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Front
cover of the book Wafa
Idris and other Palestinian Stories
Name of the book: Wafa
Idris and other Palestinian Stories
The author:
Muhammad Salmawi (see box below)
Publishing
house: Al-Hai’a al-Misriya al-Amma lil-Kitab (Cairo)
Year of
publication: 2002
The above
book was issued as part of the project entitled “A Festival of Reading for All – the Child,
the Youngster and the Family”, under the patronage of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak.
Sponsor
of the book and of the entire series: Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak [The book’s back cover features Mrs. Mubarak’s photograph and a note
written by her, advocating the importance of reading].
Institutions
involved in the publication:
Central Association for Complementary Schooling
Production:
the Book Association
Muhammad
Salmawi, the author of the book Wafa
Idris and other Palestinian Stories, is an anti-Semitic writer
whose reputation in Egypt is that of a liberal and westernized figure.
He is the editor-in-chief of the official French-language Egyptian weekly
Al-Ahram
Hebdo. He used his newspaper to voice
unequivocal support for the Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, whose views
he acclaimed on various occasions. In a series of four consecutive articles
(the first of which appeared on 23 June 1999), he praised Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice, stressing that it is still a valid description
of the behavior of the Jews and the State of Israel. On another occasion,
he stated that “the Germans had no choice but to load the Jews onto trains
and deport them to the East, because they were underdeveloped and a burden
to the German economy…” Salmawi resents Israel, and does not hide his sympathy for terrorist
suicide attacks. He even published a
series of articles in which he jastified the suicide attack by women terrorists,
as he has done in the book at hand”.
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“Wafa Idris and other
Palestinian Stories”:
Profile of the book
This book, one
out of a literary series, describes some of the heroes of Intifada, who have become
symbols and legendary figures. Two of these are the boy Muhammad
al-Dura, who was killed in the beginning of Intifada,
and Wafa Idris, a woman suicide bomber and the book’s main
protagonist. The book’s author, rather than using dry journalistic style, opted
for a literary approach, to achieve a more dramatic quality and stronger empathy
for the various characters. The book is intensely hostile towards Israel, to which
it refers as “barbarian” and “oppressive”, and towards the Israeli soldiers, who
are depicted as inhumane. The author clearly identifies with his protagonists
and their acts, and gives full expression to his support and admiration for the
suicide attacks committed in the course of Intifada. The following
are excerpts from the story of Wafa Idris and some of the other stories told in
this book:
“On 30 September 2000,
the second day of Intifada, the 12-year old boy Muhammad al-Dura
was caught with his father in cross-fire between Israeli soldiers and armed
Palestinians. He met his tragic death while the entire episode was filmed by
a Palestine Television photographer. An inquest conducted by the Israeli
army revealed that, according to the positioning of the armed forces, Muhammad
al-Dura was not shot by Israeli soldiers but was the victim of the Palestinian
gunfire. DRA, the German public television channel, also investigated
the incident and concluded that Muhammad al-Dura was most likely killed by Palestinian
fire. Their conclusion was based on the angle of impact of the bullets, which
indicated that the firing came from an elevated place; according to local topography,
it could only have come from the direction of the Palestinians.” (Source: the
Israeli daily Maariv, 20 March 2002)
There is no doubt that Muhammad al-Dura was killed
unintentionally. And yet, this tragic incident, which has become
one of the symbols of the al-Aqsa Intifada, is being used by the author as a
means of slandering Israel and falsely
accusing the Israeli soldiers
of the boy’s deliberate and cold-blooded
murder. The story told in
the book turns the boy and his father into archetypes of Palestinian victimhood,
ever since the Balfour Declaration (on the basis of which the State of Israel
was founded) and the present time.
Following are two excerpts from Muhammad al-Dura’s story:
“Muhammad [al-Dura]
started screaming, shocked [by the firings], but this time his father did not
tell him that men don’t cry. Indeed, there were no men around, these were merely
preys, attempting
to rescue their lives from the attack of wild
animals, which hear nothing and see nothing, and whose hearts know no mercy.
Yet when the predator assaults its prey, its suffering ends instantaneously…”
(p. 12)
“Those 45 minutes lasted for the two of them [the father and his son] as if
[they were] 45 years. Or rather, as if they were the entire history of Palestinian
suffering, starting from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and up to this very
day, throughout all the massacres endured
by their fathers and grandfathers, their brothers and sisters,
from Der Yasin until Sabra and Shatila.” (p. 13)
Wafa Idris
The book’s main protagonist is Wafa Idris,
and its main focus is the account of the suicide bombing committed by her on
27 January 2002. Some biographical information on Wafa Idris:
she was a Palestinian from the al-Am’ari refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah;
divorced with no children; university-educated; a professional nurse, employed
as volunteer by the Palestinian “Red Crescent” [equivalent to the “Red Cross”];
her three brothers are members of the Fatah organization.
The bombing took place near Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, and targeted peaceful Israeli civilians, killing one and wounding ninety.
Wafa Idris
The story of Wafa Idris overflows with sympathy for the character and
her suicide act. She is depicted as the follower of other Palestinian women
who performed in the past terrorist acts which she views as heroic, such as:
Leila Khaled and Fatma
Barnawi(*). The suicide bombing committed
by Wafa Idris is referred to as “amaliyyah fida’iyyah”,
a term with pronouncedly positive connotation
in modern Arabic.
The author goes out of his way to glorify
the act of suicide and applaud its implications: the attack carried
out by her is said to have “shattered many Israeli defense lines”, and at the
same time severed “bondages” restricting Arab women (p. 20). The author emphasizes
the fact that the suicide bombing was performed inside
Israel: “…our territories within Israel were like a well-defended
fortification [for the Israelis], which only on rare occasions the male suicide bombers succeeded in breaking through.”
Yet, according to the words put in the mouth of Wafa Idris, “These obstacles
did not perturb my will and my determination...” (p. 21)
The following are some excerpts from the chapter dealing with Wafa Idris’
suicide act:
“When Wafa Idris volunteered to join the Palestinian ‘Red Crescent’
in order to save the lives of the wounded, it did not occur to her that she
would eventually perform the daring suicide act that would make her famous;
that she would be the first woman to succeed in breaking through the Israeli
fortifications and penetrating the core of Israel, in order to blow herself
up, with nobody to stop her… Indeed, fighting against radical aggression is
only feasible by making radical sacrifice
[i.e. sacrificing her life]…” (p. 29)
“…the most important thing demonstrated by Wafa Idris, this brave woman,
is that Palestinian resistance is not a monopoly of those two movements, Hamas
and Islamic Jihad, which Israel
and America designate at “terrorist” [organizations]. Indeed, this
beautiful young woman called Wafa Idris has proven that, by these criteria,
the entire Palestinian people is “terrorist”, and that Yasser Arafat ought to
arrest his entire people… She has evidenced, for all to witness, that Palestinian
resistance is not exclusive patrimony of any religious tendency, the way Israel
wants to make it appear…” (p. 30)
“One day, a strong controversy broke out between [Wafa Idris]
and Adnan al-Jada, a member of Fatah. Wafa
said to him: ‘What distinguishes you from me as Palestinian citizen? The two of
us are equal. In fact… the Israelis fear the women more, as day after day we give birth to male children; this increases
the number of Palestinians in a manner that threatens
to undermine the very basis of the concept of Jewish state. If we shall
know how to raise these children, they will be youngsters whose ambition it is to become shuhada [martyrs]
for the sake of the homeland. After their sacrifice, the wife or the
mother will carry the burden of supporting the family by herself. So, who do you
think is more of a threat to Israel, we [the women] or you [the men]?…’” (p. 35)
“…[Wafa Idris] looked around and saw a group of people walking
in her direction. As she rushed towards them, she pressed the detonator. In
a fraction of a second a terrible explosion shook
the city [Jerusalem], turning Wafa Idris’ body into particles, which
were scattered in the air like so many droplets of
fragrance of the amaryllis…” (p. 45)
“Within minutes the news spread, reaching the entire world at
the speed of lightning, and underlining the fact that Palestinian resistance had entered a new phase in its history.
On the very next day, Adnan al-Jada personally supervised the inauguration of the brigade of the shahida [female martyr] Wafa
Idris [consisting of a] group of fida’iyyat
[women warriors who are willing to die in action]. At the same
time, Wafa Idris celebrated her day of rebirth there [i.e. in Paradise], the place
where the shuhada [martyrs] and the sacred ones are like [people] who earn
their living close to Allah.” (pp. 45 – 46)
“…the refugee camps house the victims
of Israel from the 1948 war, who refused to join other nations, Arab
or foreign. They [the refugees] stay in their camps and live in their temporary
dwellings, waiting for the day of return to their lands from which they were expelled for
no crime committed. Thus the inhabitants of the refugee and other camps
have been a symbol, for more than 50 years, of an entire nation which Israel
robbed of its homes, its olive orchards and even its lives… They [the
refugees] chose to stay in their camps, as the living
evidence that Israel was founded on the basis of a colossal deceit…”
(p. 52) (The story of an Egyptian Television photographer, a Palestinian
named Raji, hit in Ramallah)
“…[according to the story, the Palestinian Raji, a photographer for the Egyptian
Television,] assumed that the small signposts bearing the word “Press”,
which he had attached to the front and back windshields of his car, would grant
him immunity according to the international regulations in times of war. But…
he apparently forgot that before him stands an enemy who
does not know such signposts and does not recognize them. Indeed, was there
not another, Italian reporter shot dead by [Israeli] gunfire, about a week earlier,
in gross disregard of these regulations?…” (p. 66)
“…Raji started shouting…: ‘Help! Help!…’ But from within the Israeli tank, one
of the soldiers said to his fellow soldier: ‘Leave
him to his fate, let us get on to the headquarters of Arafat, as planned…’” (p. 67)
“…a few streets further on, another Israeli tank took notice of an ambulance
of the Palestinian ‘Red Crescent’ driving down the road. The tank’s commander
said to one of the soldiers: ‘Where does this lunatic think he is driving? Doesn’t
he know that the town [of Ramallah] is under curfew? Fire
at him!’ And within seconds, the [Palestinian] ambulance
was immobilized in the middle of the road, just like the Palestinian photographer’s
car had been, a while earlier...” (p. 68)
(The story of Yusuf’s suicide)
“…Yusuf drove with Suleiman to the mosque… There they attended to the noon prayer.
When they finished praying, the two returned to the car and drove towards their
destiny, which they had planned together [while staying] in prison. A few moments
later, the big market in Jerusalem [this probably refers to the Mahane Yehuda market] was shaken
by the blast of a frightful explosion… Within minutes, the media announced the
explosion of a white car in the market… and reported that 24 people who stood nearby
had been hit…” (p. 79)
“…his [Yusuf’s] elder brother hurried to their grandmother, to stand by her
during the preparations for the mourning ritual. But when he entered Yusuf’s
room, he found a small note… on which the following words were written: ‘Do
not cry and do not be sad. Let your tears be tears of joy. Because I have acceded
to shahada [martyrdom], and am now in Paradise, together with the righteous ones, the shuhada [martyrs] and the
virtuous people.’ During the mourning for Yusuf, the condolers were offered
no coffee, but sweets, fruit juices and other drinks usually served during wedding
ceremonies.” (p. 80)
“…the world speaks of Wafa Idris, Mohammed Haza, Ayyat al-Akhras and Mohammed
al-Ghoul as of symbols of Palestinian martyrdom… But nobody speaks of me, because
I am not a shahid [martyr]… [even though] I carried an explosive charge
[explosive belt] around my body, which was large
enough to blow up 100 people.
But I was uncovered before I managed to blow myself up, and therefore failed to
become shahid…” (p. 81)
“…how I wish that I had succeeded in performing my suicide act! The explosive
charge that I carried on me would have blown up among the soldiers that I had
targeted, at the Megiddo junction more than a month ago. How I wish that my body…
would turn into a bomb, which would turn these soldiers of occupation into fragments of bodies, just like they turned our homeland into fragments,
and disconnected them… in order for me to be
inscribed forever in the “book of shuhada”, which has become the goal for
all of us in Palestine…” (p. 85)
“…the explosive belt was handed to me by a young man about my age. He gave me
a letter from Muhammad Tawalbeh(***),
the local commander [in Jenin] of the Islamic
Jihad organization. In his
letter he wrote to me that he complied with my request to carry out a suicide
attack… The young man did not indicate any specific target for the bombing [but]
said to me: ‘you choose whatever target seems appropriate to you. All we want
is [that] the largest possible number of soldiers of occupation [should be hit]…’”
(p. 86 – 87)
“…Amal al-Dura, the mother of the Palestinian
martyr boy Muhammad al-Dura, is in the third month of pregnancy…” (p. 93) “She
[feels]… that she is going to give birth to a child who will compensate her, and
compensate all, for her shahid son and for all shuhada. A
son who will continue the fight of resistance, and free the land from the filth
of occupation, until a Palestinian state will be established…” (p. 94)
“Amal has realized that her weapon is her womb, and that she is about to give renewed birth to Muhammad [al-Dura], for
him to avenge the blood of his murdered brother
and the blood of all the children of Palestine, who were killed for no crime committed…
All Israelis will know that the womb of the
Palestinian woman is stronger than the most lethal of Israeli [mass] destruction
weapons…” (p. 96