Dalal al-Sabagh

She was 23 years old when they shot her. By some accounts she was on her rooftop, hanging her wash. When CNN ran the story, they mistook her surname as "Shihadeh", and I had to wonder if the reporter was confusing her name with the word "شهيدة", which is the feminized version of the word for "martyr".

Dalal al-Sabagh's story gets translated into English only at the end, and, even then, poorly. She lived in Jenin with her three children. Her oldest child, Ahmed, was 4 when his mother was killed. Mumen was 3. Hiba, her daughter, was 40 days old. On March 9th, 2004, she was shot and killed by "random" fire by Israeli troops. Initially the IDF denied responsibility, and by the time the truth was known the media had moved on to the death of Islamic Jihad and Hamas leaders. A search of LexisNexus for all major news outlets for the entire month of March brings up only two articles, BBC transcripts of Israeli and Palestinian radio broadcasts. A few lefty, pro-Palestine blogs spoke of her, but, by and large, her life and death went without notice by much of America.

If you look at the article on CNN.com, a few things should stand out. The article's subject (right above the headline) is "Palestinian militants". While this might initially have been due to the denial of responsibility by the IDF and the accusations made, it was 7 years ago, and neither her name nor the cause of her death was ever corrected by CNN. The New York Times mentions a raid on militants in Jenin from the 9th of March, but only in the context of how it will negatively affect peace talks.

Does it matter how the media remembers Dalal al-Sabagh, or, more accurately, how they forget her? I think, as I read so much about Wafa Idris, as I sift through the pages and pages of intimate details reported about her, I can't help but notice that Palestinians who take up arms (or strap on explosives) are spoken of in English-language news, while those who die hanging their wash, or riding their bikes, or even protesting peacefully, are rarely mentioned.

So while I study Wafa Idris, while I try to understand the desperation and the anger that led to her death, I will also remember Dalal al-Sabagh. It won't bring her back, or help her three children who have to grow up without her, but it feels like the least any of us can do.