Nidal Izziden Fattash
This is a story of an amazing bittersweet twist of fate, of a mother's love for her son and how she stepped in to save his dreams in a system designed to crush Palestinians.
On May 23, Israeli forces stormed the dormitory of An-Najah University in Nablus. They arrested Nidal Izziden Fattash, a graduate student, hours before he was due to present his master's thesis to the university committee. He had just completed his project at 2 am.
Nidal's mother, a school principal, had helped her son throughout his MA degree, and knew the subject of his research well.
"It had been three weeks since I’d seen Nidal, he had been engaged and busy working on his final project which forced him to stay at the university in Nablus. I kept in touch with him through Facebook and phone calls," she said.
After finding out about his arrest, Nidal's mother headed to work with thoughts racing through her head.
After consulting with the university administration and several teachers, she decided to represent her son by presenting his final MA project to the university committee.
With a confident voice and sheer determination, Nidal's mother discussed her son's final project and answered all of the committee's questions on the subject.
She was later told by the university that Nidal had passed his presentation and successfully obtained his MA degree.
"I did this for Nidal in revenge against the Israeli occupation, who tried to crush my son’s happiness, and to deliver a message to the whole world that there is a strong Palestinian will which can't be conquered," she said.
Nidal Izziden Fattash is still being detained by Israel's military occupation authorities. The charges against him are unknown.
I would like to congratulate Nidal on his master's degree.
Let's hope Israel releases him shortly. Arresting someone hours before finalizing a dream that takes years of study and effort to achieve seems particularly cruel and heartless. But it is what we've come to expect from this military occupation.
Thank you annie. With all the depressing reality reported on this site, this one is quite up-lifting. After reading this story, I came to the following conclusion: OMG, Zionisms is doomed!
As selfish as this sounds, I do occasionally thank my lucky stars that Herzl didn’t go for Uganda.
thanks abu malia. i cried while i was drafting it, absorbing his mother’s words.
also visualizing her driving to work, furious and with intent. contacting the school..all of these things while comprehending her son in jail..for no reason. possibly being tortured.
Yes, Annie; pretty hard to bring tears to these old eyes.
Annie, Crying proves you have a soul and care. Palestinians just need people to care about their ongoing plight. They have never asked for anymore than that. Contrary to how the zionists portray them not one I correspond with plays the victim and a common theme of theirs is “there is always tomorrow” (saber). A more patient and noble bunch of people you will never find.
RE: “Arresting someone hours before finalizing a dream that takes years of study and effort to achieve seems particularly cruel and heartless. But it is what we’ve come to expect from this military occupation.” ~ Annie Robbins
FROM ALISTAIR CROOKE, London Review of Books, 03/03/11:
SOURCE – link to lrb.co.uk
FROM WIKIPEDIA [Learned helplessness]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
We teach life, sir!
hey refaat, if not for your tweet i may have missed this amazing story. thank you once again.
It seems and has seemed to me that the one word that best describes Israeli attitudes and behavior vis-à-vis Palestinians is: SADISM. What’s wrong with us that we tolerate and encourage this behanior? If Israel were a person, it would long ago have been confined to a psychiatric institution because it is a danger to itself and to others. Brava, Annie Robbins, for this inspiring account!
I’d take eljays rape victim analogy and give it a twist – everybody knows the perpetrators father is the chief of police, he’s destroyed evidence that could imprison his son, the neighborhood all know what went down, the family won’t move away but turn their hate on the victims family and the neighbors (who are worried about their own daughters). Palestinians remind them of their crimes just by existing.
Same sort of thing with the person who cajoles and wheedles a loan from a friend with no intention of repaying it, they’ll proceed to blacken the name of their benefactor around and about to make themselves feel better about their misdeeds, even though they’re telling lies. That’s why Israel tries to destroy the futures of young men and women like this, their deck of cards only has the joker that calls the lie ‘no smoke without fire’ (when they also started the damn fires of course!).
Spiteful, mendacious and vindictive as well as brutal bullies.
diana, i actually used a derivative of that word in the last sentence in my post. it didn’t quite make it thru the editorial process. (can you hear the big sucking sound between ‘this’ and ‘military’?)
just sayin’, we think alike.
This accomplishment, against great odds, makes the day taste like tears. So many questions remain unanswered for him, and for all other Palestinians who strive for higher education. After all the hard work and family support, this young man is still imprisoned without charges. Will he be able to pursue work in his chosen field? Further academic degrees? Will he be able to study and/or work abroad to broaden his scope?
What of the others like him? The young people of Gaza? Where will the next generation of educated people, of doctors, lawyers, lawmakers come from if they are being thwarted at every turn by the occupation?
Young Palestinians deserve a future with the capability for human thriving available to them.
makes the day taste like tears
i know, that is why i called it bittersweet. according to ma’an his thesis was ” on the socio-economic factors that affect the choice of degree subject for undergraduate students.” i can imagine how it would be very difficult to study in your chosen field knowing you may never have the opportunity to practice in that field. but they keep moving forward. i was amazed at how educated (how many degrees) so many of the palestinians i met had, in both gaza and the WB. certainly more educated than myself and much more drive.
are you the Karen DeVito from the Canadian Boat to Gaza?
Annie, you don’t miss much do you? Yes, I am.
My mother is a religious Christian/Hindu (I know it’s weird). She said she gave up eating certain foods for religious reasons. She’s effectively a vegetarian. She is very religious and more so as she gets older. When I see these things happening in Palestine, while I’m thousands of miles away, I want to pray for your safety.
I want to pray for you but I’m not religious. It just doesn’t feel right for me to do it because I don’t believe but in my ‘heart’/soul I want nothing but the best for your son, even though I don’t know him…or you.
Sometimes I wonder why this issue has struck a cord with me so deeply as it has. I was just driving to class one day and turned on the radio. It was 2006. The summer I think. The Lebanon War. That’s how it began. Then I read Chomsky. Watched his debates with Buckley and Pearle. Then read Understanding Power. Then moved on to Finkelstein. I wasn’t political. I knew nothing about Muslims or Jews or Israel or Palestine. But I was typically left-leaning. It was just by osmosis that I would be open to other lifestyles/cultures/sexual orientations/etc. so Leftist politics were always going to be my niche.
Anyways, whoever you are – this atheist will pray for you. I feel powerless sometimes and as I get older (I’m still in my 20s, so I can’t complain really) I, getting more cynical with our political and cultural ‘economy’. The world really is grey.
All the best to your son.