A 70-year-old blew herself up in a Hamas attack. She may be just the first of many elderly recruits
Sandra Jordan in Beit Hanoun, Gaza
Sunday December 3, 2006
The Observer
"....There is a huge shaheed - 'martyr' - poster of Najar on her house. It is shocking to see an old woman carrying an M16. Some of her 70 grandchildren and great-grandchildren play beneath the picture. Israa, six, wears a pink top with 'Happy Childhood' embroidered on it. 'My grandmother's gone to heaven. Because she shot the Israelis,' she says.
The funeral tent is empty now, the three days of official mourning over. On the first evening, men from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, arrived. Her son Inam said: 'They told us: "Your mother has been asking to do this for two years. We said no. Finally she said, if you don't give me a belt I will go anyway and get killed and my blood will be on your hands. We gave in".'
Other old women now want to become suicide bombers. The family talks of why she did it. Perhaps it was her grandson's death. 'My son, Adil, was 18 when he was killed,' says Fathiya, 52, Najar's eldest daughter. 'He was throwing stones at the Israelis.' Then there was Fathiya's other son, Sha'aban. He attacked an Israeli soldier with a knife. He was shot 72 times, lost a leg and is paralysed. The family show a photo of Fatma, a sweet-faced woman in a white cotton scarf. Neighbours crowd in with stories of her generosity, how she gave sweets to local children, told stories, played.
Najar was a religious woman, involved with mosque committees and close to memorising the Koran. It was only after her death, her family discovered she had been working for Hamas: 'They told us she had carried food, water, ammunition to the resistance at the front line. We had no idea.'
The night before her suicide operation, Najar went to visit all of her children and grandchildren. She brought clothes and sweets. 'But she was always so good to us,' says Inam. 'As she left me for the last time, she looked back in a way that made me wonder, but then she was gone.'
'On the day she acted like it was a normal day. She baked the bread in the clay oven. She took a shower, put on a new dress and went out,' said Jihad.
'I think the final straw was the Beit Hanoun massacre [a family of 17 killed at dawn when Israeli shells hit their house]. Mother went to the family's home and asked the women: "Why leave it to your sons to die? If Allah allows, I will become a martyr." They said: "You think they will take an old lady like you?"'
A fortnight later she was a suicide bomber, injuring two Israelis, decapitating herself. This weekend Hamas held a ceremony in Beit Hanoun, in memory of the 140 Palestinians killed in November. Thousands attended, waving Hamas flags. The mayor, Dr Nazek el-Kafarna, made a speech in honour of Najar: 'This old lady looked at the houses destroyed and the trees uprooted. She looked at how our people had been humiliated. She took her soul in her hand and rushed to her martyrdom.'
Huda Haim, a Hamas PLC member, believes Najar's act begins a new culture. 'We know behind the Israeli leaders there are decision-makers studying the behaviour of the Palestinians. Fatma told them they can't end the Palestinian issue with violence.'
The audience was thronged with women, many elderly, many clinging to photographs of their dead. 'We all want to be like Fatma,' they shouted.
'I am happy about the ceasefire,' says Zaifa. 'But if the Israelis come back, they will see what we will do, we will be like Fatma Najar.'
'I know at least 20 of us who want to put on the belt,' said Fatma Naouk, 65. 'Now is the time of the women. Now the old women have found a use for themselves.'"
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Where are the women libbers who have been criticizing Hamas for supposedly putting down women?
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