'My dream was to be a suicide bomber. I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews. Yes, even babies'

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | June 26, 2005 | Manuela Dviri

[MadIvan]

It was about midday when a young Palestinian woman from the refugee camp of Jabalya in Gaza approached an Israeli checkpoint clutching a special permit to visit a doctor on the other side of the border.

The girl had big, brown eyes and her black hair was tied in a ponytail, but it was the strangeness of her gait that attracted the attention of the security officials at the Erez crossing, the main transit point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

When a soldier asked her to remove her long, dark cloak, she turned to face him. All her movements were taped by the military surveillance camera at the checkpoint: calmly, deliberately, she took off her clothing, item by item, until she looked like any normal young woman in T-shirt and jeans. It was then that she tried to set off the belt containing 20lb of explosives hidden beneath her trousers. To her horror, she did not succeed. Desperate, she clawed at her face, screaming. She was still alive, she realised. She had failed her martyrdom mission.

That afternoon, on June 21, the 21-year-old, Wafa Samir al-Biss, was brought before the press by Israeli intelligence. Her neck and hands were covered with scars caused by a kitchen gas explosion six months earlier. The ugly scars - which had been treated in a hospital in Israel - had probably helped turn her into the perfect would-be huriia (virgin), the ideal martyr, since they would make it difficult for her to find a suitable husband.

The decision to publicise her case was intended to show that a terrorist threat remains despite a lull in the intifada since the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire agreement at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in February.

According to the Israeli doctor who attended Wafa at the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, she received blood transfusions during her treatment. "I told her, with a laugh, that now she has Jewish blood in her veins," he said, adding sadly that she had "seemed so nice - we got a lovely thank you letter from her family.''

Wafa had been sent on her mission by the Abu Rish Brigade, the small militant faction with links to Fatah. She did not, she said later, regret it, though she stressed that her decision had had nothing to do with her scarring. "My dream was to be a martyr. I believe in death," she said. "Today I wanted to blow myself up in a hospital, maybe even in the one in which I was treated. But since lots of Arabs come to be treated there, I decided I would go to another, maybe the Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews …''

Asked whether she had considered the consequences of her planned attack, that it might have now precluded access to Israel for Palestinian patients who meant no harm and needed special medical treatment that could be achieved only here, she answered: "So what?" With a flat look in her eyes, she said: "They pay you the cost of the treatment, don't they?"

And what about babies? Would you have killed babies and children? she was asked. "Yes, even babies and children. You, too, kill our babies. Do you remember the Doura child?"

Then she started to cry. ''I don't want my mother to see me like this. After all, I haven't killed anyone … will they have pity on me?'' It is unlikely. Wafa has become one of a very special group of females: the women who have tried - and failed - to die while killing for the Palestinian cause. I recently visited the Israeli jail that holds these "suicide women" near the finest Israeli villas, in the heart of the most fertile area of the country, the Plain of Sharon.

They are here, and still alive, because they changed their minds at the last moment, because they were arrested, or because, like Wafa, they did not succeed. They are kept in a kind of labyrinth, behind seven, or perhaps eight, iron doors and gates, at the end of long corridors to which few people are allowed access, and which are reached after climbing and descending one flight of stairs after another.

Their unarmed guard, a young, calm-looking blonde woman, calls them her "girls". "There are 30 of them, between 17 and 30 years old, some of them are married and others aren't, some of them have children," she told me. "Their stories come out of the Thousand and One Nights. Some of them did it to make amends for a relative who was a collaborator, others to escape becoming victims of honour killings, and for the psychologically frail or depressed it was a good way to commit suicide and at the same time become 'heroines'. Personally, I don't judge them or hate them, because if I did I wouldn't be able to look after them any more."

One of the inmates, Ayat Allah Kamil, 20, from Kabatya, told me why she had wanted to become a martyr: "Because of my religion. I'm very religious. For the holy war [jihad] there's no difference between men and women shaid [martyrs]."

According to the Koran, male martyrs are welcomed to Paradise by 72 beautiful virgins. Ayat, as with many of the women she is incarcerated with, believes that a woman martyr "will be the chief of the 72 virgins, the fairest of the fair".

Her fellow prisoner, Kahira Saadi, from Jenin, is one of the jail celebrities. A mother of four, aged 27, she was held responsible for an attack in which three people died and 80 were injured. Zipi Shemesh, five months' pregnant, and her husband, Gad, were among the dead. They had gone to an ultrasound appointment and had left their two daughters, Shoval, seven, and Shahar, three, with a babysitter. They never came back.

Kahira was given three life sentences and another 80 years. She looked pale, sad, anguished. I asked her if the dead tormented her during the night. "No," she said. "Anyway, the actual attacker would have blown himself up even without me. I didn't kill anyone myself, physically."

Who do your children live with? "With my mother-in-law, my husband is in jail, too."

Aren't you sorry you ruined their lives as well as your own? "I did it to defend them. I'm not sorry, we're at war. But perhaps I wouldn't do it again. It was an impulse," Kahira answered balefully.

I think the real reason for what you did was different from the official one. "You're right," she said, "but I'm not going to tell you what the reason was."

You're paying heavily for it. Who comes to see you here? "Nobody came for the first two years, but now my children are beginning to come."

Have you had the courage to tell them you're never going to get out of here? "No, and I trust that God will solve my problem somehow. I tell you again that I didn't physically kill anyone that day."

What did you do? "I helped the attacker to get into Jerusalem. I gave him some flowers to hold in his hands."

When? "I don't remember the exact date, only that it was Mother's Day. That's why I prepared him some flowers."

Then it was February, I told her.

"How can you remember it so well?" she asked.

Because my son was killed on Mother's Day, I said, and I watched as she grew pale and seemed to stagger.

No, it wasn't you, I explained. He was killed in 1998, while your attack was in 2002. But we certainly have an anniversary in common.

At this, Kahira gave me a look that I'll never be able to describe. She didn't utter another word.

One question has bothered me since my visit to that prison. The parents and the relatives of these failed martyrs, what happens to them afterwards? What do they feel after the tragedy, with that knowledge? I decided that I would ask Wafa's father, Samir al-Biss. Samir is the owner of a tiny, shabby grocery shop. For many years, before the intifada, he worked as a day labourer in Israel. After the initial shock of his daughter's martyrdom mission, he disconnected the telephone and now will not speak directly to anyone.

He has, however, allowed Wael, Wafa's cousin, to answer on his behalf. "Wafa's father is still in a state of shock," Wael said. "He wishes to say that he can't bring himself to believe that his daughter was going to blow herself up. He believes that she was put up to it and exploited by someone and that it's not fair that the whole Palestinian population should be punished for what she has tried to do. The Palestinians don't have to pay for her act," he added sadly.

I tend to agree with him. Neither the Palestinian people nor the Israelis should have to pay for the fanatical acts of their extremists.

[hershey]

Their cult religion has turned them into what they are, which is indescribable in polite company.

[cliff630]

"Some people just need killing."

I think it was: "Some people just need to be kilt."

[M. Espinola]

In relation to working, it would appear they get funds to attend wild demonstrations and burn flags.

It's true so many Iraq's Muslims are being slaughtered by Jihad Inc. In addition to targeting American, British & other Coalition forces serving in Iraq, brave Iraqis wanted to rebuild their nation, those serving in the national or city police forces, government employees & the Iraqi Army are all targets by the imported butchers of Jihad Inc., coupled with Iraqi traitors, so brainwashed they believe murdering innocent civilians, including school children, somehow these diabolical acts of depravity will attain a higher level in Islamic 'paradise'.

These psychopathic actions correspond with the physiological makeup of a deranged cult.

More examples below.

Iraqis gather at the wreckage of Lt. Muthana Shaker's home in Samarra, where a suicide car bomber slammed into a wall, killing nine. Photo Credit: By Hameed Rasheed -- Associated Press Photo

Suicide bomber kills 6 in northern Iraq The Associated Press / Sunday, June 26th, 2005

he brother, top, and the brother-in-law, bottom left, of Fadil Udaa mourn as they transport his coffin during his funeral in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 26th, 2005. Udaa, a member of the municipal council in Sadr City, was found dead on Saturday with his hands tied and shot in the head after he had been kidnapped by unidentified masked gunmen on Friday. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Abbas, far left, and his brother Hussein second from left, cry during the funeral of their father Fadil Udaa during his funeral in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 26th, 2005. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqis bring the body of an Iraqi woman from the rubble of her destroyed house after a mortar attack in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, June 26, 2005. A mortar round exploded in eastern Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood, killing the woman and two of her children and injuring another child. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

US troops secure the scene of a car bomb attack in the restive northern Iraqi city of Samarra. A British newspaper report said the US has been in talks with Iraqi rebels in a bid to negotiate an eventual breakthrough to stem the ongoing insurgency.(AFP/Dia Hamid)

An Iraqi man points to a building damaged in a suicide car bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul June 26TH, 2005. A suicide bomber drove at a district police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, bringing down part of the building and killing at least four officers, police said. REUTERS/Namir Noor Eldeen

Black smoke billows from a sabotaged oil pipe line in the Yussifiyah area, south of Baghdad. Insurgents frequently bomb pipe lines across Iraq in a bid to disrupt the vital flow of oil.(AFP/Karim Sahib)

Iraq's crude oil based economy continues being attacked. Syria & Iran are among the leading suspect instigating states for exporting terrorists for the purpose of sabotaging Iraq's rebuilding via financial assistance through crude oil sales.

The United States has asked Japan to extend its military deployment to Iraq, a Japanese daily said on Sunday, following earlier reports that Tokyo was considering withdrawing its troops when their mandate ends in December. File photo: Japanese soldier's from the country's Self-Defense Force drive through the southern Iraqi city of Samawa May 14th, 2005. Photo by Mohammed Ameen/Reuters

FILE - Iraqis search the area for victims of bomb blasts in Baghdad, Iraq, at the scene of the explosions in this file photo from Thursday, June 23, 2005. One year after Iraq regained its sovereignty from the United States, the country has made significant political progress, holding a crucial election and forming a new government. Yet relentless attacks have overshadowed the success, leaving Iraqis in a perilous situation facing the growing prospect of years of violence. (AP Photo/Muhammed Uraibi)

Suicide attack using watermelons kills 6 in Iraq / 6/26/2005

[Red Sea Swimmer]

I must have met different children then to you. Or you just may be being specious to prove a point and to falsely reinforce your worldview and prejudices.

P.S. Just for my interest, because it will tell me a lot about your mindset, if you were given the power to make the decision, would you order the aerial bombardment of the nuclear reactor in Iran ?

[gridlock]

"...Do you remember the Doura child?"

Mohammad al Doura has entered the Paletinian iconography. They are completely incapable of rationally discussing the circumstances surrounding his death.

It is clear from a dispassionate viewing of the evidence that Mohammad al Doura was killed on camera by a Palestinian gunman. The videotape clearly shows that he could not have been hit by the IDF soldiers from the covered position he had been placed in by his father. However, it was a clear shot from the position of the cameraman, and anyone behind the cameraman. This cameraman was in a Palestinian held position.

Then there is the troubling matter of the gap in the tape. The videotape shows Mohammad al Doura and his father hunkered down against the wall, taking shelter from the firefight, and then the image jumps to a point in time one or two seconds after he was hit. Either the camera was turned off for the crucial moment of the gunshot, or this moment was removed in subsequent editing. In any case, the portion of the recording that could be used to prove conclusively that the gunfire came from a position adjacent to the cameraman has never been made available.

And yet, this videotape has been shown thousands of times on various Paletinian sympathising ME televisions stations, and is accepted uncritically by the vast majority of those who view it.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

No references to Scottish apparel on this thread.

Sporrans excepted.

:)

[SeeRushToldU_So]

Such a sad ping.

[M. Espinola]

I fully agree with your overview. It's like have we no learned anything from our not so distant historical past?

There are numerous shades of modern Islamic versions of the Rhineland crisis of 1936, where as evil marched in and the world just sat there, then more appeasement, and more, until the bombs were falling directly on the European appeasers themselves.

Right now Iran is rapidly gaining in their quest for nuclear weapons and Moscow is assisting the mullahs with whatever they need.

When will determined action be forth coming? When Tehran demonstrates an example of their nuclear weapons capabilities?

The ongoing jihadist terrorism directed at Israelis as well as Iraqis should demonstrate to the entire world they are no brokered deals, no ceasefires, no lasting peace what-so-ever with this scourge determined to rule the entire globe through brutal acts of mass murder, one nation after the other.

No more 9-11's! Let's not wait for the next Pearl Harbor.

[NYpeanut]

According to the Koran, male martyrs are welcomed to Paradise by 72 beautiful virgins. Ayat, as with many of the women she is incarcerated with, believes that a woman martyr "will be the chief of the 72 virgins, the fairest of the fair".

Wow, Islamic women get the shi**y end of the stick on earth AND in their paradise.

[GVnana]

Bump.

[livius]

Thanks for posting these pix. It's very hard to imagine what it must be like to live in a place where you are simply never safe anywhere at any time, and where you are surrounded by homicidal maniacs who use anything and everything (such as the truckload of watermelons) as a way to get at you and kill you. And for what? The goal of the Iraqi/Islamist killers is just as unclear as that of the Palis. They themselves probably don't know what they want.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Have you seen the photo of a Kahanist group from the 80's marching in formation with the exact same arm salute as the Nazis ?

Supremacist, aggressive, predatory Nationalism of all kinds must be avoided.

[ZinGirl]

A very backward mentality, these people.

I agree...and that was my exact thought when I read this part of the article:

According to the Koran, male martyrs are welcomed to Paradise by 72 beautiful virgins. Ayat, as with many of the women she is incarcerated with, believes that a woman martyr "will be the chief of the 72 virgins, the fairest of the fair".

Now....let me get this straight....a male martyr gets 72 virgins....a female martyr gets to be one of those virgins? So their "paradise" is to be subjected to the fanatsy whims of an Islamic male? Doesn't strike me as that different from their life here on earth...and a twisted mentality, to boot.

[tiredoflaundry]

Now....let me get this straight....a male martyr gets 72 virgins....a female martyr gets to be one of those virgins?

amazing, her goal is to be "Head Virgin".

[M. Espinola]

I missed that picture. Why don't you post it for everyone to review?

By the way how do you really feel about mother Russia and Iran getting along so well in the nuclear weapons department?

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Come on M.Espinola...

You've gone all quiet on me on that last question of mine. I haven't snookered you have I ?

Cat got your tongue ?

P.S. The photo really does exist.

[ZinGirl]

amazing, her goal is to be "Head Virgin".

seriously....geez. talk about not being able to dream. these women seem to be so mentally indoctrinated into the 'understanding' that they are just objects (for men) that they can't envision anything else, even in death...nor can they see the craziness of this version of 'paradise'.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

You beat me by 21 seconds. Glad to see you are still on your game.

If you know my posting history, you will know that I do not know how to post pictures. You either believe me or you don't. Call it a matter of faith. You do have faith don't you ?

P.S. If you want to tell me how to post pictures on Freerepublic in three easy steps, please do so. Otherwise I don't really have the time right now to learn how to do it. Words are effective enough tools to convey information. The use of images for propaganda purposes has reached an art form for many people.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Iran, Russia and Israel should all be friends of each other. Throw in all of the other nations into the group and you will have one hell of a party.

P.S. I use the word "hell" in its fondest sense.

[M. Espinola]

The warped view of the world in the eyes of the jihadists only bring forth death, for themselves and as many victims caught in bombs way.

Fro example throughout the Gaza Strip, Samaria & Judea the frenzied jihad thugs even butcher fellow Arabs, in public, simply for not wanting to belong to the various Muslim death cults and trying to live a normal life.

We have clearly seen how people existed in a state of total fear during Saddam's former Ba'athist Iraqi dictatorship, the mass graves attest to the horror all too identical to Stalin's tortured communist Russia and Hitler Nazi death camps.