Fatima Bernawi Explained

Fatima Bernawi
Native Name:فاطمة برناوي
Native Name Lang:Arabic
Birth Place:Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Death Place:Cairo, Egypt
Resting Place:Gaza City
Nationality:Palestinian

Fatima Mohammed Bernawi (1939 – 3 November 2022)[1] (also transliterated Barnawi; Arabic: فاطمة برناوي) was a Palestinian who was involved in the Palestinian Freedom Movement of the mid-1960s, a significant period of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She was known as the first Palestinian woman to have organized a terror attack in Israel—the attempted bombing of a movie theatre in October 1967.[2] [3]

Background and early life

Bernawi was born in Jerusalem in 1939.[4] At the age of nine, during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence or the Nakba, her mother who is Palestinian was displaced from Jerusalem to a refugee camp near Amman. However, they later returned to Palestine to her Nigerian father, who had fought in the 1936 Palestine revolt, and who had remained behind.[5] [6]

Bernawi worked as a practical nurse for the Arab-American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia (ARAMCO)[7]

Political life

Of thirty-four Palestinian women whom Amal Kawar interviewed for her study Daughters of Palestine, Bernawi was one of only four who joined the resistance movement initially as a freedom fighter before becoming a political resistor. The others were Laila Khaled, Aisha Odeh, and Rasmiyeh Odeh.[8]

Attempted bombing and arrest

The attempted bombing incident occurred in October 1967 at the Zion Cinema in West Jerusalem. Bernawi said the bomb's civilian target was chosen in protest of a film that celebrated the Six Day War. The bomb failed to explode and she was arrested by Israeli soldiers for the attempt. Bernawi claimed her skin colour was a factor in her arrest, saying, "Of course, they arrested all the young women from African origin."[9]

Though sentenced to life in prison, Bernawi was released in a prisoner exchange in 1977 after having served 10 years.[5] She was deported in 1979, but returned to the political party Fatah, later serving as the first female chief of the Palestinian Female Police Corps in Gaza.[10]

In 1994, Bernawi returned to the Gaza Strip and assumed leadership of the women's police. By 1996, she was "the highest ranking female in Fateh militia and... head of the women's section of the police in the Palestinian self-rule government in the Gaza Strip and Jericho".[11] Yasser Arafat, noted leader of Fateh and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), held her in high regard, once saying that "if he would marry anyone it would be [Fatima] Bernawi".[12]

On 28 May 2015, Bernawi was honoured by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas with the Military Star of Honor "out of appreciation for her pioneering role in the struggle" and "for the public good." Though the bombing she was honoured for was a failure, Bernawi insisted it was successful, saying, "This is not a failure, because it generated fear throughout the world. Every woman who carries a bag needs to be checked before she enters the supermarket, any place, cinemas and pharmacies."[13] Bernawi was also honoured alongside Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi and Ahmad Moussa Salama in honour of Palestinian Prisoner's Day, 17 April 2015. She was described as "one of the first Palestinian women to adopt [the means of] armed self-sacrifice operations after the start of the modern Palestinian revolution, which was launched by Fatah on 1 January 1965. She was the first young Palestinian woman to be arrested by the Israeli security forces, and is the first woman prisoner listed in the records of the [Palestinian] women prisoners' movement..."[14]

Personal

She married a former prisoner from Acre, Fawzi al-Nimr, who was released in May 1985.[15]

On 3 November 2022, Bernawi died at "Palestine hospital" in Cairo, aged 83,[16] [17] and was later buried in Gaza City on 6 November.[18]

Notes and References

  1. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161029-in-honour-of-black-history-month-the-black-arab-paradigm/ In honour of Black History Month: the Black-Arab paradigm
  2. Abdulhadi. Rabab Ibrahim. Living Under Occupation. Against the Current. July 2012. 159. 17. 14 November 2014. 4 June 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190604165748/https://www.solidarity-us.org/pdfs/ATC%20159--Rabab.pdf. live.
  3. Web site: Salhani. Claude. Claude Salhani. 13th Anniversary of the Palestinian Revolution. Corbis Images. 31 December 1977. 14 November 2014. 23 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923210555/http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-18355177/13th-anniversary-of-the-palestinian-revolution?popup=1. live.
  4. Web site: Ferwana. Abdel Nasser. " فاطمة برناوي " أول أسيرة وبداية الحكاية ("Fatima Barnawi" and the beginning of the first captive tale). Palestine Behind Bars. 9 March 2012. 14 November 2014. 30 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180130144547/http://www.palestinebehindbars.org/ferwana9mar2012.htm. live.
  5. Web site: Palestine's unique African quarter. gulfnews.com. 26 September 2013 . en. 3 January 2020. 3 January 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200103025308/https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/palestines-unique-african-quarter-1.1235815. live.
  6. Book: Kawar. Amal. Daughters of Palestine: leading women of the Palestinian national movement. 1996. State University of New York Press. Albany, NY. 0-7914-2845-1. 10. 26 October 2014. 5 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073323/http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/53391.pdf. live.
  7. Book: Kawar. Amal. Daughters of Palestine. 11. 14 November 2014. 5 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073323/http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/53391.pdf. live.
  8. Amireh . Amal . Between Complicity and Subversion: Body Politics in Palestinian National Narrative . The South Atlantic Quarterly . Fall 2003 . 102 . 4 . 769 . 10.1215/00382876-102-4-747 . 144769947 . 13 November 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141129022647/http://www.tubas.ps/site_files/1.pdf . 29 November 2014 .
  9. Fatima Bernawi, as quoted in Book: Kawar. Amal. Daughters of Palestine. 11. 14 November 2014. 5 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073323/http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/53391.pdf. live.
  10. Web site: Courtney. Andrew. Guardians of the Mosque: African Palestinians of Jerusalem. 14 November 2014. 18. 3 February 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150203234903/http://andrewcourtneyphotography.com/african_palestinians_story.pdf. live.
  11. Book: Kawar. Amal. Daughters of Palestine. 10. 14 November 2014. 5 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073323/http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/53391.pdf. live.
  12. News: Yasser Arafat: A living legend yet . Al-Ahram Weekly . 717 . 24 November 2004 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150106142618/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/717/profile.htm . 6 January 2015 .
  13. News: Abbas awards terrorist with "Star of Honor". Palestinian Media Watch. 4 June 2015. 5 June 2015. 7 June 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150607105419/http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=14976. live.
  14. News: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas Awards Medals Of Honor To Fatah Terrorists. The Middle East Media Research Institute. 17 April 2015. 5 June 2015. 5 July 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150705080002/http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8526.htm. live.
  15. Web site: في يوم المرأة العالمي فاطمة البرناوي: أول أسيرة في الثورة الفلسطينية المعاصرة . qudsnet.com . ar . 8 March 2021 . 12 November 2022 . 16 November 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211116092355/https://qudsnet.com/post/508284/%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A3%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8A-%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9- . bot: unknown .
  16. News: Afro-Palestinian Fatima Bernawi, first of Israel's women prisoners, dies . 3 November 2022 . The New Arab . 3 November 2022.
  17. Web site: قامة وطنية ثائرة.. نعي رسمي وشعبي لفاطمة البرناوي أولى أسيرات الثورة الفلسطينية المعاصرة . Al Jazeera . ar . 4 November 2022 .
  18. Web site: تشييع جثمان أولى أسيرات الثورة الفلسطينية في قطاع غزة . arabi21.com . ar . 6 November 2022 .

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