• Source: Shadia Abu Ghazaleh

Shadia Abu Ghazaleh (Arabic: شادية أبو غزالة; 8 January 1949 – 28 November 1968) was a Palestinian political activist. After completing her studies, she joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and was one of the first Palestinian women to take up arms against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. She died in an accidental explosion, while preparing a bomb in her home in Nablus. Since her death, she has been regarded as a martyr in Palestine and is considered a terrorist in Israel.




Biography


Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was born on 8 January 1949, in the Palestinian city of Nablus, in the West Bank. She received an education at the Fatimid School for Girls in Nablus, and later at the Al-Aishiyah School. While she was still in school, in the early 1960s, she joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM).
Upon graduating from school, in 1966, she moved to Cairo, where she studied sociology and psychology at Ain Shams University for a year. Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, she returned to Palestine, despite her family's attempts to dissuade her. She moved back to her hometown of Nablus, where she completed her education at An-Najah National University.
She joined the nascent Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which had been founded by former members of the ANM. She quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the leading figures in the organisation. She was one of the first women to participate in the Palestinian militant resistance to the occupation. She organised and led women's units, and took part in a number of military operations against the occupation. By participating directly in armed action, she broke from traditional gender roles which restricted women to the role of caregiver. A lover of poetry, she often sang the lyrics: "If I fall, my comrade in arms, please take my place."
On 28 November 1968, she began manufacturing a bomb in her home, which she planned to use to blow up an Israeli building in Tel Aviv. She died after the bomb accidentally detonated.




Legacy


As the first Palestinian woman to be killed while resisting the Israeli occupation, Abu Ghazaleh is considered a martyr by the Palestinian nationalist movement. She has also been regarded as a terrorist by Israeli sources.
Abu Ghazaleh has frequently been cited as an example of women's participation in armed struggle against the State of Israel; she has been listed alongside other Palestinian militant women, including Dalal Mughrabi and Leila Khaled. Khaled herself even adopted Abu Ghazaleh's name as her nom de guerre. A portrait of Abu Ghazaleh is kept in the offices of the South African socialist organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo, alongside the portraits of several other revolutionary figures.
In early 2014, a new secondary school for Palestinian girls was named after Abu Ghazaleh; the Israeli organisations Arutz Sheva and Palestinian Media Watch claimed it to be a promotion of terrorism by the Palestinian authorities. One Palestinian student at the school held Abu Ghazaleh to be a "model of the wonderful Palestinian fighter" and said that they "follow her path in this school". In December 2023, the school was the site of a massacre reportedly carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.




References






Bibliography

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