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On behalf of my family and on behalf of all oppressed Palestinians I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for coming tonight to honor the memory of my beloved mother and to help continue the work she dedicated her life to before being assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces.
Before I begin, I'd like to ask for all of us to stand for a moment of silence to remember all the innocent lives lost as a result of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and also to remember the lives that are being lost due to the current invasion of Iraq and the preceding 12 years of sanctions.
First, I want to describe the events surrounding my mother's murder to show all the lies of this barbaric Israeli government and occupation.
As many of you know, the West Bank and Gaza have been under complete closure for many months now. Last year, Nablus, my hometown in the West Bank was put under a 24 hour curfew for almost 4 months. Curfew was lifted for a couple of hours every two weeks. This 24 hour curfew was imposed on June 20th and it lasted until the second week of Oct. Just in case you don't know what a 24 hour curfew means. It means that you are confined to your house for 24 hours each day every day... you are not allowed to go and buy supplies to feed your family ... you are not allowed to take the sick to the hospital ... when the Israeli Occupation Forces catch someone on the street they beat them, humiliate them, and in some cases force them to strip naked ... a lot of times the Occupation Forces even cut off the electricity and water .... can you imagine living under this kind of environment ... I have been through curfews while growing up back home in the first Intifada in the late 1980s... but the longest one I lived through was 2 weeks and that was extremely hard and humiliating. In the current Intifada we are talking about a curfew that has lasted months ... can you imagine ...
My mother, Shaden, was murdered on Friday, Oct 11 of last year. Earlier that week, the Israelis lifted the curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for few days but reimposed the 24 hour curfew on that Friday. My mother and my father were sitting in front of our sun room as was their routine everyday under the curfew. My mother was working on a Palestinian embroidery piece and my father was picking thyme leafs to make thyme bread. As my brother Saed was trying to join them, my mom noticed an Israeli Army Jeep passing by so, my mom told my brother Saed to wait until they passed before he joined them.
My brother Saed waited behind the glass door for the Jeep to pass. The Jeep didn't just pass by however, rather it stopped about 30 to 40 meters away from where my family was which is directly in front of the car you see in this picture ... and within seconds, and without provocation and with no intention other than to massacre my family, one of the soldiers in the Jeep pointed his automatic machine gun at my family and shot a round of 15 bullets of the exploding type directly at my family. By the way, the use of exploding bullets either hollow-point bullets or Dum Dum in non-combat situations is forbidden by international law. The result of this barbaric action was the killing of my mother instantly with a bullet which entered in full form through her left side of the chest penetrating the left lung and then exploding into multiple metal fragments in the right side of chest producing extensive and severe internal damage (I saw the X Ray ... it look horrifying). My father was injured in the skull and the left arm. Six bullets barely missed my brother's neck after they penetrated the glass door behind which he was standing. Luckily he threw himself down quickly and somehow avoided the incoming bullets. The left side of his neck was cut in several places due to flying glass debris. It was a miracle that saved my father and brother. Once the Israeli Jeep finished their crime they drove away as if nothing happened. This is how my mom was assassinated.
Can you imagine getting this news over the phone while you're at work? I had not seen my mother since 1998. Within three hours of getting the news I was on a plane bound for Jordan and from there crossed the bridge to the West Bank. The only reason my brother Raed who lives in Dubai UAE and myself were able to get into the West Bank and reach Nablus before the funeral on Sunday is because we are American Citizens. It is impossible for a Palestinian to move in the West Bank and Gaza when a strict closure is in place but it is much less restrictive if you are an American Citizen or any other nationality... isn't this ironic. I arrived just 15 minutes before the funeral and fortunately was able to see my mother one last time and kiss her good-bye. My brothers and I lowered her into the grave while thousands of mourners from Nablus and the surrounding villages looked on. Most of them had risked their lives by defying the closure in order to pay their respect. I then noticed that her final resting place would be to the right of my distant cousin and friend Maher Abu-Ghazaleh, who had died in my arms in 1987. He was killed by the Israeli Army while we protested to demand the reopening of our schools which had been closed by the Israeli Occupying Authority during the first intifada. And actually her grave was also to the left of her cousin's grave Shadia Abu Gazalla who was one of the first women killed resisting the occupation 30 years ago. Shadia's story, Maher's story and my mother's story are just 3 of the countless I could retell for you tonight.
Let me tell a little about the lies the Israeli government and the Military occupation said about this murder? Their first response was
Now, the question that one asks himself is why ... why kill a grandmother of three and a well known peace activist. Why kill a woman who has always promoted peaceful means to reach our legal rights for freedom and liberation of Palestine.
The answer to this question is also the answer to the question of why is the occupation killing and injuring Palestinian civilians daily ... 2344 Palestinians have been killed since September of 2000, 435 of whom are minors under the age of 17, 17 were on-duty medical workers, 41000 Palestinians have been injured, 6000 prisoners, hundreds of demolished homes rendering thousands of Palestinian civilians homeless. Thousands of other houses damaged and rendered completely uninhabitable by indiscriminate shelling, shooting, and bombardment by Israeli forces using heavy machine guns, tanks, helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter planes paid for by my tax money and yours.
The answer to the question why did the occupation kill my mother is also the answer to the question of why did the occupation kill Rachel Corrie an American peace activist who wanted to help stop the illegal demolition of Palestinian homes. It is also the answer to why the Israeli occupation killed Ian Hooks, a British UNRWA engineer and director of a project to rebuild the Jenin refuge camp, who was gunned down and left to bleed to death in Jenin.
The answer to all those questions is simple ... this is what an occupation means ... it means death and destruction ... this is the only way an occupation can survive ... the Israeli government and its occupation has adopted a policy of brutality to break the spirit of the Palestinian resistance by making the Palestinian life ... every Palestinian life miserable. This collective punishment, this killing of civilians, demolition of homes , detentions, closures is their way of making life so bad so intolerable to the point where the Palestinians would either accept the occupation or give up their legal rights.
The purpose of my mother's activism was to prevent the Palestinian spirit from being broken. She wanted to make sure that the Palestinian national identity was preserved on Palestinian soil. This is why she joined several organizations working for freedom and peace in Palestine and around the world. She was also very active in the women's movement in Palestine fighting for political and social justice for the woman of Palestine.
During the last few months before her assassination, she was very active in the National Popular Committees who distribute food and clothes to the needy people living under curfew.
My mother's activism began early in her life. She became a political and social activist with the progressive student movement while she was still in high school and continued her activities throughout her college years. After college she worked as a social studies teacher until she resigned her post in 1967 in protest of the Israeli occupation authorities' intent to alter the Palestinian education curriculum.
One thing my mother felt was very important was the importance of her children obtaining an education. This wish for her children was realized when all four of us went on to graduate from the University of Iowa. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed my years here in Iowa City immensely. Mostly because of the people I met and the friends I made.
I am so impressed by the activism of Iowa City ... it is groups like the sponsors of this event that make Iowa City so special. I want to ask you to keep up the good work ... keep up the fight for justice and equality. Continue writing letters to your congressmen in protest of financial and military aid to Israel , in protest of the illegal occupation of Palestine, in protest of Israel's human rights violations, and in protest of Israel's defiance of decades old UN resolutions. And make your voices heard to the public as well. The process of changing the public's opinion and it's misconceptions and stereotypes is extremely difficult, but I believe that it can be done and it will be done with the help of people like you.
