Palestinian women bring the truth about occupation to London
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On 6 March, a rapt audience at Crossroads Women’s Centre heard Dr Huda Dahbour, UNWRA* doctor from Abu Dis in Palestine. Chairing, Selma James (Global Women’s Strike) put Palestine in the context of the many occupations around the world – Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Diego Garcia, Haiti. The truth about Palestine is kept from us by Israel’s close relation to the US government including its anti-Semitic Christian fundamentalist base. Women’s perspective is hidden by everyone. |
Dr Dahbour described the effects of the apartheid wall which Israel extends daily to imprison Palestinians: how patients are kept from entering Jerusalem for hospitals, while her free clinic in Abu Dis is starved of resources; how checkpoints and pass laws deprive families of each other; how a 10-minute journey takes hours; how people are unable to reach jobs or farmland they depend on for survival; how illnesses, physical and mental, must be treated in the context of unemployment, demolitions, contaminated water, and the constant threat of death.
Dr Dahbour’s spoke of her own fears and heartache since her 16 year old son was imprisoned for throwing stones. A friend was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, and he was later taken from his bed, blindfolded and beaten, and arrived in court, like many others, with visible signs of torture. Yet he refused to “apologise”. In response to a question from Women Against Rape, Dr Dahbour said that reports of rape in prison are finally surfacing.
With other mothers Dr Dahbour started a support group for mothers with imprisoned children . After a 17-hour journey, their 40-minute visit is through heavy plastic screens. People help each other with flour and oil, money, and with seeds, plants, animals and sewing supplies so that women have something to sell in the markets. One woman whose son is in prison climbs over the Wall to clean in Israeli homes.
Nandita Dowson from the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association spoke about the growing movement twinning English villages and towns with their counterparts in Palestine. They organised this visit to London for International Women’s Week. Manal Erickat, headteacher of an Abu Dis primary school, was arbitrarily prevented from coming.
Discussion centred on practical ways to support Dr Dahbour’s community, to break through the censorship, widen the boycott of Israeli goods, and use the achievements of the revolution in Venezuela, to strengthen the struggle in Palestine. (Later we heard Israelis harassed the Venezuelan ambassador to Palestine, a Muslim.) Over £200 was collected for the mothers’ group.
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* UNWRA is United Nations Relief and Works Agency