Hanadi Jaradat the sixth martyr

This article is a translation done by me is based on information from the local Arabic press and from other media. I present this article to you to show you what I mean by missing justice, and how the absence of justice pushed people to behave in violent way to restore that missing justice. Please always remember that:

"With the strength of God and his resolve I decided to be the sixth martyr who will make her body splinter and explode to kill the Zionists and destroy each settler and Zionist. At least it’s not only us who must pay the price and harvest the tears and pain of their crimes. In order not to keep our mothers paying the price of Zionist criminality, in order not to keep our mothers crying and wailing about their children and sons, we must make their mothers cry, so my mother don't cry my martyrdom. I decided after reliance on God to make the death that they surround us with, surround them also, and to make their mothers cry tears and blood, my call for God to make us eternal in the heaven and make them eternal in hell."

With these words, the martyr Hanadi Tayser Jaradat showed on 'tape' that had been distributed by 'Sraya Al Qudis'.

Her family responded to her call even before they saw and heard her words. They refused to receive consolations and her father stood up despite his sickness and hugged the people of Jinen while they arriving successively to his house to support him, and he said "today is Hanadi's wedding, that mean gladness and happiness, I'll not except consolation, we will open her a house for felicitations, because she deserves glorification and appreciation."

Usually and according to tradition, the mothers lament and the fathers weep for their dead sons. The situation was different in Tayser Jaradat's house, the former detainee, whom just spent three months mourning his firstborn son's death Faddy, all the signs of sadness, grief and mourning had vanished, when he went toward his long painful way mate and wife Rahhma to kiss her head and to tell her that their oldest daughter had penetrated through all the Zionist security procedures and executed a heroic operation and that she had avenged Faddy and for all Palestinians.

Jaradat the father, Tayser, who is said to have had a special emotional bond with his eldest daughter, told Al-Jazeera television: “My daughter’s action reflected the anger that every Palestinian feels at the occupation. The occupation did not have mercy on my son Fadi, her brother. They killed him even though he wasn't a wanted person, they murdered him in cold blood before Hanadi’s eyes.”

When he had been asked about his feelings as a father, he smiled with pride that his daughter that he had spent his life raising and caring for, until she became old enough to care for him after he became sick, answered: "she gave me a big reward because she avenged innocent Palestinian blood that is being shed daily by the occupying soldiers bullets"

The suffering of Jaradat's family with the occupation started many years in the past, as the father Tayser who has passed the fifth decade said, he had been arrested more than once in the early 70s, at the time of the revolutionary tide in the homeland. He was tortured and held in different prisons even after his marriage. During the last years, 2 of his family had become martyred, they were sons of his older brother, Abid Al Karym and Aness, but his suffering reached the climax by assassinating his son, Faddy, the supporter and the breadwinner of the family.

He said: "before some years my health worsened and I became unable for work, I got Cirrhotic, I was in a hard situation therefore Fadi abandoned his study and carried the responsibility for our big family that contain 9 members, 7 are girls. He devoted himself for our care and for my treatment; he worked as a vegetables seller in Jinen market. He was the ideal example of the faithful son, he insisted on the continuation of his sisters study especially for Hanadi who was especially gifted."

The father told of the assassination of Faddy and his cousin Salahh Jaradat, "at the evening of 12/6/2003, and while Fadi and Salahh were sitting with my daughters in front of our house, in Al Dbosy quarter, a special Zionist unit attacked them and without prior notice the soldiers started to shoot at them randomly." He added "they could have arrested them, but they killed them in cold blood", Hanadi was an eye witness to the terrifying crime, after she prepared the coffee and sat beside Faddy the most beloved in her heart, she saw him thrown down onto the earth, which was stained with his blood and he carried on bleeding until he died".

"The effect of the crime was very strong on Hanadi" her father said" she had very special relationship with Faddy, and when he was dead she had been affected deeply and she was very sad and all through her life she wasn't able to forget the painful picture in her mind. She would awaken at night and scream from the frightening nightmare that accompanied her, nonetheless, she passed the hardest time and she carried the responsibility to care about her family alone, she became responsible for the family and to continue my treatment especially when my sickness become worse, she read the Qur'an 6 times."

A few months before he was killed, Fady Jaradat became engaged to 18-year-old Abir Jaradat. The approaching wedding delighted and strengthened the ailing father. He underwent additional treatments in Jordan, but relatives say there was constant concern that he would not be able to hold on until the event. Fadi therefore decided to speed things up: The wedding was set for June 16 of this year. The preparations were at their height, the bride already had a gown and the groom had a suit, the rings were bought, the food was arranged and invitations were sent out.

Three days before the date set, on the night between June 12 and 13, the family was in the courtyard of the house. Salahh Jaradat, Fady’s cousin and a member of Islamic Jihad. Salahh came to visit his pregnant wife, Ism’ah, and their two-year-old son, who were living there. Salahh had long been on the Israeli security forces’ wanted list, living in the underground and staying constantly on the move. The little boy was playing, and Fadi was having a conversation with Dalah. Hanadi and her sister went into the house and came back with coffee.

About that incident, Hanadi t in the interview to Al-Arab al-Yum, which was published the day after her brother was killed: "We were sitting together. Everything was normal, natural. Salahh, who was a wanted person, hadn’t seen his wife and his son in a long time. The army pursued him all the time on the charge that he was a fighter, a commander in the Jerusalem Battalions. They went into his house in Silath al-Haratiyah many times, looking for him. He started to play with the boy and kiss him. We were drinking coffee. Then we saw a white car with Arab license plates drive up slowly and stop next to the house. I thought they were friends of Fady. Suddenly two men got out of the car and started shooting at Salahh. I saw Salahh lying on the ground. Then suddenly another car pulled up and people started shooting from it, too.

We all lay on the ground. Salahh’s wife threw herself on the boy, to protect him. My brother Fady fell on the floor and I saw that he was bleeding. I grabbed his hand and started to drag him to the sofa, to hide him behind it. I was screaming, “Fady! Salahh!” I heard Fady barely speaking, saying “Save me. Save me.” Then one of the soldiers came and attacked me. He threw me with force onto the floor, pulled Fady’s hand out of mine and told me “Get into the house or I’ll kill you.” I shouted to them, “Leave me alone, I want to save my brother. He’s wounded, bleeding.”

Fady was still breathing. Salahh was laying motionless. I saw that he had been hit in the head. Three of the soldiers spoke fluent Arabic. One of them asked me, “Where is Fady’s weapon?” I said, “I don’t know. He doesn’t even have a weapon.” I saw my brother lying there. “Allah akbar aleikum, he’ll die,” I said. They made me lie down facing the ground and one of them said, “You bitch, you terrorist, we’ll kill you along with them. ” They aimed their weapons at my head. Then one of them said to the others, Drag them [Salahh and Fady] and put one on top of the other. Those words drove me out of my mind. I shouted, “You’re terrorists, dogs, leave them alone.” I tried to get up, but they knocked me down again. They dragged Salahh and Fadi a few meters and then shot them again. They killed them in cold blood.

The purpose of that operation was to kill the fighter Salahh and his cousin Fadi. They could have arrest them, because they surprised us and surrounded the house, so none of us could have escape. Why did they start shooting straight off? Even after Fady was wounded they could have arrest him, but they went on shooting to make sure he was dead. When we got the bodies back, I saw that they shot him in every part of his body. That completely finished my father. It paralyzed him. He was getting ready for his son’s wedding, and instead he was informed that Fady was dead. That’s a blow he will not recover from. I am very sad. Since the moment I saw my brother’s blood, I have felt very bad. But the goal of liberating Palestine is bigger and more important than my private pain. And I have to be happy that I received my beloved brother as a shaheed [martyr]."

Meanwhile, Hanadi whom graduated from Jaresh College in Jordan, trying to practice her career in the legal profession, her father said, "she was always speaking that she will dedicate her life to defend our tyrannized people and to take care of her family. She showed significant capability in her work that brought her the respect and appreciation of all her colleagues at work, but again she encountered the Zionist obstacles after which the occupying authority prevented her from carrying on with cases of administrative detainees and from presentation in front of the military courts. But the prominent case for her was the refusal of the occupation forces to give her father the permission to go to ' Rampam' hospital in Haifa for treatment.

"That event effected her deeply" as the mother Rahhma Sadiq Jaradat (50 years) said " Hanadi, whom became more sad and agonized, she was living in hell and suffering from keep seeing her brother's pictures who was shot dead in front of her eyes despite that he wasn't wanted and while he was preparing for his marriage. Also worried by her fathers critical health situation, nonetheless" her mother said "she didn't weaken and her personality was strong and different, it inspires us in patience and steadfastness, she had lovely, perfect relationships with her sisters and everyone knew her, for her sweetness and attractiveness. She concluded the Qur'an six times, she was spending her time in the house in reading the Qur'an, fasting and praying, she would pass the night awake listening to religious lectures and Prophetic traditions."

Hanadi’s mother denied any knowledge about her daughter intentions, and she said, she didn't show any unusual signs even in her last day of life, but in last days she was always speaking about Faddy and martyrdom, she expressed her anger and her sadness because the picture of the crime lived with her every minute.

On the Saturday morning, she awoke early as usual, put on her clothes and she left us without any word or goodbye while she was Fasting, she was very punctual and secretive, we even didn't know about the operation and found out that she was the executor only from the media, Fady’s mother mentioned that Hanadi spent her two last months Fasting.

After Fady’s death, his mother, Rahhmah, 51, told Al-Jazeera: "The killing of Fady completely destroyed my family. My husband has cancer and now they killed our only provider. I take consolation in the fact that I received a son who is a shaheed, and the goal of liberating our occupied land is great and important."

And as soon the news had spread, the neighbors rushed into Hanadi’s house and they evacuated it's belongs (furniture) expecting the Zion backlash which wasn't late in coming! Her father spoke "in the morning of the next day after the operation, the occupation forces raided our house, the soldiers were angry and scared, they became more angry when they found the house empty from all the furnishings so they attacked me and asked me about Hanadi. They also beat the activists from the 'International solidarity movement' that were with us and they tried to protect us but the soldiers beat them brutally.

The sister Fadyah (25 years) tells, that when the solders entered the house, they were frightened and they got angry when they saw her speaking on her mobile phone so they attacked her and destroyed her mobile, they insulted us, then they demolished the house. They were in a hysterical mood; they asked us the reasons for the emptying of the house, which indicated to us that they wanted to demolish the house on our furniture. But we told them (the sister said) these tanks and these procedures (practices) and demolitions will not terrify or frighten us and we are very proud of our hero Hanadi, our belief in God is great.

"We are proud of her; she restored our dignity and solaced our broken hearts. Thank God, Fady's blood did not go unavenged," Fadyah said.

Hanadi (her mother said) refused marriage many times; she used to say that she gave her life for our sake. She kept her promise and presented her life as a sacrifice for her brother and for Palestine. What she did is right because it's revenge for her brother and her cousin which is completely the responsibility of the occupation forces that continue crimes against our people, they try to humiliate us and kill us, therefore the honest and the faithful among us like Hanadi will not delay from finding the best way to reply and to fight back, we ask God to accept Hanadi as martyr for she raised up the head of our nation and our people high.

On the other hand, Biysan, 21 years the sister of Hanadi, (her father gave her his village's name which had been occupied in the 1948 catastrophe), said while she was holding the rosary that was Hindi’s which she holds all the time "thanks for the God who honored her with this high degree, my sister was an example of patience and a faithful Palestinian girl whom spent her life in worship to be close to God and reading the Qur'an."

In spite of demolishing their house and their homelessness, the father Jaradat spoke "our Morales are high and our people challenged the curfew, and despite the threats of the occupying forces, all run to support us and they have opened their house for us (he meant his neighbors). The house and money aren't important, what is the most important are dignity, freedom and independence, which will not happen by negotiation or by begging the occupied forces.

We'll gain our independence by resistance that Hanadi drew one of its symbols, whom I present her operation to the God, the country, my people and for the children of Palestine and for their future that they will never enjoy the freedom without sacrifices which will not stop as long as one span of our land under occupation."

Three months before the operation, Hanadi Jaradat stood over the freshly dug grave of her brother Fady and vowed to avenge his death. "Your blood will not have been shed in vain, she is quoted as saying by the Jordanian daily Al-Arab al-Yum. "The murderer will yet pay the price and we will not be the only ones
who are crying." Weeping bitterly, she added: "If our nation cannot realize its dream and the goals of the victims, and live in freedom and dignity, then let the whole world be erased."

- Five members of the Almog family from Haifa: Admiral (res.) Ze'ev Almog, 71, his wife Ruth, 70, their son Moshe, 43, and grandsons Tomer Almog, 9, and Assaf Staier, 11
- Five members of the Zer-Aviv family from Kibbutz Yagur: Bruria, 59; her son Bezalel, 30, and his wife Keren, 29, with their children Liran, 4, and Noya, 1
- Zvi Bahat, 35, of Haifa
- Mark Biano, 29, of Haifa, and his wife Naomi, 25
- Hana Francis, 39, of Fassouta, chief waiter
- Mutanus Karkabi, 31, of Haifa, the security guard
- Sharbal Matar, 23, of Fassouta, waiter
- Osama Najar, 28, of Haifa, cook
- Nir Regev, 25, of Nahariya
- Irena Sofrin, 38, of Kiryat Bialik
- Lydia Zilberstein, 56, of Haifa died of her wounds on Oct 9
- George Matar, 59, of Haifa died of his wounds on Oct 15


Ze'ev Almog	Ruth Almog	Moshe Almog	Tomer Almog	Assaf Staier


Bruria Zer-Aviv	Bezalel Zer-Avi	Keren Zer-Aviv	Liran Zer-Aviv	Noya Zer-Aviv


Hana Francis	Mutanus Karkabi	Sharbal Matar	Osama Najar


Zvi Bahat	Mark Biano	Naomi Biano	Nir Regev	Irena Sofrin


Lydia Zilberstein	George Matar