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Tell Us Why, Latifa

(Jerusalem Post) Isaac Herzog - Latifa Abu Thra'ar, 40, mother of seven, from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, was arrested last week after smuggling an explosive belt on behalf of a suicide bomber who planned to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Rosh Ha'ayin. Latifa relied on the fact that the Israel security forces do not usually perform body searches on women. If I had been one of her interrogators I would have asked her: "Latifa, why did you do it? Didn't you think for one moment of the mothers like you who were liable to lose their lives because of you? And the children like yours who could have been permanently crippled or been blown to pieces?" "Even worse, because of you and others like you, our soldiers will be forced from now on to examine every Palestinian woman and regard her as a security risk....Your innocent friends, on their way to the doctor or visiting their families, will pay the price of your act at the checkpoints." Latifa returns me and others like me to cruel reality. For lack of an alternative, and since no one will do it in our place, we shall continue to make life tough for them in order to save our own lives.
2003-12-17 00:00:00
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