"I hope to be a Martyr, I hope when I get 14 or 15 to explode myself" (His mother agrees. *PIC*)

digitalfilmaker.net ^ | 05.15.02 | Maya Alleruzzo

[Registered]

A Martyr's Birthplace
A Photo Essay by 
Maya Alleruzzo

Om Mohammed helps her twelve-year-old son Abu Ali with a toy suicide bomber belt he fashioned on his own. "I hope to be a Martyr...I hope when I get 14 or 15 to explode myself." His mother is proud of her son: "God gave him to me to protect and defend our homeland." The family is seen in their Gaza City home, May 15, 2002. ( Maya Alleruzzo / The Washington Times )

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip May 15, 2002 -- Abu Ali, like many 12-year-olds living in Gaza, has dreams of eternity. But the Palestinian boy's hopes are rooted in a grim reality: "I hope to be a martyr," he said. "I hope when I get to 14 or 15 to explode myself."

His mother, Om Muhammed, is eager to help her son, one of six children, accomplish his goal. She helps him tug on a toy suicide bomber costume in her living room as she serves mint tea to a visitor. The get-up is dauntingly convincing, but is harmlessly made of electrical tape, plywood and spare wire.

Harmless for now, at least.

"I encourage him, and he should do this," said the woman, the mother of six. "God gave him to me to defend our land. Palestinian women must have more and more children till we liberate our land. This is a holy duty for all Palestinian people."

Little Ali, masked in a kaffiyeh and carrying a toy gun made of pipes, marched earlier today in a demostration marking Al Nakba or " the catastrophe," as Palestinians refer to the day Israel was founded in 1948.

Given Abu Ali's start in life, his future might seem inevitable. Walking through the streets of Gaza City, one can see young boys playing with toy Kalashnikovs and slingshots beneath the walls painted with graffiti depicting masked Hamas fighters, grenades, exploding buses.

Jobs in nearby Tel Aviv dried up for Palestinians from Gaza after the latest intifada began once peace talks broke down in 2000. The Israelis closed the border crossings in an attempt to stop the Palestinian suicide bombers from blowing up themselves and Israeli civilians on buses, in cafes, supermarkets and restaurants. But the bombers still make it through from other places. 

The killing and maiming of mostly innocent Israelis by these young Palestinians has only made life harder for the rest of the Palestinian people. Even for Gazans with local jobs, road closings often leave them sleeping at the Israeli checkpoints. Students from the south now sleep in tents at Al Aqsa University, lest they risk missing classes when the roads close. With no passports, Palestinians cannot travel. 

If jobs here are scarce, there is one man who is making enough to support his family.

Twenty-four-year-old Bahaa Yassin paints most of the portraits of martyrs seen in the Gaza Strip. Before the intifada, he did a variety of artwork to support himself and his wife. Family portraits, shop signs, and the occasional martyr. Now, about 70 percent of his business comes from these large, loving tributes to the young fighters.

Funeral marches are a citywide event. Young boys march -- usually five kilometers from the hospital to the graveyard -- alongside men shooting live rounds into the air.

Hisham Zaqout, whose nephew Youssef, 15, was killed when he tried to infiltrate an Israeli settlement, say the well-wishers, posters and artistic tributes have helped ease the family's pain. 

"In Islam, sacrifice is the highest honor, " he says. "Youssef did this for all of us to be free."

The irony of his words is that the continued bombings and Israeli responses to them only continues the cycle of violence and hopelessness that has led to a downward spiral in the lives of both the Israelis and Palestinians.

---

Maya Alleruzzo is a staff photojournalist at The Washington Times in Washington, D.C. She can be contacted at malleruzzo@WashingtonTimes.com

[dennisw]

"I encourage him, and he should do this," said the woman, the mother of six. "God gave him to me to defend our land. Palestinian women must have more and more children till we liberate our land. This is a holy duty for all Palestinian people."

  Muslim demographic warfare distilled down to it's essence..

[Frances_Marion]

"God gave him to me to defend our land. Palestinian women must have more and more children till we liberate our land. This is a holy duty for all Palestinian people."

Sterilization? Let's start shipping crates of Mountain Dew to the West Bank...

[mafree]

Thanks for the ping- sad, sad, sad.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Planned Parenthood salutes this mom.

[Nachum]

Junior Gestapo Agents

An ominous new development within the HJ was the appearance of HJ-Streifendienst (Patrol Force) units functioning as internal political police, maintaining order at meetings, ferreting out disloyal members, and denouncing anyone who criticized Hitler or Nazism including, in a few cases, their own parents.

One case involved a teenaged HJ member named Walter Hess who turned in his father for calling Hitler a crazed Nazi maniac. His father was then hauled off to Dachau under Schutzhaft (protective custody). For setting such an example, Hess was promoted to a higher rank within the HJ.

HJ-Streifendienst members also secretly infiltrated remnants of the old German Youth Movement and provided tips to the Gestapo which led to the arrest of several leaders of these now-clandestine youth groups.

During the 1934 Blood Purge, the top leadership of the SA was systematically murdered on Hitler's orders. The Nazis also used the occasion to settle old scores with a variety of political foes. Several former rival youth leaders were executed including Catholic Youth leader Adalbert Probst who was "shot while trying to escape."

The close working relationship between the HJ-Streifendienst and the Gestapo aroused the attention of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Members of the HJ-Streifendienst were targeted for recruitment into the SS and proved to be very valuable recruits. Many entered directly into SS officer training schools. Others joined the SS Totenkopfverbände, the Death's Head Brigades that operated Dachau and other concentration camps, and later operated the extermination centers in occupied Poland.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-prelude.htm

[goodieD]

I hope more pictures and stories like this get widely circulated so that the Pali sympathizers can no longer pretend that all they want is a homeland of their own. Even the women and children are evil which is why Israel cannot go easy on these freaks. I know the time is coming when Israel will tell the rest of the wussy world to get screwed and go medievil on their Pali butts. It is preordained in the Bible.

[FreedomPoster]

some neutron bombs will do nicely

Agreed. I wish search worked better (or at least better than I'm able to make it work), I'd like to be able to see how long I've been advocating restarting neutron bomb development. It's been at least 3-4 months.

[FreedomPoster]

A quote I used in a 9/12 rant, worth repeating:

"We cannot change the hearts of those people, but we can make war so terrible...[and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it."

William Tecumseh Sherman

Sherman knew what he was about. Our current leaders are still figuring it out, as is most of our populace.

[WellsFargo94]

You're absolutely right.

[Ben Bolt]

Buck 'em .. I hope he does try to be a martyr . I cant help folks with blinders on . I can only help the folks who want a future . My mom made my pants from a single stitch .

[Ben Bolt]

Either source is no doubt ok with her . I dont see her doing something constructive with her lottery in life .

[blackbart.223]

"Disgusting. And this stupid witch will be wailing and moaning over this little boy's body once he's been offered up to that fat slug Arafat.

Someone should strap a bomb to her fat a##. This reminds of The Hitler Youth. Sacrifice the innocent to advance your cause. This pisses me off beyond words.

[Ben Bolt]

Try 6 days . I look to the future ;)

[Ben Bolt]

-) Very clever indeed .

[WellsFargo94]

You're right about the Arabs not wanting peace, they want the State of Israel to be non-existent and nothing else will suffice.

[Ben Bolt]

Ah PS be nay . You have a good idea .

[glc1173@aol.com]

"Hanan Ashwari, Palestinian spokesman (and ABC's Jennings special squeeze) trys to tell the west how disgusting we are to suggest that Palestinian parents are different from us and don't love their children enough to keep them safe."

Anyone else notice that she never volunteered for "martyr" duty?

[Ben Chad]

I hate to say it, but this is a good argument for taking out the families of suicide bombers.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Let's help the Palis go home, back to Egypt and Jordan.

No, no, MI, their home is with Allah. Let us send them all to him!!

[Ben Bolt]

Nice shot group .. You can see to upper chest and the lower face accepting the discharge .. If this is the language they understand , Then it is what it is . Dont forget your flank .