MPPM pays tribute to Palestinian women

On International Women's Day, MPPM honors the women who, throughout the world and especially in Palestine, are fighting for freedom, justice, equality, and against discrimination.

Palestinian women, who are present in all sectors of national life, participate with all Palestinians in the struggle against occupation and ethnic cleansing, for the right to live in a free country, while developing their emancipatory struggle for recognition of their rights as women.

An arduous struggle, which is confronted daily with an occupying and annexationist power that denies basic political, economic, social and health rights.

An occupying and annexationist power that is a theocratic state, which develops an apartheid policy by recognizing rights based only on religious belonging, as enshrined in the basic law «Israel: the nation-state of the Jewish people», approved by the Knesset on July 19, 2018.

An occupying and annexationist power that prevents the Palestinians from attending the last moments of their loved ones.

An occupying and annexationist power that makes every time a child goes to school a moment of anguish for parents, because they do not know if their children will return home.

MPPM also pays tribute to the women held in Israeli prisons and to all political prisoners who suffer long years in the dungeons of the Zionist regime, often without charge, paying with their freedom and often with the sacrifice of their own lives their commitment to the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian people.

Violence against women fighting for freedom in Palestine is fierce.

Of the approximately 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israel's prisons, 140 are minors and 37 are women.

Such is the case, for example, of Khalida Jarrar, MP, member of Addameer (an association for the defense of Palestinian political prisoners), sentenced by a military court to 24 months in prison.

Such is the case of Khitam Al-Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, in administrative detention since 2 November 2020.

Such is the case of Fadwa Hamadeh, kept in solitary confinement for over 100 days for defending a prisoner who had been attacked by an Israeli guard.

Such is the case of Israa Ja’abees, who was seriously burned during her imprisonment, sentenced to 11 years in prison, and who is refused health care.

Such is also the case of Mays Abu Gosh, student, activist for the release of political prisoners, tortured, imprisoned for 15 months.

Such is not the case of Razan Al-Najjar, a paramedic in Gaza. She is not in prison: she was killed by an Israeli sniper while rescuing a wounded man during the March of Return.

MPPM also pays tribute to all individuals and organizations, namely women's movements, who, in Palestine, in Israel, in Portugal and throughout the world, are developing active solidarity with the Palestinian people and have denounced the Israeli violations and crimes, allowing the creation of conditions for it to be duly prosecuted.

As a tribute to Palestinian women, we present the poem I Want to Tell the World, by one of them, Nahida Izzat, forced to leave Jerusalem, where she was born, in 1967, at the age of seven. Nahida is a member of the Palestinian Mothers, one of the organizations that makes the voice of an oppressed but resistant people heard.

I want to tell the world (*)

About a home with a broken lantern
And a burnt doll
About a picnic that wasn’t enjoyed
About an axe that killed a tulip
A story about a fire that consumed a plait
A story about a tear that couldn’t run down
I want to tell a story about a goat that wasn’t milked
About a mother’s dough that wasn’t baked
About a wedding that wasn’t celebrated
And a baby girl that didn’t grow up
About a football that wasn’t kicked
About a dove that didn’t fly
I want to tell a story about a key
that wasn’t used
About a book that wasn’t read
About a besieged lonely farm
And about its fruits that weren’t picked
About a lie that wasn’t discovered
And a mosque that no longer stands
About a stone that faced a tank
And about a stubborn flag
that refuses to lie down
Now light a little candle
for Palestine

For the recognition of the State of Palestine!

For the rule of international law!

For an end to the impunity of the State of Israel!

March 8, 2021

The National Directorate of MPPM

(*) Poem by Nahida Izzat quoted from https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/i-want-to-the-worl...