Not a year passes without the International Mother’s Day coming as an unwelcome guest for many Palestinians, that if they got to choose, they wouldn’t let it come in and open up wounds they barely coexist with.
International Mother’s Day comes each year carrying painful memories as, every day, Palestinians used to lose the dearest ones to their hearts. For 2023 alone, Jenin broke the records with the number of Palestinians killed by Israel.
Just like other occasions, not a Palestinian home spends these special occasions without recalling traumatic experiences and agonizing memories Israel has brought to every corner of their homes.
Kifaya Obaid, the daughter of the martyr Magda Obaid, says: “Since this morning, I have been sitting on my mother’s grave, reading the Holy Qur’an, making up her grave, and watering the roses we planted for her.
She adds, “On this day last year, and like every year, we used to celebrate this day, but this year we couldn’t. Israel killed her.”
Obeid recalled, “Two months have passed since my mother’s killing during a massacre Israeli Forces committed, that claimed the lives of 10 Palestinian martyrs, and still not a day or an occasion goes by that we do not remember her.”
As for Alaa Bawakna, the daughter of the Palestinian martyr, Professor Jawad Bawakna, said, “A day full of grief and sorrow for losing my father. I remember well how we used to buy gifts for my mother to celebrate this day together.”
Bawakna adds, “A day before, we used to write the things that she loves so that we could buy her that day and bring joy to her heart.”
Meanwhile, the mother of the Palestinian martyr, Amjad Hussainiya, whose body is still till today being held by the Israeli occupation, still cherishes his last gifts that he gave her before he was killed by Israeli forces.
“He bought me a gold ring, and even though many years have passed, I still keep a gift from him since he was so little,” she says.
Hussainieh adds, “I, as a mother, on International Mother’s Day, do not dream that my son would open the door carrying a gift for me. My gift is when he eventually has a grave that keeps him away from the frost of the occupation’s refrigerators. This frost kills me whenever I open the door of my refrigerator and on cold days.”
Israeli occupation forces killed 30 Palestinians, including 6 children, across occupied Palestine in February 2023, according to data collected by Days of Palestine (DOP).
In January 2023, Israeli occupation forces killed 35 Palestinians, including 8 children and an elderly woman, in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
The number of Palestinian victims due to Israeli violence has reached 66, including 14 children so far in 2023.
Israel has been very successful in injecting its cruelity to all Palestinians’ lives details, in crushing their dreams into ashes and turning their own joys into unending funerals.
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