(An
excerpt from Chapter 2. Jinan and her political advisor Qudamah are
traveling to the West Bank from Gaza, in order to start back up Jinan’s late
father’s paramilitary organization.)
SAME DAY, SOUTH-WEST OF HEBRON, NEAR
ABU AL-ASJA
Qudamah and Jinan had a long day of
driving the same day that Brian received his big news. They could not drive
directly from Gaza to the West Bank, because Israel had instituted a siege
around the entire strip of land. The one exit was through the Rafah Crossing on
the Egyptian border. So they drove to Egypt, and then went into the Sinai
Peninsula. From there they did basically a big U-turn. They went back into
Israel from the Sinai, and then from there they entered the West Bank. Crossing
into Israel from the Sinai was not a problem because the border was so long
that they easily were able to pass into it without going through a checkpoint.
However getting into the West Bank
was a different story. The Israelis had built their infamous Apartheid Wall
around all of the West Bank, sealing it inside of Israeli control. Qudamah and
Jinan had deliberated about which of two options to pick as to how to enter the
territory.
Option one would be to go to an
Israeli checkpoint along the wall, kill the guards quickly and quietly, and
then drive on through the checkpoint. This was the faster of the two options,
but the Israeli deaths would attract a swarm of Israeli soldiers to the area,
and that could be potentially dangerous for the two resistance fighters as they
had a mini arsenal of weapons in their car.
Option two would be to drive a
section of the wall where there weren’t any soldiers around, i.e., away from a
checkpoint and away from Palestinian villages. They could blow up a part of the
wall, and then drive through the hole they would’ve made. This would take
longer as it would take Jinan some time to set up all the explosives and the
charge. But it would take hours for the Israelis to notice a hole in the wall
that was far away, since the wall was hundreds of miles long. By then, the two
would be long gone from the area.
In the end, the two decided that
killing Israeli soldiers, although Jinan would never back down from a fight,
would be too risky. So they went with Option two. 10 minutes later, they were
in the West Bank, on their way towards the village of Abu al-Asja.
The two did not talk much. All the
driving and the afternoon sun were making Jinan tired. Qudamah had driven in
the earlier part of the day while Jinan slept. Then they had switched drivers
after they blew the hole in the apartheid wall.
Now Jinan was driving and Qudamah
was busy receiving emails over his cellphone and filing all the important
documents needed to run a paramilitary organization on his laptop. Jinan didn’t
want to disturb him so she didn’t even turn the radio on.
She was busy thinking about what
happened yesterday, after Qudamah and she got to Qudamah’s house.
FLASHBAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK[1]
“Hey kids” Qudamah said as he opened
the front door to his house, “We’re back.”
“Daddy!” 2 little girls came running
towards him and hugged his legs.
“Haha okay let me get through the
front door” He said with a smile as he awkwardly stepped a few steps so that
Jinan could get inside also. As soon as his girls let go of his legs they ran
over to Jinan.
“Aunt Jinan!” they exclaimed in the
same happy high pitched voices.[2]
“Hi girls” Jinan as she bent down on
her knees and kissed them both on one cheek, “Did you have a good day today?”
“Yes” the older one named Rana said.
“Jinan! Do you want to see a picture
I drew today?” squealed the younger one named Shireen.
“Haha sure sweetheart” Jinan said.
Shireen ran back into the kitchen,
where Tasnim, Qudamah’s wife, emerged from. She was a middle aged woman with
curly dark brown hair that went down to her neck. She was wiping a big stirring
spoon clean with a towel, so that meant she was cooking. Almost certainly
dinner. She had a glare in her eyes that Qudamah had been unfortunately gotten
used to the last couple of weeks.
“Hello honey” Qudamah said as he
pecked a kiss on her lips, “Is there anything I can do?”
“No” she replied, “Dinner is
actually almost ready. You two came at a good time.”
Meanwhile Jinan and the two little
girls were sitting on the couch near the front door. Shireen was showing Jinan
her picture.
“Shireen’s been showing everyone
that picture all day” Rana said to Jinan.
“Mhmmm and I remember your dad
telling me that you did the same thing when you were her age” Jinan said.
She unfastened her hijab and pulled
it off. Her wavy black hair, which came down to her waist, came tumbling down.
She shook it around a little to get it out of her face, much to Shireen’s
amusement.
Qudamah, without even thinking about
it, looked in Jinan’s direction when she did this. Tasnim saw this right away
and gave Qudamah a quick slap on the wrist with her big metal spoon that she
was using for stirring.
“Ow!” Qudamah hissed, making sure to
keep it below Shireen’s and Rana’s talking to Jinan.
“I saw that” Tasnim said as she went
back into the kitchen.
Qudamah rubbed his wrist as he
walked back in with her. Jinan noticed all of this but gave no indication that
she did. She continued to talk and play with Shireen and Rana.
“What the hell was that for?”
Qudamah asked sternly as Tasnim continued preparing dinner.
“You know exactly what it was for.
This isn’t the first time you’ve looked at her like that.”
Qudamah’s ears and face reddened.
“What? So I looked at her. Big
deal.”
“It is a big deal to me” Tasnim
replied as she chopped up some celery and put it a pot full of boiling water
that was on the stove.
“Tasnim, you’d better get over the
fact that Jinan and I work in the same organization, so we’re going to be
together most of the days” Qudamah said sternly.
“Am I? Or am I supposed to get over
the fact that you and Jinan had a fling several years ago, and judging by the
way you looked at her, I don’t think it’s completely done.”
Qudamah gritted his teeth but didn’t
say anything. The only noises were the water boiling, Jinan blowing a raspberry
on Shireen’s stomach, and Shireen giggling with joy.
“That was before we got married”
Qudamah said finally.
“I know. But do you see where I am
coming from?” Tasnim said, dropping her confrontational attitude, “I’m middle
aged, chubby. Then I see my husband running around with this beautiful younger
woman, who he had a fling with.”
“I do see where you are coming from”
Qudamah said as he walked away towards the stairs, “But you being jealous all the
time is not going to help matters.”
FLASHFORWARD TO THE PRESENT
“I’m sorry” Jinan said.
“What?” Qudamah asked, barely
looking away from his computer screen.
“I said I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For causing…..tensions between you
and Tasnim.”
“Jinan” Qudamah started, looking up
from the screen, “That is absolutely not your fault at all. You are not
responsible for Tasnim’s behavior.”
“I know, but I should’ve asked to
have stayed at another person’s house, or at least kept my hijab on even when I
was indoors.”
“That is behind us. You asked me if
you could stay because you were just returning from abroad after you had run
away for 8 years, and you didn’t know who else you could’ve trusted.”
Jinan smiled back at him.
“There’s a roadblock up at Kurza by
the way” Qudamah said as he pointed down the road, “So you’d better turn right
up ahead.”
“Thanks” Jinan replied as she did
so.
“You can turn the radio on now” he
continued, “I’m done doing my work, at least for now.”
Jinan did so and flipped through the
stations, trying to get to a news station. She didn’t like most of the hip-hop
and pop shit they played on the radios most of the time. They drove in a curve
around a hill that was past the intersection that she had just turned onto.
“JINAN STOP!” Qudamah suddenly
yelled.
Jinan looked up. There was a whole
crowd of people randomly in the street. She slammed on the brakes, screeching
to a halt. She had not seen them earlier because they were turning around a
hill.
Now that they were stopped they
could figure out what was going on. All of the people were either Israeli
soldier or settlers; the soldiers were armed with TAR-21s and some of the
settler had AR-15s or M-16s.[3]
They were all crowded around something, but neither Qudamah nor Jinan could
tell what or who it was.
“Jinan just back up and get out of
here, this is not good at all” Qudamah said tensely.
Jinan started to do so, but then she
saw what the settlers were gathered around.
“They’re beating up two
Palestinians, look!” she said.
Through the mass of people, Qudamah
could make out a man and a woman lying on the street with their hands covering
the back of their heads, jolting every time a settler kicked them.
“Ah shit man” Qudamah sighed.
Jinan turned around in her seat and opened
a secret compartment behind her seat. She pulled out her cherished AK-74M[4].
It had an ACOG scope on top on its rails and a grenade launcher on the bottom.
On one side of the stock there was an Iraqi flag painted on it, and on the
other the Palestinian flag was painted on it.
“Jinan….” Qudamah said gravely as
his face turned white.
“Don’t even think about stopping me”
Jinan said sternly as she pulled the bolt back and then letting it go forward,
putting a bullet into the chamber “Those people need our help.”
“Yeah but there’s like 2 dozen armed
Israelis!”
“Like I give a fuck” Jinan replied
as she hid the rifle under the robes of her chador.
She got another magazine and put it
in her pocket. Then, she got out of the car and started to walk towards the
settlers.
“Jinan!” hissed Qudamah, but she did
not acknowledge him as she continued to walk towards them.
None of the settlers noticed her
because they were all too focused on the couple they were beating up. The ones
that weren’t actively stepping on them or kicking them were yelling curses and
racial slurs at them. Jinan didn’t speak a word of Hebrew so she didn’t know
what they were saying. None of them noticed her until it was too late.
Jinan got within 2 yards of the
group and then opened fire on them. The results were devastating. The bullets
mowed down the group of radical settlers like blades of grass. Blood and guts
were spewed everywhere as the bullets tore through the bodies. The Palestinian
couple stayed on the ground, getting drenched with blood.
Chaos and panic followed. The
settlers scattered, scrambling to find cover from Jinan’s onslaught of bullets.
The Israeli soldiers that were nearby were on high alert now. They figured out
where the shooting was coming from and shot back at Jinan.
She was forced to duck for cover
behind an Army jeep. She left 7 bodies lying on the street. It was hard to see
who was dead and who was mortally wounded. The Palestinian couple staggered
from the bloody mess, completely dazed.
“Find cover!” Jinan yelled as she
gave them some covering fire to give them some time.
The couple crawled over to their car
and shut the door, bullets ricocheting off of the metal.
There were 6 people shooting at
Jinan, and they were spread out in 3 different locations. There were 2 settlers
not 15 yards in front of her, shooting from behind another Army jeep. Then
there was a soldier to her left about 50 yards away, shooting from behind a
roadblock. Lastly there were 3 soldiers up on a hill about 150 yards in front of
her.
“Damn, gotta take care of this
fast, otherwise they’re gonna call for reinforcements” Jinan thought as she
gritted her teeth.
She looked over the hood of the Army
jeep. As the soldier on her left stood up to shoot at her, she shot at him
first, hitting him 3 times in the chest and left shoulder. He fell down behind
the roadblock. With her attention on that soldier, the two remaining settlers
rushed around the other side of the jeep. Jinan realized this too late. She
turned around in horror as the settlers closed in on her, raising their
weapons.
Out of nowhere a car rammed the two
settlers from behind, sending them flying past Jinan and into the roadblock.
Jinan looked at the driver.
It was Qudamah.
But Jinan had no time to thank him.
She spun around and shot the two settlers who lay bloodied and dazed on the
ground, before they could recover and shoot her back.
The bolt on her AK stayed back,
meaning she was out of ammo. She pulled the empty magazine out, and switched it
out with the other one she had.
All was quiet now. Jinan peeped her
head over the jeep again to figure out where the other 3 Israeli soldiers were.
But she scanned the whole hill and didn’t see them at all. Jinan warily stood
up, and walked over to the Palestinians’ couple’s car, where the couple was
hiding in.
“Are you two okay?” she asked.
“Yyyeeesss” the man stammered.
The woman could only nod her head.
“Good. You’d better get out of here
fast. Stay in your village for the next couple of days until things simmer
down” Jinan said.
“Okay” replied the bewildered man as
he started his car.
The car sped off down the road.
Jinan walked towards the pile of settler’s bodies, where 2 of them were still
alive, barely moving.
“Jinan let’s go!” said Qudamah in a
hushed voice.
He was scared that the Israeli
soldiers were still nearby, about to strike again while Jinan wasn’t paying
attention. But Jinan stood over the two men that were still barely alive, and
shot them both once in the head. Qudamah winced.
Then, she ran over to Qudamah’s car. He moved
from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat. Jinan got in the driver’s
seat, tossed her AK in the secret compartment, and sped off just as fast as the
Palestinian couple did.
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit” Qudamah
said as he placed the cover over the compartment.
Jinan said nothing as she continued
to drive.
“You really did it now Jinan, the
Israelis will swarm this place like motherfuckers until they find us” Qudamah
said, the panic evident in his voice.
“Those terrorists forced my hand”
Jinan replied sternly, “What was I supposed to do, just turn around leave that
poor couple to die? Cuz you know that’s what was going to happen if I didn’t
intervene, it happens all the time here.”
“I know I know I’m sorry, you did
the right thing, but I just wish it didn’t have to happen on our first day
here” Qudamah said, checking his map on his computer, “You know, before we got
our organization even off the ground.”
“I know” Jinan replied.
She drove fast for a while longer,
and then slowed down to a normal speed so they wouldn’t stand out amongst the
other cars on the road. She was silent as Qudamah listened to his Israeli
police scanner, figuring out what the best route to take based on where their
opponents were sending their officers. He, unlike Jinan, spoke Hebrew pretty
well so he could understand the majority of what they were saying. Jinan
understood none of it but could tell by the tone of their voices that she had
hit a hornet’s nest by saving that couple.
“Thank you” She finally said, “For
saving me back there.”
“Huh?”
Jinan pointed towards the small dent
on the car’s hood from where Qudamah hit the settlers.
“Oh….you are welcome. They forced my
hand as well, I had to do something.”
Jinan looked at him and said “Do not
worry Qudamah. We will get past the Israelis and to our destination. I know you
can guide us to safety.”
Qudamah smiled back as he listened
to the scanner again, taking notes on his computer about the Israeli police
positions.
AL-KHUSNA, WEST BANK
Jinan and Qudamah were not the only
ones busy at work. All of the other Palestinian factions also had to get a lot
of work done before their next meeting the following week. Sa’dun Daher, the
DFLP leader who was also at the meeting in Gaza, faced the daunting task of
trying to re-activate his faction, which had disbanded in 2005. He was at his
house in al-Khusna, a suburb of Bethlehem. The long and difficult list of all
of the things he had to do in order to have a battle ready faction was causing
him a bit of stress. He knew what his first step would have to be: simply
calling up old members and influential people in the community to see if they
wanted to work for him. Before he did anything else, he needed manpower. So, he
sat down on his living room couch, got his untraceable cellphone, and went
through his personal telephone book. Of out all of the conversations he had that
afternoon, one of them stuck in his mind, illustrating just how hard it was
going to be.
“Look Ismail, stop beating around
the bush. If you don’t wanna join back up again, then just say so. You being
indirect is just wasting my time; I got dozens of other people to call today”
Sa’dun said harshly.
“Well I’m sorry you think talking to
me is a waste of time” Ismail shot back.
“Ah! I didn’t mean it that way”
Sa’dun exclaimed, “I enjoy talking with you, but now, this is different. This
is business, and time is money.”
“Fine. I don’t wanna join the
organization again” Ismail said, “Because I have a wife and kids now. I have to
think about them, and their future. If we bring war to Palestine again, things
are going to go right back to the way they were during the Intifada. And that
FUCKING sucked.”
“Is this the future you want for
them? Living under occupation? Not having any rights?”
Ismail was silent.
“I’m not gonna try and convince you
to join up again” Sa’dun said with a sigh, “If you don’t have the will to fight
in your heart anymore, then I cannot put it there. It has to be sincere from
you, and you alone.”
“I’m sorry Sa’dun, but that part of
my life is over now” Ismail said, “I fought my fight, now I am done.”
Sa’dun ended the call, and looked
about his living room in frustration. It was serenely quite in the
mid-afternoon. The sun’s rays shined through the partly curtained windows,
lighting up the floating dust in the room. Sa’dun had a rather small but quite
nice one story house. He and his wife Zinat, their two children already grown
up and moved out of the house, did not need a lot of space so they were
perfectly content with their house.
The curtains were a dark purple, and
the carpet of the living room was a greyish-tan. Sa’dun was sitting on a large
couch facing their small T.V., and there was a smaller couch right next to it,
making an L shape. Ornate candlesticks and curiosities dotted the small tables
next to the couches that had reading lamps on them. The foyer, which was just a
small vinyl floored area in front of the front door to leave one’s shoes, was
to the right of the living room, if you were facing the T.V. like Sa’dun was.
The kitchen was past the foyer, and the only bedroom connected the kitchen and
living room. Zinat was in the kitchen, just starting to make dinner.
“All of this could go away if we
start fighting again” Sa’dun thought to himself, “Is that really what I
want?”
THE MORNING OF AUGUST THE 16TH
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA
Brian picked up the newspaper the next
day while eating his breakfast, to see the headline of:
PALESTINIAN
TERRORIST ATTACK LEAVES 7 ISRAELIS DEAD, 3 WOUNDED
“Hmmm this is
interesting” Brian thought as he sipped his coffee, “Palestinians rarely
kill this many people in one attack, not like they used to back in the 80’s and
90’s.”
He continued to read the story that was
right under the headline.
-Reporting from Jerusalem
A group of 4 Palestinian terrorists attacked a group of
Israelis traveling in the West Bank near the settlement of Otniel, killing 7
and wounding 3 in the worst terrorist attack in the West Bank in years. An
Israeli army spokesman said that 2 men and 2 women, dressed in civilian
clothes, opened fire on Israeli civilian cars with assault rifles from their
concealed positions next to a road near the settlement. When the IDF approached
the scene, the terrorists bade a hasty retreat. The IDF soon lost track of the
cars amongst traffic.
“We
have the entire southern part of the West Bank under lockdown right now” the
army official said, “So that means the terrorists have not left the area and
that it will only be a matter of time before we find them and kill them.”
This
comes just after the Israeli military bombed a terrorist house in Gaza 2 days
ago, wounding two terrorists. Israeli analysts believe that yesterday’s attack
was in response to the IDF strike.
“I’ll have to find
out if my office has any additional information on this; Peter did say to stay
on top of events in Israel so I’d be up-to-date when I arrive there.”
SAME DAY, TO THE EAST OF BETHELHEM,
NEAR AL KHUSHNA
In fact, the Israeli army official
couldn’t have been more wrong about Jinan’s and Qudamah’s position. Thanks to
Qudamah’s directions and Jinan’s excellent driving skills, the two managed to
get north of the area that the IDF was locking down before they actually
managed to lock it down. They were safe and sound, well, as safe as sound as
you could be in the West Bank. They had spent the night at a fellow al-Aqsa
Martyr’s Brigade member’s house, a man by the name of Ajib Safar. Ajib was
in-between the ages of Qudamah and Jinan. His skin was a lot lighter than both
of theirs also. He had brown hair that was cut in a buzz cut, and a full beard
that was not too long.
The next day Ajib drove them to a
small military base in Al Khushna, one that the Palestinian Authority, (PA) had
allowed them to use for their operations. Of course, if the PA knew that the
Brigade actually intended to fight Israel, they would never had allowed it,
since they were obsessed with their 2 decade fruitless “peace talks.” The
Brigade had told the PA that they just wanted to help in security in the West
Bank, and since the PA was short on manpower due to their extremely low
popularity amongst Palestinians, they allowed them to.
It was a little after 10 o’clock,
and Qudamah and Jinan were taking inventory in the main warehouse in the very
small complex. It had mostly small arms but it had a few armored cars in there
as well. Ajib was outside, welcoming volunteers that had responded very quickly
to Qudamah’s emails that he had sent out the previous day. Ajib told them to
sit down in rows of chairs out on a field next to the warehouse. Qudamah and
Jinan were due to speak with them after they were done taking inventory.
“Are you pleased with our stock
here?” Qudamah asked Jinan.
“It is sufficient for a couple dozen
fighters, which is a good start” Jinan replied, “If we continue to get funding
from the PA and buy more weapons, more of the same and more different ones,
then we should be adequately prepared to fight Israel when the new government
comes into power.”
“Leave that to me and we should be
good” Qudamah said, “The international market is full of sellers of all the
weapons we could ask for. And since we have the sympathy of much of the world,
some governments might even just give us a bunch of equipment for free, or at
least give them as a loan, since our organization does not have a lot of
money.”
“Gotta love the globalized 21st
century, right?” Jinan asked with a smile.
“Of course” Qudamah smiled back.
Ajib came walking inside the
warehouse.
“Your exploits are on the cover of
every single Israeli newspaper” he said, “Look.”
He threw down a newspaper at
Qudamah’s and Jinan’s feet. Jinan waited for Qudamah to translate it or at
least say something about it. He chuckled.
“Of course it calls us terrorists;
we weren’t expecting anything different” he said, “But it also says that the
couple we saved also took place in the attack. Apparently all 4 of us, two
terrorist couples, ambushed them.”
Jinan had to laugh. If she let
herself get mad at Israeli lies and propaganda, then she would always be angry.
There was no use in getting mad at something she couldn’t help.
“And it says all the settlers were
un-armed, just driving down the highway” Qudamah continued, “Oh, and it said
that an Israeli soldier tried pleading with you to stop before you shot him.”
“Right, was that before or after he
was kicking a woman in the back of the head while she was huddling in fear?”
Jinan sarcastically asked Qudamah, “Anyway, I’d better go out there and talk to
our new recruits.”
She motioned towards a few various
guns that she had separated from the rest.
“Can you gentlemen please carry
those for me? I’m just gonna show them a few of what we have.”
Ajib, eager to do practically
whatever Jinan told him to do, happily went over to get a couple while Qudamah,
rolling his eyes, grudgingly took the rest off of the concrete floor. The 3 walked out of the warehouse.
There were about 40 men waiting for
them outside. The morning sun shined brightly over the field as the 3 made
their way over to three chairs that were behind a table that was facing the
rows of men sitting in the chairs. After setting the weapons down on the table,
Qudamah and Ajib sat on either side of Jinan, who stayed standing up to talk to
the men.
“Okay, it’s 10 minutes past 10,
which 10 o’clock is when I said I would start, so, as to not be as late as
every other aspect of Arab society, I’d like to start now” Jinan joked.
Most of the men laughed.
“I’d like to thank each and every
one of you for coming to this meeting on such short notice” she continued,
“your promptness and eagerness shows your love for your Din, (religion), and
your country.”
She could tell just from facial
expressions of some of the men that they were confused that a woman was
addressing them and not Qudamah or Ajib. She could tell that a confrontation
would erupt, just like in the meeting in Gaza. But she didn’t want to bring it
up; she would wait for one of them to bring it up.
“I am Jinan al-Najjar, and I’ll be
leading this, orientation, if you will, to our brigade. As my political advisor
Qudamah told you yesterday, either by phone or through email, however he
contacted you, we are starting up the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, which has been
inactive ever since Fatah pursued the “peace process,” even though it is hardly
peaceful for us. As I’m sure you have heard by now, we are having national
elections on December 20th. We have much work to be done if we want
our brigade up and running to serve the new elected government.”
“However we are not going to
organize this brigade like a standard military brigade. We are going to
organize it like a guerrilla unit, because that is how we must fight if we get
attacked by the Israelis, because there is no way we can match them in open
conventional warfare. So that means we will be relying mostly on small arms and
small explosive devices. I have some weapons here that I hope will become
standardized according to what role you have in a unit.”
“I know many of you have fought with
the AK-47. It is a great rifle and has served us well. But it is outdated, and
we must move on to a newer assault rifle, at least as new as we can get while
still being able to buy a huge quantity of.”
She picked up an AK-74M that was
identical to her own, minus the custom painted flags of course.
“This is an upgrade to the AK-47,
the AK-74M. Made 17 years after the AK-47, this rifle is very maneuverable,
light, can be bought for a very cheap price, and can compete with the assault
rifles the Israelis use, which are mostly the TAR-21, M-4, M-16’, and Galil.
The rails also allow us to put on optics that will make it perform better in
combat. I know this will be something that many of you will have to adjust to,
because you are used to shooting AK-47’s that don’t have any optics at all,
just standard iron sights.”
The group of men was silent after
she paused. They were stunned that a woman would know so much about weaponry.
Not that Jinan presented a lot of information, it’s just they didn’t think a
woman would know anything about guns.
“You can pass it around, it’s fine,
it’s unloaded” Jinan said as she motioned to Ajib.
Ajib took the rifle and handed it to
the man who was sitting in the corner of the first row.
“Now, being a guerrilla organization,
our infantry are often pitted against vehicles, both on land and in the air,
without vehicular support of their own” Jinan continued, “that means our
anti-vehicle weapons are of the utmost importance. The rocket launcher of
choice for us has historically been the RPG-7. However that launcher has some
major drawbacks. It’s big and bulky to carry, and not that accurate over long
distances. I have something that remedies both of those.”
She pulled out a rocket launcher
that was only a meter long.
“This is a M72-LAW. As you can see
it’s a lot smaller and lighter than the RPG. This advantage cannot be
overstated because it is so crucial that our troops be able to move fast, in
tight spaces, and carry a lot of ammo.”
A man in the third row raised his
hand.
“Yes?” Jinan asked.
“The United States, who developed
that weapon, phased it out a while back, replacing it with the AT-4” The man
said, “Why aren’t we gonna use that instead?”
“What is your name, sir?” Jinan
asked.
“Ruwaid, ma’am” he said humbly.
“That is a very good question
Ruwaid. What you say is true. There are some missile launchers, such as the
AT-4 and RPG-29, which can shoot farther than the LAW and are more powerful.
However, they are much bigger than the LAW. I have found from personal combat
experience that I value maneuverability and the ability to conceal easily over
penetration and power.”
As soon as she said personal
combat experience most of the men started to murmur amongst one another.
“You’ve actually fought before?”
another man blurted out.
“Yes” Jinan replied in an irritated
voice, “I fought in the last Intifada and in the Iraqi insurgency for 3 years.”
This made the murmuring only louder.
“Now, if I may continue-“
“You’re lying!” yelled a man in the
back row.
“I’m sorry, were you with me my
entire life to see if I actually fought or not?” Jinan mockingly asked.
“I wouldn’t have needed to. You’re a
woman, you cannot fight.”
Jinan’s nostrils flared just like in
the meeting in Gaza.
“Here we go again” Qudamah
thought as he rolled his eyes.
“If I cannot fight, then you should
have no problem fighting me” Jinan challenged.
“Hmph! I do not hit women.”
“Yet you have no problem publically
insulting them. Okay, whatever, shut up.”
Many of the men laughed. They turned
around to see what the man in the back row would do next.
“Why are you letting her speak for
your organization man?” he asked as he pointed to Qudamah, “It’s obvious that
you are the leader of this brigade.”
“Who, me?” Qudamah asked, “No, I am
not the leader. As Jinan said earlier, I am her political advisor.”
“Why are you covering for her?”
“I’m not.”
“Sir, if you do not shut up and stop
wasting my time, I will have to ask you to leave these grounds” Jinan said, her
patience fading fast.
“Ha, like you could make me.”
Jinan started to walk towards him.
“Sir I would really advise that you
leave before she gets to you” Qudamah warned as Jinan walked down the rows,
“Seriously you do not know what you are getting yourself into to.”
The man ignored him as Jinan came
closer to him. Everyone was silent as all eyes were on the two. The man stood
up and smirked.
Jinan kicked him in the left calf,
and in his reaction he let up his guard on his face. She then followed up with
a punch to his right cheek, sending him sprawling to the ground. She picked up
the empty chair that he had been sitting in, folded it, and started slamming it
down on the back of his head. Everyone winced as the guy covered the back of
his head with his hands as Jinan slammed the chair down a second and third
time, the metal making a deafening BANG noise every time it slammed into
him.
After the third time, the man, still
lying on the ground, kicked out in a sweeping motion with his right foot. The kick
caught both of Jinan’s feet, causing them to flip out from under her. In panic
she let go of the chair, sending it flying up in the air while she went down.
She landed in the dirt on her butt, gasping in pain.
The man leaped onto her, and
wrestled with her for a few seconds. He grabbed her wrists as she struggled to
break free of his grasp. Now the spectators were alarmed at this; it was
natural for them to help a woman if she was being attacked. Some of them got up
out of their chairs or at least half got out, waiting to intervene if things
got any worse for Jinan.
“You’re gonna pay for that one,
bitch” the man snarled.
In a split second he let go of
Jinan’s right wrist and punched her in the mouth. Before she could do anything
else he had already grabbed her wrist again.
“Don’t count on it, asswipe” she
shot back.
She pulled up her feet under him,
and launched him over her, making him land behind her on his back. In the same
motion she jumped to her feet, while the man was struggling to get on his. His
face was exposed as he was using both of his hands to push himself upwards. But
before he could do that, Jinan let out a cry and kicked him as hard she could
in the face. She put so much power into it that she had to spin around on her
other foot to avoid falling to the ground. The man spun to the ground. When he
didn’t get up after a few seconds, Jinan realized that she had knocked him out
cold.
The other men were in complete
silence in shock. They could not believe what they had just seen. All except
for Qudamah, who had heard of Jinan doing similar things to men dozens of times
before. He could only smile.
Jinan spat out some blood in the
dirt, turned towards the crowd, and asked “Now, does anyone ELSE have a problem
with being led by a woman?”
[1]
Should be said with a deep opera voice.
[2]
Jinan was not Qudamah’s sister but since the two had known each other for so
long, Qudamah’s children called her Aunt.
[3]
Israel has hundreds of illegal settlements in the West Bank, completely built
and paid for by the government. Only Jews are allowed to live in these
settlements; no other person from any other religion is allowed to even visit
them. The government has built them in strategic areas in the West Bank to cut
off Palestinian villages from their farmland, water sources, and each
other.
[4] An
upgraded version of the AK-47.
