Fatah official: “The Palestinian woman… carried a rifle from the start”
An episode of the PA TV program Palestine this Morning discussed the role of women in Palestinian society and hosted Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad.
1st PA TV host: “During the Palestinian revolution and its history, the woman was this struggle’s important and essential element. Her role was never formal, rather [it was] practical. She participated in all aspects of the struggle, and in fact proved that she is an element worthy of a prominent place in Palestinian society and that she is part of the important history of this great nation.”
2nd PA TV host: “On this occasion, we will recite a stanza from a poem that reads: ‘On the eleventh of March, a Saturday, an Arab self-sacrificing fighter emerged from the waves, and the dark-skinned Arab [woman] Dalal [Mughrabi] set out and cried: ‘My country, my country, my country!’”
1st PA TV host: “Dr. Amal, throughout Palestinian history, the woman had an important role in the armed struggle. She also had a role in society and sacrificed a great deal – she sacrificed her husband, her son and she sacrificed her father. How would you describe the role of the Palestinian woman in recent years?”
Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad: “The Palestinian woman has of course not been isolated from what is going on in the Palestinian arena. She carried a rifle from the start. She was a partner in the struggle from the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution. The Palestinian woman was a partner in the struggle. She carried the rifle, she was on the front lines…
We have female Martyrdom-seekers, we have Dalal Mughrabi, as you just said. Dalal Mughrabi was at the front lines, she led men in the battle of defiance and in the resistance against the occupation. She brought destruction upon the occupation and killed many Israeli army officers. She was a [role] model. We women are proud of her and take pride in her.”
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2nd PA TV host: “We also have Martyr (Shahida) Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.”
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Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad: “…I wanted to move on to the topic of Dalal Mughrabi because she led a quality operation (i.e., terror attack) in the Palestinian Interior (i.e., Israel). She killed dozens of Israeli army officers, and she was the leader of this operation. She led men. She is a source of pride in her struggle, her history, her giving and her sacrifice. The woman was a [role] model in the national struggle and this role model is now being copied, and [students] learn about it at the world’s universities.”
Notes: Dalal Mughrabi - led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history in 1978, when she and other terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization and was involved in many attacks against Israel. While she was preparing a bomb for an attack in Tel Aviv in 1968, it accidentally detonated and killed her.