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Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat, or Mariam Farahat (b. 1949, Shuja'iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip – d. March 17, 2013, Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories), more commonly known as Umm Nidal was a Palestinian activist popularly known by Palestinians as the "Mother of Martyrs" for her support for her sons' involvement in attacks against Israel. Three of her sons were members of Hamas killed killed by Israel after participating in terrorist activities and she was a close associate of the Hamas leadership for over 2 decades. She also was a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. Farhat was one of the most prominent Islamist female leaders in Palestine and became an icon of the Second Intifada.
Farhat was born in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City in 1949. She had six sons and a total of ten children. Her eldest son, Nidal, was one of the first manufacturers of the Qassam rocket and helped to make rockets for Hamas and was killed in February 2003 while preparing to conduct an attack. A third son Rawad died in 2005 in an Israeli airstrike on his car carrying Qassam rocket. Another son Wisam did time in an Israeli prison for attempting to kill Jews and was the mastermind behind various terrorist acts such as Atzmona Massacre and the Nahal Oz attack. Wisam was killed by the IDF.
In the 1990s, Farhat sheltered Hamas military leaders such as Emad Akel.
She came to public attention in 2002 after being filmed carrying a gun and advising her 17-year-old son Muhammad Farhat before his March 2002 suicide attack against Israeli civilians. Muhammad entered the Gaza Strip former settlement of Atzmona and opened fire and threw hand grenades at Israeli students enrolled in a pre-military school where they were studying to become army officers, killing five and wounding 23 others. After the attack, he was shot dead. After Muhammad's death, Farhat said she "wished [she] had 100 boys like Muhammad."
Farhat became known as "Khansa of Palestine", a reference to Al-Khansa (one of the companions of Muhammad), all four of whose sons were killed in the Battle of Qadisiyah. Umm Nidal got this title because of her great sacrifices - as in the Palestinian and Islamic culture - during the Second Intifada and before that, where her house was home to many prominent leaders of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, especially Emad Akel, who was assassinated in her home in 1993 by the Israel Defense Forces.
In an interview published in both the Israeli Arab weekly Kul al-Arab and the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Farhat (Umm Nidal) said she was proud of her sons. In her December 2005 interview, Farhat (Umm Nidal) said:
- "I protect my sons from defying Allah, or from choosing a path that would not please Allah. This is what I fear, when it comes to my sons. But as for sacrifice, Jihad for the sake of Allah, or performing the duty they were charged with - this makes me happy."
- (Referring to Israelis) "They are all occupiers. Besides, don't forget that they all serve in the army. They are all considered soldiers. They are all reserve soldiers."
- "They are all occupiers, and we must fight them by any legitimate means."
- "All means are legitimate as long as the occupation continues."
- "There is no difference. This is Islamic religious law. I don't invent anything. I follow Islamic religious law in this. A Muslim is very careful not to kill an innocent person, because he knows he would be destined to eternal Hell. So the issue is not at all simple. We rely on Islamic religious law when we say there is no prohibition on killing these people."
- "The word 'peace' does not mean the kind of peace we are experiencing. This peace is, in fact, surrender and a shameful disgrace. Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. When this is accomplished - if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards."
Farhat died on March 17, 2013, from multiple organ failure, in Gaza City. Her death was announced by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing. Her funeral was attended by 4,000 Palestinians, including top Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh.
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Mariam Farhat, Known as ‘Mother of Martyrs,’ Dies at 64
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Mariam Farahat in front of a poster showing three of her sons who died in attacks on Israel.
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: March 20, 2013
Mariam Farhat, a Palestinian lawmaker known as the “mother of martyrs” after three of her sons died in attacks against Israel, one of which was a suicide mission that she encouraged in a homemade video, died on Sunday in Gaza City. She was 64.
Hatem Moussa/Associated Press
Masked Hamas militants with the flagged-draped body of Mariam Farhat.
Ms. Farhat, who was also known as Umm Nidal, had liver and bowel diseases, according to the Web site of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Hamas movement, which announced her death.
A photograph on the site showed what was said to be Ms. Farhat’s body, wrapped in a Hamas flag, with an automatic weapon lying across it. Thousands of people, including top Hamas officials, attended her funeral on Sunday. The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke at a service in her honor, according to al-Qassam.
Ms. Farhat was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006. Four years earlier, her 17-year-old son, Mohammad, was shot to death after he stormed an Israeli settlement with an automatic rifle and explosives, killing five students. Shortly before the attack, Ms. Farhat made a video in which she appeared with Mohammad to show support for what he was about to do.
“I wish I had 100 boys like Mohammad,” she once said. “I’d sacrifice them for the sake of God.”
Two more of Ms. Farhat’s sons, Nidal and Rawad, were later killed in clashes with Israel.
“I brought them up to be martyrs,” she said in an interview with National Geographic Television several years ago, “to become martyrs for the name of Allah.”
Nidal Farhat helped make Hamas rockets that were used to bomb Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. When he died, he left behind a 4-year-old son, Imad. Ms. Farhat told The New York Times in 2004 that she had assured Imad that he would be reunited with his father.
“You will be a martyr one day,” Ms. Farhat said she had told Imad, “and then you will go and see your dad.”
Ms. Farhat was born in Gaza City in 1949. She had at least three other sons, one of whom, Wesam, served time in an Israeli prison. She was involved with Hamas well before her sons grew up.
The al-Qassam Web site said she had provided shelter and protection for prominent Hamas military leaders, including Emad Akel, who was killed in 1993 by Israeli forces.
Ms. Farhat had not been active in politics before she was elected to the legislative council, where she was one of six women among the party’s 74 representatives in 2006. She was popular among young women in Hamas, though she said that not all of them should try to emulate her.
“It is not only sacrificing sons,” she said in 2006. “There are different kinds of sacrifice — by money, by education. Everybody, according to their ability, should sacrifice.”
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