In campaigning for the release of the #Filton10 its important to always keep focus on why they did what they did. The reason the #Filton10 disarmed an Israeli armaments research and production facility was to try to stop genocide in Gaza. During one year of ongoing genocide, we have see the counts of the dead and destruction rising everyday – over 40,000 slaughtered including over 17,000 children murdered, 84% of all hospitals and health care facilities destroyed or damaged, 93% of schools destroyed, 814 mosques and 3 churches destroyed, 173 journalists assassinated, over 750 teachers murdered, and on and on. After a while we become desensitised to it, the connection between the figures and the individual lives they represent are lost.
Sometimes it takes a single life to awaken us to what this genocide actually means. Yesterday (30th September 2024) was that wakeup call for me. The statistic for journalists killed went up from 173 to 174. But this time it was different. I knew this journalist – Wafa al-Udaini (Wafa Aludaini). She was a friend I had the privilege of knowing for many years. She had helped me on countless campaigns and in the process I had got to know her and through her, a glimpse of her family.
Every time we spoke I would always start by asking about the safety of her husband, I always assumed he was in more danger than her, and she also confided that she was most worried about him. But for the Israeli occupation forces women and children are as much a target as men, more so if they are journalists.
Israel Murders Journalists
Israel murders journalists. Just in August Wafa wrote about the assassination of an al Jazeera journalist Ismael Alghoul (at the time the 165th journalist killed since last October). Palestinian journalists at a press conference threw their Press vests to the ground in protest. If anything, any signage of being a journalist, rather than offer protection, was painting a bull’s eye on them for assassination. Another al Jazeera journalist, Anas Alsharif, received warning messages on his mobile to stop reporting on Israels systemic use of starvation in the north as a weapon in executing its genocide. When he ignored their threats, they bombed his home. He survived but his father was killed.
Wafa knew the dangers of her craft but also its importance, she wrote the “objective of targeting journalists, press facilities and banning the entry of international journalists is to stifle information and prevent the reality of the unfolding massacre from being broadcast to the world.” She was the voice of her people to the English speaking world, a voice the occupation wanted to extinguish.
Israel Bombs Wafa's Home
On Monday 30th September, as dawn was breaking, just after she would have offered her fajr prayers, they bombed her home in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. They murdered both her and her husband Munir, and her two youngest children – 7 month old baby boy Tamim, and 5 years old adorable daughter Balsam.
I remember she contacted me a week after Balsam was born – assistance with editing a piece she was writing. I asked her what Balsam meant as I had not heard of that name before. She said it was a common name in Gaza, it means “something soft”. She shared, that as her only daughter, Balsam was very special to her – something we had in common.
Her ‘special’ daughter was still alive when she was pulled out of the rubble. Part of her right leg had to amputated straight away, and she suffered multiple serious injures. Footage shows of her, barely recognisable, being treated on the hospital floor – every hospital in Gaza has been attacked by Israel, medical facilities are practically non-existent after one year of continuous onslaught. By morning her tiny “soft” body could no longer bear the pain and she joined her family as a martyr.
Wafa’s eldest two children – 7 years old Siraj and 9 years old Malek survived the attack, but with severe injuries.
Footage shows her eldest son Malek bearing bravely in agony with a large piece of shrapnel tearing through his left arm.
I recognised Malek from the moving video she proudly sent me of him performing on International Children’s Day 4 year’s ago.
At just 9 years old he is now the head of the family, charged with looking after his younger brother during a genocide. The meaning of his words from the video “all your armies, all your fighters, all your tanks, all your soldiers… against a boy, holding a stone, standing there all alone..” have added weight.
Another video shows Malek painting, his mother asks him why the sky in his painting is filled with an Israeli plane, he replied because its buzzing in my head.. they kill children.
It’s not clear yet whether they used a drone or an air strike to slaughter Wafa’s family, or if the armaments were produced by Elbit whose manufacturing facility was disarmed by the #Filton10, but what is clear is that her home and family were specifically targeted for elimination.
Wafa was dedicated to ensuring that the stories of her people are heard, that their voice, their narrative, isn’t extinguished. There is no freedom without a voice. That commitment to freedom for her people defined her life and ultimately sealed her fate.
Whilst this steadfast determination to ensuring her people are not silenced is what she will be remembered for, I personally will remember her for something more.
Trust in Allah
Once the subject of her niqab came up, I can’t remember the exact context but we were discussing how western NGOs are using aid as a channel to push western cultural values on traditional Palestinian society – essentially a form of cultural imperialism = the use of political and economic power to exalt and spread the values and habits of a foreign culture at the expense of a native culture. There were images circulating on social media of a French sponsored contemporary dance company, casting aside Palestine’s rich cultural heritage, and having young Palestinian teenagers dressed in revealing western costumes dancing on stage in Ramallah – something totally alien to Palestinian culture which values modesty. She understood that her niqab would hinder her career as a reporter but she refused to compromise her beliefs, for her it was about having trust in Allah.
It was this aspect that impressed me most about Wafa – her strong faith and unwavering trust in Allah in all things. This was especially visible in the last year, as the brutal occupation moved to open genocide.
In her final conversations, generously shared by her comrades at the 16th October Group – the media organisation she founded, she advises them not to worry, to have trust in Allah. All is from Allah, what is coming is better than what has gone. Whatever happens, in the end, Palestine will be free.
There is so much to learn from Wafa’s life. As Muslims we are all meant to have absolute trust in Allah, but in practice we often choose the easy option, rather than put our trust in Allah and do what is right.
At a micro-level we even see that in the campaign to free the #Filton10, and the wider support for Palestine Action. Out of fear, some reputable solidarity organisations and community organisations have not given them the support they need, and individually some in the community, whilst in their hearts agreeing with the actions of the #Filton10 in crippling Israel’s arms manufacturing plant, are afraid to offer them support and solidarity in case it brings imagined trouble for them or their families.
In one final conversation, when a friend from the 16th October Group, demoralised, says “our people are dying” Wafa quickly responds “At the end we all will die. It is for the sake of Allah.” She ends with the Quranic ayat “And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision” 3:169.
At Resistance Kitchen we mourn her death and honour her memory.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un – Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we return.
Other Interesting Posts:
“Let my best teacher see my painting” – 6 year old writes to HMP Bronzefield
Letter to HMP Bronzefield – Maltreatment of #Filton10
A Mothers Plea…
Free the #Filton10 – Unjustly Imprisoned for 67 Day
Unjustly Imprisoned For Two Months – #Filton10 Day 60
Teacher Joins Pupils In Writing To #Filton10
#Filton10 – Day 46
#Filton10 Preliminary Hearing
Unjustly Imprisoned For Over A Month – #Filton10 Day 32
#Filton10 : Day 25 – Imprisoned For Trying To Stop Genocide
Why is the Met running ‘off the books’ facial recognition surveillance of #Filton10 Palestine protest?
Solidarity with the #Filton10