Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat ( ar, مريم محمد يوسف فرحات), or Mariam Farahat (24 December 1949 – 17 March 2013), popularly known as Umm Nidal ( ar, أم نضال), "the mother of Nidal", or "''Khansa of Palestine''" ( ar, خنساء فلسطين), was a
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
' candidates elected in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. The word "''Nidal''" in Arabic is a term, meaning "struggle", "effort" or "work". She was one of the prominent Islamist female leaders in Palestine.
Early life
She was born in
Shuja'iyya
Shuja'iyya ( ar, الشجاعية), also ''Shejaiya'', ''Shijaiyeh'', ''Shujayya'', ''Shuja'ia'', ''Shuja'iya'', is a neighborhood district of the Palestinian city of Gaza and one of the largest neighborhoods in Gaza with 92,000Gaza City on 24 December 1949.
Khansa of Palestine
She became known as "''Khansa of Palestine''" ( ar, خنساء فلسطين), the nickname came from
Al-Khansa
Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah ( ar, تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ ( ar, الخنساء, links=no, meaning "snub-n ...
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
), all four of whose sons were killed in the Battle of Qadisiyah. ''Umm Nidal'' got this title because of her great sacrifices - as in the Palestinian and Islamic culture - during the Second Intifada and before that, where her house was home to many prominent leaders of
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades ( ar, كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام, , Battalions of martyr Izz ad-Din al-Qassam; also spelt Izzedine or Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades; often shortened to Al-Qassam Brigades, IQB
She attracted public attention after being filmed advising her 17-year-old son, Muhammad Farhat, for his March 2002 suicide bombing against Israeli citizens. After entering the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
former settlement of Atzmona, opening fire and throwing
hand grenades
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...
at Israeli students enrolled in a pre-military school where they were studying to become army officers, killing five and wounding 23 others, he was shot dead. Upon hearing of her son's death, she proclaimed "
Allahu Akbar
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
s. Her eldest son, Nidal, was killed in February 2003 by bombs planted by Israeli intelligence. A third son, Rawad, died in 2005 in an Israeli airstrike on his car carrying
Qassam rocket
The Qassam rocket ( ar, صاروخ القسام ''Ṣārūkh al-Qassām''; also ''Kassam'') is a simple, steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. These rockets cannot be fired ...
.
Attitude toward murder of civilians
In an interview published in both the
Israeli Arab
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
weekly ''
Kul al-Arab
''Kul al-Arab'' ( ar, كل العرب, meaning ''All Arabs'') is an Israeli Arabic-language weekly newspaper, founded in 1987. Based in Nazareth, the paper is Israel's most influential and widely read Arabic-language periodical. It is also distribu ...
'' and the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
-based Arabic-language daily '' Al-Quds Al-Arabi'', Umm Nidal said she was proud of her sons. In her December 2005 interview, Umm Nidal said:
"I protect my sons from defying Allah, or from choosing a path that would not please Allah. This is what I fear, when it comes to my sons. But as for sacrifice, Jihad for the sake of Allah, or performing the duty they were charged with - this makes me happy."
"They are all occupiers. Besides, don't forget that they all serve in the army. They are all considered soldiers. They are all reserve soldiers."
"They are all occupiers, and we must fight them by any legitimate means."
"All means are legitimate as long as the occupation continues."
"There is no difference. This is Islamic religious law. I don't invent anything. I follow Islamic religious law in this. A Muslim is very careful not to kill an innocent person, because he knows he would be destined to eternal Hell. So the issue is not at all simple. We rely on Islamic religious law when we say there is no prohibition on killing these people."
"The word 'peace' does not mean the kind of peace we are experiencing. This peace is, in fact, surrender and a shameful disgrace. Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
. When this is accomplished - if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards."
Death
Farhat died on 17 March 2013, aged 64, from multiple organ failure, in Gaza. Her funeral was attended by 4,000 Palestinians and Hamas leader
Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh; sometimes transliterated as Haniya, Haniyah, or Hanieh (born 29 January 1962) is a senior political leader of Hamas and formerly one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority. Hani ...
MEMRI
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI; officially the "Middle East Media and Research Institute") is a nonprofit press monitoring and analysis organization co-founded by former Israeli military intelligence officer Yigal Carmon an ...