In his October 23, 2022 column in the Qatari daily Al-Watan, Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti extolled 'Uday Al-Tamimi, a Palestinian terrorist from Shu'afat in East Jerusalem who carried out two attacks: an October 9, 2022 shooting at a checkpoint in Shu'afat, in which an Israeli female soldier, Noa Lazar, was killed, and another shooting ten days later at the entrance to the Israeli town of Ma'ale Adumim. In the latter attack he opened fire on security guards who returned fire and killed him. Al-Barghouti writes that Al-Tamimi, who refused to surrender and caused the Israeli security guards to quake with fear, envisioned only the divine reward he would receive for his martyrdom, namely his place in Paradise with the houris (black-eyed virgins). Al-Barghouti stresses that the war against the Zionists will not cease until they leave Palestine.
It should be noted that this column is one of several pieces and cartoons praising Al-Tamimi that have appeared in the Qatari press.[1]
Cartoon in Qatari daily in praise of 'Uday Al-Tamimi: "I have Palestinian blood" (Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, October 21, 2022)
The following are translated excerpts from Al-Barghouti's column.[2]
"Praise Allah. O son of Shu'afat, you refused to surrender even as the bullets of hatred sped towards your angelic body. You taught us the meaning of resistance and martyrdom. [The Israelis] aimed their bullets at your legs so as to capture you alive, but you refused to surrender. You gripped your weapon and your eyes sought your target: [the security guards] who surrounded [the place], while you stood alone in the fray. They quaked [with fear], for your message, that there is no solution except by means of the gun, had been conveyed to your people by your last will and testament.
"How clever you were in your rebellion, and how strongly you believed in your cause as you evaded the brigades of [Israeli security guards] armed from head to toe, to carry out your second operation that terrorized the enemies of Allah. Your fingers on the trigger spelled out your message to your people in bullets:[3] 'I am 'Uday Al-Tamimi from the Shu'afat refugee camp, wanted [by Israel]. The operation I carried out at the Shu'afat checkpoint was just a drop in the stormy ocean of the struggle. I know that I will be martyred sooner or later and that my operation did not liberate Palestine. But I carried it out with [one] goal in mind: that it would prompt hundreds of youths to follow me and take up the gun.'
"How wonderful that you were such an adversary before ascending to heaven,[4] [fighting] to the last bullet, reaching for your cartridge and trying to reload your gun even as the bullets rushed towards you. You pursued [the Israelis] to your last heartbeat and to your last bullet, causing the guards to stammer as they uttered your name. You dodged the bullets like one leaping through a minefield, envisioning only your place and your palace in Paradise, alongside the procession of souls who lined the sky of this world, waiting for your soul in order to lead it to the houris.[5]
"I do not know how the Israeli administration thinks today, how many battles it anticipates after the current one, how many people it plans to kill and how many nations will confront it. But the truth is that Zionism is an alien corn in Palestine and must go back where it came from. The ones who should remain in Palestine and return to it are those who lived there before 1917. Otherwise there is no chance that the gunfire will cease, for 'Uday's state [of Palestine] was founded between his two operations, and every Palestinian has a state between two bullets."
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10273 - Qatari, Al-Jazeera Journalists Praise Palestinian Terrorist Uday Al-Tamimi, Perpetrator Of Two Shooting Attacks And Killer Of Female Israeli Soldier: He Is A Hero And Will Be 'Forever Immortalized In History' – October 20, 2022.
[2] Al-Watan (Qatar), October 23, 2022.
[3] What is quoted here is part of a statement Al-Tamimi wrote on October 11, before perpetrating his second attack, which was posted on websites and social media. See e.g., watania.net, October 20, 2022.
[4] An allusion to statements by writer Ghassan Kanafani, a leading member of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who wrote "do not die before you become an adversary."
[5] A reference to the Islamic belief that a martyr is rewarded with 72 houris (black-eyed virgins of Paradise).
