Martyr's Day and the Palestinian Resistance
Linah Alsaafin examines the state of the Palestinian resistance movement.
Speaking from her home in the village of Tel just outside of Nablus, Ikram Ramadan's gentle demeanor masks the misfortune and hardships she endured as a young mother of three when her husband Thaer was killed in 2004 after entering one of the nearby settlements with his gun.
Ikram had just given birth to twins, and had her house demolished after her husband’s death — a ritual punishment by the Israeli army to any family of a resistance fighter.
“It’s been eight years now,” says Ikram. “It’s essential to keep the memories of our martyrs alive, and not to regard them as a thing of the past.”
Jan. 7 commemorates the annual Martyrs’ Day in Palestine, named after what Fatah, the political party of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, claim was the first martyr to fall in the “modern revolution,” Ahmad Musa who was killed in 1965.
