Occupation: Targeting the Weakest, Mothers and their Children
Patrick Mac Manus in Palestine
Patrick Mac Manus Blog
Targeting the weakest and the most vulnerable is neither new nor surprising.
It is the mentality of all occupations. It is the mentality of an Israeli army who write on their helmets: Born to Kill and who wear T-Shirts with images of dead Palestinian children. It 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, there are countless massacres. Often it is the women and the children who are first targeted as a warning and to frighten others and force them to leave.
nts of the Deir Yassin massacre mention that among the 254 Palestinians victims are 25 pregnant women who are bayoneted in the abdomen while still alive. Another 52 children are maimed in front of their mothers before being killed.
After the village of Beit Darras has been surrounded, the Zionists call on Palestinian residents to leave the village safely from the south side. The villagers decide that it is safest for the women and children to leave. Upon leaving the village, all women and children are massacred.
Victims of the Intifada
The death of mothers and their children has continued. During the first Intifada several die.
• Wujdan Hafith Rajab Faris (35 years old) from Khan Younis, Gaza, by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 10.1.1988. She is pregnant in her 7th month.
• Amira Ahmad Omar Abu Askar (35 years old) from Jabalia, Gaza, by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 11.1.1988. She is pregnant.
• Nabila Ali Al-Yaziji (35 years old) from Ash-Sheikh Ridawn, Gaza, by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 26.3.1988. She is pregnant.
• Dawlat Daoud Al-Masri (18 years old) from Jabalia, Gaza, by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 27.9.1988. She is pregnant in her 6th month.
• Aziza Salim Jabir (27 years old) from Hebron, shot dead by a Zionist settler on 06.08.1990. She is pregnant.
Military Checkpoints
Another method is the network of over 630 Israeli military checkpoints/roadblocks in the West Bank. Patients in need of urgent treatment and medics rushing to save lives are often delayed at Israeli military checkpoints.
Alone between 2000 and 2005 137 Palestinian patients, including 37 women, die at checkpoints because ambulances are prevented from passing and reaching the patients or prevented them from transporting patients to hospitals beyond the checkpoints.
Because of these checkpoints, Palestinian mothers are forced to deliver on the road or inside cars at the checkpoint. The delays at checkpoints have resulted in several premature births, stillborns and even the death of some of the mothers.
Since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 until 2006, at least 69 Palestinian women give birth at Israeli checkpoints in front of Israeli soldiers. This leads to 35 miscarriages and the death of five mothers:
• Rana Adel Abdel-Rahim Al-Jayyousi (17 years old) from Qour, Tulkarim: goes into labour and because of the closure of roads she is forced to give birth at home. Her baby is stillborn and when her condition deteriorates her family tries transporting her to hospital in Qlaqilia. They are stopped at an Israeli checkpoint for half an hour and when the ambulance arrives, Rana has already died
• Aisha Abdel-Kairm Nassar (28 years old) from Al-Janyeh, Ramallah, is in a critical condition after giving birth, but is stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and delayed for 45 minutes. She dies before reaching the hospital.
• Rihab Nofal (30 years old) from Husam, Bethlehem: she goes into labour but Israeli soldiers prevent her from reaching the nearest hospital. She dies.
• Umayyah Hamad-Allah Imran (25 years old) from Azzoun, Qalqilia, suffers from heavy internal bleeding after she had given birth, but is stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and her transport to the hospital is delayed. She leaves to hospital at 3 pm and reaches it at 8 pm although the hospital lies only 20 km away. When she finally arrives, Umayyah has died.
• Laila Husam Baheiri (18 years old) from Qalqilia: goes into labour and is prevented by Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint from reaching hospital. This leads to her death.
UNICEF data show that Israel actively and passively murders about 3,600 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old infants every year. All this carnage through deliberately imposed deprivation is in gross violation of the Geneva Convention.
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Video: http://www.videolife.tk/video/LvmPm8VJ95M/1948-Deir-Yassin-massacre-remembered.html
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2010/12/05/occupation-targeting-the-weakest-mothers
