A Photo Essay by
Maya Alleruzzo
Posted on 06/11/2002 3:18:21 PM PDT by 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 |
Saw the poll yesterday that said a majority of Muslims not only wish Isreal removed from the immediate area..but removed from the EARTH. In other words, eradicated. Destroyed. Annihilated. Nuked. If these people held the keys to an eternal Hell, they would send them all there without so much as blinking. And us as well.
Personally, if we have to expunge a quarter billion of these people to protect the civilized world, so be it. Those are the rules of engagement as defined by them, not us. 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? Given the lengths and tactics that this enemy has demonstrated, there are no weapons I would not use.
Individual mileage may vary. But I have no illusions about what is at stake here.
How things change. When I was that age all I wanted was a Scooby-Doo lunchbox and Legos.
Followed by other funerals for the poor schmucks who happen to "catch" one of these falling bullets in the tops of their head.
DING DING DING. Folks we have a winner in today's Applied History Sweepstakes.
Absolutely correct.
These people are Damaged Goods (TM).
Plus I could really use the money.
THE PLO BABY KILLERS
ARE BREEDING KILLER BABIES!!
Exactly what the Afghanistan women said to a woman reporter who was interviewing them. They were contemptuous that she only had one child. "We'll have large families to beat you," said they.
As a mother, I cannot imagine where these women get these ideas. My son at twelve was an adorable happy loving child whose existence filled my heart with joy. Even under the worst of circumstances, I'm sure that protecting him would have been my first and only priority.
Back in the '70s, an Israeli woman friend visiting the states told me she didn't like compulsory military service for their kids...."I didn't raise my sons to be shiskabob," were her exact words. Apparently these Pali ladies can only spend their time stirring the pot of g sauce for shiskabob their kids will turn into soon. Revolting pigs!
How did he get close enough to see what they look like?
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