Dr. Alex Grobman is a historian and author of The Palestinian Right To Israel (Balfour Books, 2010). He co-authored “Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened And Why Do They Say It?” (University of California Press, 2000). His newest book is License to Murder: The Enduring Threat of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
“Naila and the Uprising,” a controversial film produced by Just Vision, is about the role ostensibly played by Palestinian Arab women in the first intifada. According to the producers, who are “a team of human rights advocates, journalists, and filmmakers,” their goal “is to contribute to fostering peace and an end to the occupation by rendering Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders more visible, valued and influential in their efforts.”
In reality, the film is another attempt to defame Israel as the aggressor and an occupier of Arab lands. In contrast, the objective of the article below is to briefly outline the role of Palestinian Arab women as suicide bombers, and their position during the first intifada.
Women have been involved in terrorist activities in a number of countries including Algiers, Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Nigeria, West Africa, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Peru, Jordan, Pakistan, Japan, Syria, Russia and Turkey. Terrorist organizations, including ISIS, began using women once they realized they were far better able to evade detection than men.
Palestinian Arabs believed women would be less likely to be stopped at checkpoints or be subjected to meticulous security searches, and their participation increased the ability of terrorist organizations to succeed in mounting an attack. [1] In an attempt to deceive the Israeli military, some terrorists initially used fake ID cards, particularly Red Crescent ID’s. [2]
The young terrorists did whatever is required “to blend in” to get near to as many people as possible to blow them up or maim them. From a description of the first intifada:
