19-Mar-13: Memo to female jihadists: Read the small print

Wafa al-Bis filmed in the act of trying to blow
herself up, 2005 [Image Source: NBC News]

Like most of our readers, we are very much aware of the adulatory language devoted throughout Palestinian Arab society to the greatness and heroism of their practitioners of terrorism. It's one of the most visible dimensions of their culture and the diabolical 'education' of their children. [We strongly recommend watching a chilling new video called "Inside the UNRWA Classroom" that displays from up close how this works in Gaza's schools. It's produced by the Nachum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research and worth passing around.]

But far from the spotlights and rhetoric of the mass rallies, the foot soldiers of the Palestinian Arab terrorist ranks have a different story to tell. For anyone familiar with how the phenomenally rich Arab states make grand speeches and generous pledges of money to their brothers and sisters in Palestine, but then fail - year after year after year - to deliver, the brazen hypocrisy that underlies the story below will not be a great surprise. Still, we have not before seen such an open confession from an Arab source of how they say one thing about their regard for proven, documented terrorists, and then in the quiet and private of ordinary life do something very different. (It's almost enough to restore one's faith in human nature.)

Here's what we mean:

Gaza women face problems after leaving Israeli jails

Ma'an News | Published 18/03/2013 19:07 | GAZA CITY: Despite the warm reception and celebrations female prisoners receive in Gaza after being released from Israeli jails, many face social and familial difficulties upon returning to normal life. In many cases, ex-female prisoners either get divorced or remain single into old age if unmarried.
Wafaa al-Bis, an ex-prisoner from Gaza, was detained in 2005 and sentenced to 12 years for allegedly planning an operation against Israel. She was released after seven years and told Ma'an she suffers from marginalization, exclusion and degrading treatment. "Our society views freed female prisoners as women who were raped. My question is whether they think female prisoners were raped willingly or raped while their hands were cuffed!" she told Ma'an. Wafaa has third degree burns from a past accident and complains that it is hard for her to get medical treatment due to her status as an ex-prisoner. "I can't obtain the very basic rights of getting appropriate treatment as a freed prisoner," she said. She has contacted several Palestinian officials, but to no avail.
When Fatima al-Ziq began taking part in resistance activities she was married and had eight children. She was arrested while pregnant, and gave birth in jail. Upon her release, she said all doors were closed on her and she had to beg for her rights. "We do not seek anybody’s gratitude and praise even though we spent the prime of our youth in jail defending our homeland. However, we hope doors will not be shut to us as stragglers who fought on the front-lines."
Zahiyya Nofal was imprisoned for three years on charges of possessing weapons and helping resistance fighters. She was arrested when she was only 16, and upon being released her parents arranged for her to marry a Bedouin man. Despite giving birth to two children, when her husband learned that she had been in jail he began to assault her on a daily basis and called her a "terrorist." He filed for divorce and denied her access to her children, she said.
Given the attitude by many towards ex-female prisoners, Ruab Rajoubi decided to abstain from marriage. She was jailed for three years on charges of assisting fighters in 1996. She said many families are "embarrassed" that their female relatives were in jail.
Dala Abu Qamar agrees that life is difficult after leaving jail. She agreed to be a second wife after she was freed in 1982. She was affiliated to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. "Nobody will propose to a freed prisoner, due to the degrading view. I paid a heavy toll for the sacrifices I made toward my homeland. I was divorced after I gave birth to two children."

We can understand why Wafa al-Bis feels especially betrayed. When she walked free in October 2011 as one of the 1,027 murderers and terrorists handed over by Israel in the extortionate Gilad Shalit Transaction, she

told cheering schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip the day after her release on Wednesday she hoped they would follow her example. "I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs," Wafa al-Biss told dozens of children who came to her home in the northern Gaza Strip... The children cheered and waved Palestinian flags and chanted: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine." [Al Ahram - Egypt]

On the other hand, Ms al-Bis is no stranger to how double-faced hypocrisy works. She's the "21-year-old Palestinian woman with a lovely face and a quiet voice" who was severely burned over 45% of her body in a domestic accident, the explosion of a cooking gas container in her family's home. She was saved and rehabilitated in the burns unit of Beer Sheba's world-class Soroka Medical Center. She had received compassionate Israeli permission to cross over from Gaza multiple times during 2004/5 and - in addition to public letter of thanks - showed her deep appreciation by stuffing a 22 pound explosive package inside her underpants in June 2005. She then headed back to the Israeli hospital wishing, she told NBC News, to kill "30 to 50 Jews, including children". Sadly for her, the belt's ignition button was made in Gaza where what they say is not always what they do. It failed to explode and she was thrown into prison.

For a brief time, she enjoyed hero status and on returning to Gaza in 2011 made fierce speeches expressing hatred of Israel and encouragement of other women and children to follow in her path and take up terrorism. It seems like that stage of her public career is probably over now.

Not for the first time, we feel the words of the Palestinian Arab terrorists need to get wide coverage. They should be believed. They usually express what they mean, and that is often very different from what the apologists, promoters and spinners of the Palestinian Arab case (like for instance those behind a certain New York Times article from this past weekend) are publicizing.

This time, what these terrorists (see above) are saying is very different from what they and their handlers said when the cameras were still rolling. That's part of the reason why it is so important they be heard.

The lives of many more Palestinian Arab children, and especially girls, might be saved if an honest, less terrorism-friendly, picture of what awaits them as agents of terror were better understood before it's too late.