"I hope to be a Martyr, I hope when I get 14 or 15 to explode myself" (His mother agrees. *PIC*)

digitalfilmaker.net ^ | 05.15.02 | Maya Alleruzzo

[Registered]

A Martyr's Birthplace
A Photo Essay by 
Maya Alleruzzo

Om Mohammed helps her twelve-year-old son Abu Ali with a toy suicide bomber belt he fashioned on his own. "I hope to be a Martyr...I hope when I get 14 or 15 to explode myself." His mother is proud of her son: "God gave him to me to protect and defend our homeland." The family is seen in their Gaza City home, May 15, 2002. ( Maya Alleruzzo / The Washington Times )

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip May 15, 2002 -- Abu Ali, like many 12-year-olds living in Gaza, has dreams of eternity. But the Palestinian boy's hopes are rooted in a grim reality: "I hope to be a martyr," he said. "I hope when I get to 14 or 15 to explode myself."

His mother, Om Muhammed, is eager to help her son, one of six children, accomplish his goal. She helps him tug on a toy suicide bomber costume in her living room as she serves mint tea to a visitor. The get-up is dauntingly convincing, but is harmlessly made of electrical tape, plywood and spare wire.

Harmless for now, at least.

"I encourage him, and he should do this," said the woman, the mother of six. "God gave him to me to defend our land. Palestinian women must have more and more children till we liberate our land. This is a holy duty for all Palestinian people."

Little Ali, masked in a kaffiyeh and carrying a toy gun made of pipes, marched earlier today in a demostration marking Al Nakba or " the catastrophe," as Palestinians refer to the day Israel was founded in 1948.

Given Abu Ali's start in life, his future might seem inevitable. Walking through the streets of Gaza City, one can see young boys playing with toy Kalashnikovs and slingshots beneath the walls painted with graffiti depicting masked Hamas fighters, grenades, exploding buses.

Jobs in nearby Tel Aviv dried up for Palestinians from Gaza after the latest intifada began once peace talks broke down in 2000. The Israelis closed the border crossings in an attempt to stop the Palestinian suicide bombers from blowing up themselves and Israeli civilians on buses, in cafes, supermarkets and restaurants. But the bombers still make it through from other places. 

The killing and maiming of mostly innocent Israelis by these young Palestinians has only made life harder for the rest of the Palestinian people. Even for Gazans with local jobs, road closings often leave them sleeping at the Israeli checkpoints. Students from the south now sleep in tents at Al Aqsa University, lest they risk missing classes when the roads close. With no passports, Palestinians cannot travel. 

If jobs here are scarce, there is one man who is making enough to support his family.

Twenty-four-year-old Bahaa Yassin paints most of the portraits of martyrs seen in the Gaza Strip. Before the intifada, he did a variety of artwork to support himself and his wife. Family portraits, shop signs, and the occasional martyr. Now, about 70 percent of his business comes from these large, loving tributes to the young fighters.

Funeral marches are a citywide event. Young boys march -- usually five kilometers from the hospital to the graveyard -- alongside men shooting live rounds into the air.

Hisham Zaqout, whose nephew Youssef, 15, was killed when he tried to infiltrate an Israeli settlement, say the well-wishers, posters and artistic tributes have helped ease the family's pain. 

"In Islam, sacrifice is the highest honor, " he says. "Youssef did this for all of us to be free."

The irony of his words is that the continued bombings and Israeli responses to them only continues the cycle of violence and hopelessness that has led to a downward spiral in the lives of both the Israelis and Palestinians.

---

Maya Alleruzzo is a staff photojournalist at The Washington Times in Washington, D.C. She can be contacted at malleruzzo@WashingtonTimes.com

[davidosborne]

Let us not lose sight of who the aggressor is here. Ask yourselves this: If the Jihadists had our technological and military capabilities, do you think they would hestitate for a second in making the entire Western world extinct?

very well stated my FRiend, and I concur, and the answer to your question is NO, they would NOT hesitate even for a second... (just is case some readers did not understand that your question was rhetorical)...

TOWARDS FREEDOM!!!

David

[Saundra Duffy]

May this "mother" FRY IN HELL!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Alouette]

If Sherman was commanding the IDF:

"I propose to remove all the inhabitants of Atlanta, sending those committed to our cause to the rear, and the rebel families to the front. I will allow no trade, manufactories, nor any citizens there at all, so that we will have the entire use of railroad back, as also such corn and forage as may be reached by our troops. If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace they and their relatives must stop war."

W.T. SHERMAN
Sept. 4, 1864

[browardchad]

war is war, and not popularity-seeking

BUMP!

[FreedomPoster]

More proof that Sherman knew what he was about! Good post.

[cyberaxe]

.....Norplant.....

.....or.....

.....Nuke.....

.....one or the other.....

[BossLady]

The horror.....the horror.....

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

This little boy has been brainwashed by his evil parents.

[Eaker]

We train our kids too.

However, not to be losers by committing suicide, but to win by defending themselves, their family and America!!!

12 year old Eagle Eye Eakerette

Stay safe; stay armed.

[humblegunner]

Yep.

[MadIvan]

Disgusting. And this stupid witch will be wailing and moaning over this little boy's body once he's been offered up to that fat slug Arafat.

Someone remind me, why is the Palestinian culture one worth saving?

Regards, Ivan

[tinacart]

Thanks for posting this, Registered.
Saundra, sorry to make you sick and ruin your weekend but thought you should see this! Wish we'd had this for our signs that day!