[R-G] Amal al-Dura assesses Intifada

[ProletarianNews]

BBC. 27 September 2002. Two years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Excerpts.

GAZA -- Saturday marks the second anniversary of the Palestinian
uprising. It is 24 months since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
controversial walkabout on one of Jerusalem's most sensitive holy sites,
the Temple Mount. 

In the period since, more than 1,500 Palestinians and 600 Israelis have
also been killed. 

Beneath framed pictures of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein, Amal
al-Dura sits and grieves on a white plastic chair, her hands moving
occasionally to her stomach. 

In two months time, this Palestinian mother will bring a new son into
the world. He will be named Mohammed after a brother he will never know
-- the intifada's most famous victim. 

Twelve-year-old Mohammed died in a hail of bullets cowering behind his
father's back. His final terrifying moments were captured on film,
played and replayed around the world. 

This dead boy is still remembered, unlike so many others killed since.
On the street corners around his family's modest house in the Bureij
refugee camp in Gaza, every wall bears his face. His image is etched on
every makeshift house. 

The camp is a patchwork of dusty neglected streets. It still looks
temporary, though it has stood here for decades. This is the only home
Mohammed ever knew. 

"These two years have passed like two days," Amal tells me.  

"I cry all the time. I've tried to go out, to wedding parties, but I
can't be happy like everyone else. I miss him all the time. When I go to
the market I remember how Mohammed used to come with me." 

She is counting down the days to the birth of the new son who will bear
his name. 

"I hope he will have a better life, that there will be peace and no
intifada. But the situation is getting worse. I swear that this war will
go on forever," she says. 

I ask her: Would she want this boy to fight the Israelis when he grows
up? 

"If he felt in the future that he wanted to participate in the intifada,
I wouldn't mind," she replies. "As long as there is occupation,
resistance must continue." 

"I don't push my kids to go out to join in the intifada. The land is
calling them to do so. Kids watch TV and analyse the situation for
themselves. They don't wait for someone to analyse it for them."

"For them the picture is clear. The scary thing is when they get older,
I don't know what they are going to be," she adds. 

For Amal, the reason for all this is clear; the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian lands. 

I tell her where we were headed next, back to Jerusalem to meet an
Israeli mother who had also lost her son. 

"I send my condolences," she says. "But I ask Israeli mothers why they
are not out demonstrating, calling for independence for the
Palestinians, and to get Sharon out of power." 

"Let us live in peace together," she adds. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ProletarianNews
http://www.utopia2000.org

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