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Is this young woman a terrorist?

(207 Posts)
jura2 Thu 04-Jan-18 09:49:03

Who am I?

I am a Palestinian girl.

Before I was born, the occupation took most of my village’s lands to build a new settlement called Halamish.

Then they arrested my father. When my aunt went to visit him, one of the soldiers pushed her over the stairs of the court and she died.

Since I was little the settlers of Halamish keep stealing more and more of our lands to expand the settlement.

Our home has demolition order because it is in Area C. The settlers are allowed to build on our land, but not us.

In 2005, the settlers made the spring of our village part of the settlement and prevent us from using it, even though many of us are farmers.

All these things happened with great support from the Occupation army and government.

When the people of the my village started to resist the injustices with protest marches, my father was arrested again.
My mother was arrested too. My uncles, aunts, brothers, cousins - all of them were arrested too.

My cousin Mustafa was killed by the Israeli army. My uncle Rushdi was killed by the army too!

Later, an Israeli sniper shot my mom in the leg and she couldn’t move for long time.

Almost every week, the army breaks into our homes to arrest one of my family or to confiscate our laptops or phones.
During our marches, they shoot us with tear gas rubber bullets - my cousin is in hospital badly injured because he was shot in the face the week before.

A few days ago, two soldiers came to our house to take positions to shoot at the demonstrators from my village. I stood with my family to prevent them, the soldier pushed me and I slapped him.
And now I am in jail!
My mother and my cousin are in jail too!
The occupation government and media call me a terrorist.
Do you know who I am?

And what would you do if that was your life? Or the life of your child?

trisher Thu 04-Jan-18 21:38:15

I'm amazed at the people who are castigating this family and blaming them for what has happened to them. If you have no political rights, if you are subject to discipline and attacks by armed soldiers, if you have lost your land, will lose your house and there is nothing you can do about it what other resource do you have apart from demonstration and protest? So for those who have posted about how the girl shouldn't have been allowed to approach the soldier, consider this, if things had gone differently in WW2 there might well have been German soldiers on the streets of your town, would you then have believed that resisting them was wrong?
The depravation suffered by the Palestinian people is a real abuse of human rights and Israel should charged and tried for this.

lemongrove Thu 04-Jan-18 21:36:09

Most Palestinians do.
Was this family residing in a tent?
In the case of the Middle East, violence is not the answer.

jura2 Thu 04-Jan-18 21:32:19

How do you 'get on with your onw life' when your land has been taken, your water, your orchard, your farm- and your family shot lemongrove? How?

jura2 Thu 04-Jan-18 21:31:04

Got to know a wonderful Belgian doctor in the UK - and we became friends. She was quite elderly, and used to tell me about her years fighting in the Maquis as a Résistante in France. I did ask her - but surely, there were other ways to fight against the Nazis and the French collaborators - and she said, NO there was not. I am so glad women and men like her fought for what was right. And yes, at times it was violent.

lemongrove Thu 04-Jan-18 21:30:12

Thousands of Palestinian families get on with their own lives and don’t act like the family we are talking about who seem to have links to killings.
It doesn’t help anybody to shove and slap soldiers to provoke them.Who will ever solve the Middle East and it’s problems, but having Hamas in charge can only ever be a bad thing.Isreal has gone too far with land grabs ( although settlers have been removed from some areas ) but one side is never all right, and the other all wrong, and I dislike being manipulated with so called messages or pleas in cases like this.

Chewbacca Thu 04-Jan-18 21:29:12

Who suggested protesting peacefully?

jura2 Thu 04-Jan-18 21:27:38

Merlot- I asked the question- and then copy and pasted from media- it was quite clear it was not about me.

And I intentionally did not comment, as I wanted people to respond to the story, and not to me, or my 'opinion'.

Birene- I do not remember seeing you ever on any post here - so no, I would never assume anything about how you would react. All I am saying is that I would hope that I would not lie down - and fight for my rights and that of my family and people. Please think of the position of blacks and coloureds under the Apartheid régime - how on earth could they have protested or fought with 'other methods' - their house and parts of towns bulldozed- their gardens, their animals killed - sent to live in shanty towns in the desert- how do you protest nicely and politely? How - how do Palestinians do that- watching their land taken, their basic needs, their orchards, their water - they have stones and slingshots- the Israelis have machine guns ...? How.

Not sure if some of the comments re 'protest peacefully' are totally naïve or ignorant of facts- or disingenuous and biased.

silverlining48 Thu 04-Jan-18 21:24:39

Yes pogs, , i think fatah with arafat at the head were much more amenable to some sort of peaceful solution but israel refused to work with him, and treated him without dignity especially when he became sick and later died abroad. Then hammas were elected. You might call hammas terroist but as we have already read many people were once seen as terroists, including a recent israeli prime minister edward sharon.

Birene Thu 04-Jan-18 20:58:44

Jura- now you are giving us your true, real opinions on the matter. Why on earth could you not have set out your stall honestly and passionately in the first place?
And please do not assume you know what I would do if I felt oppressed.
There are non violent methods of protest.
There was a rather sarcastic tone creeping into your last post by the way- which is unnecessary.

rjn272 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:53:36

When the British army were in Palestine after the war, it was the Israelis who were the terrorists. They murdered British soldiers in the King David's Hotel. After our army left they helped themselves to Palestinian land. I know who I feel for.

Jalima1108 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:51:01

Thanks Chewbacca

Jalima1108 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:48:37

Difficult one.
Try to negotiate, because if I was killed and I was the only one between them and my DGC, who would then protect them?

Chewbacca Thu 04-Jan-18 20:47:27

The question I would like to put is what would you do if you were in this young girls position
Well, I wouldn't go shoving and pushing a couple of armed soldiers, for a start. Nor would i encourage my daughter to either.

Chewbacca Thu 04-Jan-18 20:45:54

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42535685

Here you go Jalima. Have a look and see what you think.

whitewave Thu 04-Jan-18 20:44:47

Well if it is annoyed at the way the OP was put -what a lot of hot air!, when you could be addressing real unfairness and hardship in the land grab suffered by people who had farmed their land for millennia. (Or simply chose to ignore the whole thread.)

It is recognised by the UN as illegal.

The question I would like to put is what would you do if you were in this young girls position?

Jalima1108 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:42:22

I did not realise there was a video, that would have been helpful in making a judgement.

POGS Thu 04-Jan-18 20:42:09

Who knows , perhaps Palestine would be a safer place and the conflict between Israel and Palestine be on an safer ground had Fatah NOT Hamas been in charge over the last decade.

It's all very well some people like Corbyn calling Hamas 'Our Friends' but the fact is Hamas is a terrorist organization and as recent as July 2017 the European Court of Justice upheld Hamas as a terrorist group.

Hamas and Israel may be experiencing even more trouble if the recent Islamic State / Hamas problems escalate, God forbid.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/04/islamic-state-throws-down-gauntlet-to-rival-hamas-with-video-execution/?utm_term=.4c29c08cd8fd

Chewbacca Thu 04-Jan-18 20:41:37

Other. Not "otherwise". Typo.

merlotgran Thu 04-Jan-18 20:40:59

jura, Beginning the OP with 'who am I?' was bound to lead to confusion among those who don't know you. You've just returned after a spell away from Gransnet so you can't expect everyone to be familiar with your often 'pearl clutching' style of outrage.

Chewbacca Thu 04-Jan-18 20:40:05

Ummmm... I'm saying that both the Palestinians and the Israelis are as bad as each other whitewave. As for the young woman in question in the OP; when I first read about her, and watched the video footage, I remember thinking that she was being rather foolish with her own safety. The soldiers she was pushing and shoving made no retaliation at all. When I read further, I saw that she has posted several otherwise on social media, all showing her being aggressive and confrontational to armed soldiers. Whether she was a Palestinian, or an Israeli, I would think her foolish to do that.

whitewave Thu 04-Jan-18 20:38:38

No!! I am clear in my mind of the sentiment of the OP.

I am quite happy about that..what I am confused about is the subsequent criticism.

jura2 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:36:46

Birene- this family is a pain in the posterior- because they lost their land, their farms, their water, their dignity, their relatives.

Perhaps others agree- they should do all the above quietly- so should have the blacks and coloureds when their houses were raised to the ground in Cape Town- and they lost everything and wer sent to abject poverty in shanty towns- they should have accepted it all, quietly- discreetly, without fuss. So should the native Indians and the aborigines, and the Indians when colonised. How disgraceful of them to insist on fighting colonisation.

I am sure you would just lie down and say 'take it, take it.... it is only our livelyhood and life - no matter. Just do not want to be a pain at all- peace- peace and love.

I am not sorry that I don't agree, and wouldn't have either.

merlotgran Thu 04-Jan-18 20:36:29

Annoyed by the way the OP was poised, whitewave.

Jalima1108 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:35:58

Is the child in the OP a real child or a generic child?
That confused me - knowing the source would be helpful.

Jalima1108 Thu 04-Jan-18 20:35:00

Well, it could be confusing whitewave.
Perhaps better to be upfront and state what the source is.