations. Around 80
percent of respondents were opposed to women taking
such direct action.</p>
<p>“These women are mothers, wives, daughters and
sisters,” one person responded. “We don’t want to lose
more people for nothing.”</p>
<p>Others pointed to the conservative and patriarchal
nature of society in Gaza.</p>
<p>“There’s no need for female participation in clashes
with Israel,” said Mahmoud Abu al-Eish, a 56-year-old
Gaza resident. “This should be limited to men who can
handle such tough situations. Female participation [in
protests] is outside our customs and traditions.”</p>
<h2>“Motherland for everyone”</h2>
<p>That view is disputed. Iman al-Haj, a journalist,
recently pointed out that women have long been
involved in the Palestinian struggle. “Female
participation is a national duty at a time like this,”
al-Haj said.</p>
<p>Al-Haj noted that she had “shared my anger” with
other protesters by directly confronting the Israeli
military on a few occasions. “I will participate again
and again,” she added.</p>
<p>Mariam Abu Daqqa, a prominent figure in the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), argued
that “women have stood side by side with men” since
the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
“The motherland is for everyone,” she said.</p>
<p>Abu Daqqa has suffered hugely for her political
activities.</p>
<p>She was the first woman living in Gaza to be forced
out by Israel because of her involvement with armed
resistance.</p>
<p>After being arrested in 1969, she was detained for
two years and then exiled to Jordan. In 1975, she
moved to Lebanon, where she joined the PFLP.</p>
<p>It would be 1995 before she could return to Gaza. By
then, her parents were dead.</p>
<p>“I had not been able to see them since 1969,” she
said. “I only had my sister left. And she was sick
with cancer and died after about two years.”</p>
<p>More recently, Abu Daqqa has set up a studies and
training <a href="http://pdwsa.ps/">program</a> for
former female prisoners.</p>
<p>She notes that women who confront Israel have to
overcome a number of barriers. Such barriers have
become higher due to the siege Israel has imposed on
Gaza, as well as the three major Israeli bombardments
the coastal strip has suffered within the past decade.</p>
<p>The losses incurred by each of those attacks all
place “an extra burden on women and this burden
restricts their ability to take part in confrontations
and have a vital role,” she said.</p>
<h2>Daring</h2>
<p>Women played an important role in the first intifada,
which began in Gaza 30 years ago.</p>
<p>Hania Aqel, a 64-year-old woman from Rafah, near
Gaza’s border with Egypt, made a number of daring
attempts to rescue Palestinians after they had been
captured by Israel.</p>
<p>Each time 25 to 30 women would assemble “like a human
fence,” she said, “and grab the men who had been
arrested” from Israeli vehicles.</p>
<p>The efforts were sometimes successful, albeit at a
price. Once, Hania managed to help her son Talaat –
then aged 18 – to escape.</p>
<p>“I poured hot water on the soldiers who were
arresting him,” Hania said. “I was able to save him
but I was shot in my leg by another soldier.”</p>
<p>Samira Mousa, a resident of Jabaliya camp, was active
in the Union of Health Work Committees during that
rebellion.</p>
<p>Along with many other women, Mousa provided practical
support to families of people imprisoned or killed by
Israel. That included giving food to families in need.</p>
<p>One of the first people killed by Israeli troops in
that intifada, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hatim-abu-sisi">Hatim
Abu Sisi</a> “died in front of my house,” Mousa –
now aged 57 – recalled.</p>
<p>“His blood filled the entrance of my house,” she
said. “That scene affected me a lot and motivated me
to provide any help I can to my neighborhood. I
planted a tree at the place he was killed. And I’m
still taking care of this tree.”</p>
<p><em>Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and
translator from Gaza.</em></p>
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