"Hamas Cannot Win without Women"

"The armed struggle was my dream. And my dream had become true. This was the moment I resumed my weapon. I was 24 years old when that photograph was taken. [...]"

This is Leyla Halid's answer to the question why she smiled on that famous photograph showing her with a machine gun. 66-year-old Halid is currently a member of the political office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"These are not your orange trees"

Halil was part of a plane hijacking in the beginning of the 1970s carried out to draw international attention to the Palestine question. She learnt about Palestine from her mother during her childhood.

"My family was forced to live abroad. When I reached out to an orange tree one day, my mother said, 'These oranges are not yours. Our orange trees are in Palestine'. She wanted to say that wherever you are, your home country is Palestine".

A basket full of dates...

Halid recently came to Istanbul as a jury member of a cartoon contest held in memory of the famous Palestinian illustrator Naci El Ali by the Association for Solidarity with the Palestine People. bianet asked her about her first childhood memories and she recalled a crucial incident that saved her and her family's lives:

"The first thing that jumps to my mind is a kitchen and a basket full of dates. My father had brought the dates. Our district was being bombed. When I heard that my mother was going to take us to Libya, I went hiding in the cupboard where the dates were kept to prevent the Israelis from having them. My mother called me but I did not answer. They were looking for me all over the house. A car was waiting outside to take us away. It was bombed just at that moment. Without the dates nobody might have survived..."

"We cannot afford to leave Hamas out"

During the years of her armed struggle she had the code name 'Halide'. Today the Hamas is heading the struggle with support of other Islamic circles. bianet asked Halid about her opinion.

"Palestine is a trial of humanity of the whole world, because it is a justified case. And it is important that the Islamic circles lay a claim to this issue. We do not have the luxury to decline the support of Hamas right now".

We are still at the stage of liberation so we are not too interested in the fact that the Hamas is an Islamic movement. There are ideological differences but we are in a war and we need to combine all forces of resistance. But we do not allow the oppression of either side in an independent situation".

"The attitude of Hamas impedes the progress of the women's struggle"

Halid is living in Jordan together with her husband and her two children. She criticized the attitude of Hamas against women and emphasized that a "struggle without women cannot be won".

"There is a huge inequality between men and women particularly based on the laws applied in the West Bank. The Hamas is trying to drag the women towards an Islamic society. But there is no way to win a struggle without women. This attitude of Hamas impedes the progress of the women's struggle against Israel".

"Erdoğan was annoyed by the Mavi Marmara incident"

Bianet also referred to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressing Israel when he said, "We say peace, we say justice, we say international law and we call a murder a murder if necessary". Was that a contribution to the struggle for Palestine? Halid replied:

"I think that Turkey started to see the reality in Palestine even though the country has a military agreement with Israel. Netanyahu does not want any other country in the region to gain strength apart from his own and he does not want Turkey either. This is one reason for Erdoğan's tough stance because he wants to be the strongest force in the region as well. Erdoğan was annoyed before the Palestine issue because of the Mavi Marmara incident".

280 illustrators from 40 different countries participated in the cartoon contest on the topic of "Palestine". "Naci El Ali was a person who was able to express a whole book in a caricature. The caricatures depict the Palestine issue better than many books", Halid hinted. (BT/VK)