We
Overcame Our Fear
By Jameela al-Shanti
11 November 2006
The
Electronic Intifada
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.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights