Paradise (al-Jannah) is an Unrestricted Area for Palestinian Martyrs

Palestinian farmer Mohammad Ata Abu Jame’, 59, was shot by Israeli soldiers while working on his land, in Khuza’a area, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, and died of his wounds.

This happened on 3 March 2018. Haaretz’s headline for this tragedy is:

Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Palestinian Man Near Gaza Border

The liberal Zionist Israeli English newspaper follows this headline with a “he said, she said” subtitle:

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the farmer was shot while tending to his land ■ Israeli army says the man was shot after forces feared he would try to cross the border

In other words, farmer Mohammad met his dreadful fate because he found himself in a “restricted area” and scared those en-caging him.

Liberal Zionist journalism is a contradiction in terms (see my blog post David Letterman Regrets Fiddling while Rome burned) - always pushing the bottom line that presents the security of the Jewish state as a seemingly reasonable raison d'etre.

Another example of the “he said, she said” mode of transmitting the crimes of the Zionist Jewish state is this Haaretz headline on an opinion piece by Gideon Levy:

First, Israeli Troops Shot a Palestinian Armed With a Chunk of Metal. Then, They Beat Him to Death

Subtitle? You guessed it. Haaretz squeezes in the “they said”:

IDF sources maintain the soldiers didn’t notice a bullet had hit Yasin al-Saradih, and thus proceeded to ram him with their rifles, kick him in the head and drag him away

As Ramzy Baroud notes:

What [the Israeli press is] trying to tell us is that, despite all of its problems, Israel is a good, transparent, law-abiding and democratic society … Should not the Israeli media be targeting the very legal and political structures in their country that makes it okay to imprison a whole nation in defiance of international and human rights law?

Israel apparently feared farmer Mohammad Ata Abu Jame’, 59, would bound across “the border” brandishing his spade to mow down Israeli Jewish immigrants just a few miles along the road who are squatting on Palestinian land Israel stole forcibly from Palestinians, driving them in trucks “across the border” to the Gaza Strip and into refugee camps, where they are still languishing some 70 years hence.

What Israel should fear now is Mohammad’s martyrdom.

Palestinian martyrs are symbols of the sacrifice their deaths represent to Palestinians. Although the word “martyr” carries Islamic undertones of jihad, in the context of Palestinian struggle, it is a term applied to all who die because of Israeli oppression.

In the first year of the 1987 Intifada (the revolution of the stone), for example, Palestinians counted 400 people dead, while Israeli authorities recognized only 230 people - those who were shot dead by the army.

Over the years Palestinian streets and shops have become plastered with posters that honor those who died in the ongoing struggle to liberate Palestine.

Not all martyrs are combatants or belong to a political faction. At Al-Quds University in Abu Dis where I taught for several years, the poster of a local little martyred girl, Nour Afaneh, presided over a classroom. She died in her parents’ arms on Nov 28, 2013 while stuck at a checkpoint on her way to a hospital in Beit Jala.

I hope that the family of martyr Mohammad Ata Abu Jame’ will produce a poster for him as an act of remembrance and respect. May you rest in peace, Farmer Abu Jame'.