[WCUSP] "We Overcame Our Fear" - The Unarmed Gaza Women Resist Israel's Bloody Assault.

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

http://www.guardian  .co.uk/israel/ Story/0,, 1942942,00. html 

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

Jameela al-Shanti in Beit  Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian 


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






















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