Fatima Barnawi.. The story of a struggle that does not die

Written by: Sarah Talib Al-Suhail
How quickly the days pass us by, and they engraved in our feelings and our souls memories that we do not forget, even if we overlook them for some time, but they remain present in us, so when we look back to our past or an accident occurs, we quickly recall it.

A few days ago, I read the news of the death of the Palestinian activist, Fatima Barnawi, in a hospital in Cairo, and if I had mercy on her, I would relive with her pure soul the meanings of my childhood and how I met the deceased on the London plane back to Amman. She began to tell me the story of her and her husband's struggle for Palestine, and how they were imprisoned and prevented from having children after they got out of prison because of their old age. I stood for her in the plane out of respect while she was sitting next to me, and my tears flowed and I said to her: Am I in a dream to sit next to a great woman like you? She was very happy with me and told me, like you, she was very good for future generations.

Her sitting next to me was like a dream, so I used to hear about female heroes, but now I know one of them.

I kept in touch with her, and I used to receive from her the story of her struggle while I was a young girl who was not polluted by the days and did not destroy her mind with the obsessions of the media, which with the passage of time made the Palestinian issue a secondary, marginalized issue.

My feelings at that time were very innocent - I grew up in a family where the mother told us about Palestine and the rights of its people, and a father who instilled in us Arab nationalism, love of the weak and support for the people of truth.

Fatima Barnawi was telling the details of her journey with the Palestinian struggle, so I felt as if I was in front of a story of real heroism to support a homeland in which a person sacrifices his life to restore a homeland that was forcibly stolen.

The deceased continues her story, and if my strong feelings at that time agreed with respect, appreciation, and love for the meanings of sacrifice and redemption.

At the end of the flight, I stayed in Amman, and Fatima continued to the West Bank, but she surprised me with a phone call, and we exchanged contacts for some time, until each one of us was preoccupied with her own circumstances, and the phone numbers were lost, and the memories of heroism, struggle, and childhood remained alive inside me.

The martyr of the struggle, Fatima, is the first female prisoner in the history of the Palestinian revolution, as she was arrested on October 19, 1967. She has the first to engage in commando work since the start of the contemporary Palestinian revolution in 1965, and she is the first Palestinian girl to be arrested by the Israeli occupation forces.

The late woman was born in the city of Jerusalem to a struggling family. Her journey of struggle began at the age of nine, when she moved with her mother and family from Jerusalem to a refugee camp near Amman. And her father, Muhammad Ali Barnawi, fought in the Palestine Revolution of 1936, accompanied by Haj Amin al-Husseini, so he remained in Palestine.

Her mother and sister were arrested following the execution of the commando operation, so they learned early on the bitterness of the occupation prison and experienced the feelings of loss and deprivation of the family.

Fatima Bernawi and her sister continued their struggle against the usurper occupier. She was arrested following a commando operation and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, she spent only ten years in prison due to the intervention of the late President Muhammad Anwar Sadat with the Israeli authorities in 1977.

The deceased contributed to the establishment of Palestinian security after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. The Palestinian Women Police was established after her return to the homeland, and she held the rank of colonel. President Mahmoud Abbas awarded her the Military Star of Honor, in appreciation of her pioneering struggle role and sacrifices for her country and people.

And Fatima, in my estimation, did not die, but rather remains alive with the story of her struggle, her struggle, and her sacrifices for the liberation of her homeland, and every citizen whose land is occupied should be in a continuous struggle like Fatima to liberate the land, the homeland, honor, and honor. They, led by Fatima, are heroes who deserve all our respect and appreciation.
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