On Worldwide Ladies’s Day, keep in mind all girls struggling underneath occupation – Center East Monitor

Ukrainian parliamentarian Kira Ruddik has expressed her shock on Twitter that she has learnt methods to use a Kalashnikov assault rifle and ready herself to bear arms. “It sounds surreal as just some days in the past it might by no means come to my thoughts. Our girls will shield our soil the identical approach as our males. Go Ukraine.” An image taken inside her house exhibits an array of weapons as she confirms her willingness to hitch the ranks of the fighters defending her nation towards the Russian invasion.

On Worldwide Ladies’s Day, it’s pertinent to say that the world is watching in awe as Ukrainian girls show their bravery and resilience. Social media, web sites and TV information bulletins are full of photographs symbolic of their steadfastness and braveness. As a Palestinian girl, I can empathise with their scenario, however I’ve to ask why it’s acceptable for ladies in Ukraine to take up arms towards the invasion and occupation of their nation, however my Palestinian sisters and I are denounced as “terrorists” if we do the identical for our occupied homeland.

Its help for Ukraine and its girls tells us that the West can condemn an occupation when it needs to. Will we, although, really want to remind the worldwide group concerning the lifetime of Palestinian girls underneath Israel’s brutal navy occupation? Palestinian girls wrestle towards oppression and injustice in occupied Palestine and the diaspora. They’re disadvantaged of their proper to life, freedom of motion, safety and liberty, whereas Israel imposes apartheid with a variety of discriminatory legal guidelines and insurance policies which might be meant to erase the presence of the Palestinian folks, girls included. Ethnic cleaning is alive and properly, and practised by Israel day by day.

Because the second part of the Israeli occupation began in June 1967, more than 16,000 Palestinian girls have been detained by the colonial state. The Palestinian Fee for Prisoners’ Affairs places the variety of Palestinian girls presently in Israeli prisons at 32. Palestinian girls prisoners are subjected to many types of bodily and psychological ill-treatment, beginning with their arrest. Many tales and names are hidden behind bars, with courageous girls equivalent to Israa Jaabis, Fadwa Hamadah, Jihan Hashemah, Nourhan Awad, Maysoon Musa and Shatila Abu Ayada. They stand tall as defenders of their nation towards Israeli occupation.

Israa Jaabis: From victim to criminal, overnight

Whereas the world is justified in highlighting the bravery of Ukrainian girls, their Palestinian sisters within the Gaza Strip face life underneath Israeli occupation and siege. Too many have struggled to deliver their youngsters up as tremendous younger women and men, just for an Israeli sniper or drone operator to snuff their lives out right away of murderous brutality. But others have seen their youngsters arrested and tortured by Israeli troopers, not figuring out when or if they may see them once more. That is the day by day actuality of life within the occupied West Financial institution, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Within the bleak Palestinian refugee camps in occupied Palestine and neighbouring nations, it’s the girls who maintain households collectively, regardless of the appalling circumstances during which they’re pressured to reside.

On Worldwide Ladies’s Day, it’s acceptable to acknowledge their heroic wrestle, which in itself is an act of resistance towards the Israeli occupation. Is the worldwide group going to get up to this reality, and act accordingly to finish the occupation?

Ukrainian girl confronts Russian troopers in Henychesk, Kherson area. Asks them why they got here to our land and urges to place sunflower seeds of their pockets [so that flowers would grow when they die on the Ukrainian land] pic.twitter.com/ztTx2qK7kB

— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) February 24, 2022

A photograph has gone viral on social media exhibiting a Ukrainian girl confronting Russian troopers, asking why they’ve come to her land and placing sunflower seeds of their pockets. The world has responded positively, and lauded her bravery, rightly so.

Social media can be filled with pictures of Palestinian girls at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem who defend the sanctity of the mosque from day by day incursions by armed Israeli settlers and the troopers who guard them. The place is the worldwide help for such courageous Palestinian girls? Khadija Khweiss and Hanadi Halawani are simply two who arise towards Israeli incursions at Al-Aqsa and have been banned repeatedly from coming into the Noble Sanctuary by the Israeli occupation. Undeterred, they return time and again to defend Al-Aqsa from the insidious actions of the unlawful settlers who’ve come to steal Palestinian land.

A video of a Palestinian woman, Ahed Tamimi, confronting an Israeli soldier is being broadly shared with the false declare that it exhibits a Ukrainian woman standing as much as a Russian soldier. pic.twitter.com/MLaiaPHG3p

— ishmael (@iD4RO) February 27, 2022

It’s important that we do not imagine every part that we see on social media, in fact. As Russian troopers entered Ukraine, a photograph of a “younger Ukrainian woman standing up courageously towards a Russian soldier” additionally went viral. Nevertheless, she wasn’t Ukrainian in any respect. She was a Palestinian and the soldier was Israeli, not a Russian. Her title is Ahed Tamimi, one other heroic Palestinian resistance determine, who confronted a dozen expenses after she slapped and kicked an Israeli soldier outdoors her house. This is not going to cease her activism. On Worldwide Ladies’s Day, we must be applauding girls like Ahed Tamimi who arise for his or her rights as Palestinian girls, as an alternative of condemning them.

Whats up that is Kira Rudik .@kiraincongress once more.
I wish to thank .@Maryam_Rajavi for making this particular occasion devoted to Ukrainian girls who’re preventing for his or her freedom.
Thanks a lot ✌️#WomenForce4Change#IWD2022#WeStandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/nALw0tqV4d

— Ladies’s Committee NCRI (@womenncri) March 5, 2022

Behind each Palestinian household there are sturdy Palestinian girls. Their story is certainly one of heroism, sacrifice and resistance within the face of the Israeli occupation. The Palestinian girls held in Israeli prisons; the steadfast girls defending Al-Aqsa Mosque; the decided girls holding households and communities collectively underneath atrocious circumstances within the besieged Gaza Strip. They’re the moms of the martyrs and people wounded within the wrestle. They’re the lynchpins of Palestinian society.

On Worldwide Ladies’s Day — actually, day by day from as we speak onwards — keep in mind these heroic girls and their wrestle for freedom from Israeli apartheid and occupation. Their trigger is at the very least as legitimate as that of their Ukrainian sisters; arguably much more so. Help the Ukrainians by all means, however do not forget the Palestinians.