Muna Salem Mansour

Zajel interviews Muna Salem mansour, the martyr Jamal mansour’s wife, nominated for the coming legislative council elections.
A member of the Islamic faction-Hamas.


Introduction:
My name is Muna Saleh Zakka, born in Nablus on the 18th of November 1961. I finished my high school in Nablus and graduated from An-Najah National University gaining a Bachelor degree in Physics. After graduating I worked as a teacher in Jordan at the Islamic Community College of Zarka. Following this I returned to Nablus, and worked as a teacher for nine years in several schools around Nablus and its surrounding villages.

I am also a member of the administrative board of Juthoor Cultural Center in Nablus, and I fill the position of treasurer. I am also a member in various other societies. I’ve been involved in social work for almost 25 years, from the time I was a student.

Concerning political work, I started being politically active from a young age and which developed as I grew older, especially when I married my husband, the martyr Jamal Mansoor. I was his companion in almost everything… in lectures and workshops, and his main supporter on different occasions especially when he was arrested by the Israelis and deported to Southern Lebanon in Marj Al-Zuhoor.

I am also an activist in defending the detainees, deportees and martyrs families rights, I always try to bring their demands to different authority levels.


Questions:

- What factors caused you to enter politics within the Hamas coalition?

I truly believe that Hamas can be this nation’s hope and future, especially as it holds the slogan of Al-Islam Huwa Al Hal, Islam is the solution. I think we tried several other ideologies but only received sufferance and troubles; the injustice is growing and the unemployment is increasing, chaos, bribes and insecurity is spreading, that’s why I find Hamas the party and ideology which is organized, thoughtful, loyal, and responsible, through Hamas only I can find myself and be part of my people to help them and ease their pain and sufferance, it is through this movement which proves their honesty and their desire to do nothing but help its people and satisfy God.

- Do you think that being a woman is a problem for a politician in an Arab country?

Yes, I think so especially as our society is a male dominated society, it’s a society that has its own customs, traditions and special perspective towards women, mostly seeing her role in staying home, but Islam honoured her and gave her all her rights and gave special commands regarding her.

Women’s confidence in our society needs rebuilding and much care made to put it on the right track. This can be achieved through educating her and raising the awareness of her role and her political rights.

- What has been the main requests you’ve received from the Palestinian women you’ve met during public meetings?

§ The main demand I heard from women was helping them in finding appropriate job opportunities for their husbands and themselves so that they can be able to support their families especially in this critical economical situation.
§ The second request is so much related to the first one, women asking for help to find ways through which they can pay tuition fees for their children The economic situation of some families forces them to send just one of their children to university.
§ Another demand was, employees working in different fields or ministries to raise the salaries to help them obtain decent living conditions

- Being a woman with Hamas, for an average Italian, sounds like a paradox. Would you explain to us in which way you plan to improve women’s condition in Palestine according to Islamic principles?

This Sound Strange to me, anybody who knows Hamas would know that it’s a civilized and open minded movement, its developing according to the different circumstances. Its constitution is the Holy Quran and its path and ideology is Islam which honours woman, gives her a high level of respect and fulfils all her rights. Her political rights means that she has the right to express her different opinions, to vote and compete in elections…etc, Islam also guaranteed her rights to education, work and inheritance… what wasted women rights isn’t Islam it’s the society we live in. Concerning what can be done to improve her conditions, that’s a lot of things, first the woman is a partner in building and development, in fighting and resisting for our country and a partner on all levels. To include her in that her constitutional rights must be emphasized and help must be given to allow her practice her economical, social and political role, her awareness must be raised and her Islamic based personality must be strengthened.

An important issue is also increasing the number of social and voluntary societies to involve women more in civil institutional work and give her the possibility of obtaining high job positions but also stabilizing her family situations, through:
1- developing regulations related to family stability and ensuring the right of women to maternity and child care.
2- to insure needed support for families who loose their homes or have family members arrested or harassed by occupation authorities.
3- Providing suitable health care by establishing clinics and developing the already existing hospitals or health care centers.
4- protecting women from any kind of abuse and respecting her femininity by preventing the use of her body in commercials or any kind of illegal business.


- Which are the main things you believe must be changed (or the main mistakes made) in the latest policies followed by Abu Mazen and Fatah?

As a citizen living in this Palestinian society which sacrificed and suffered a lot from occupation, I consider it my right to be a partner in the decision making process, especially that the previous government was dominated by one Palestinian faction, Fateh, according to its own vision which overlooked the Palestinian people’s ambitions represented by different factions.

In my opinion Fateh movement cause a big gap in the body of the Palestinian population, particularly as it accepted American and Israeli conditions which are extremely below our ambitions and don’t suite people’s sacrifices and perspectives.

- Do you think that Hamas have gained popular support mostly because of the split inside Fatah, or instead, because of its concrete support by the people?

Hamas is not a party that climbs on other parties’ weaknesses; it doesn’t use the splits inside any party and doesn’t dance on other people’s pain.

What made Hamas gain this support and popularity is its strong and brave positions, and its noble attitude towards its people and their cause, it sacrificed some of its best leaders for the cause and always stood along the people and their problems, regardless to their political affiliation, it is not hypocritical, and is offering her hand to all Palestinians.

It gained its popularity from its stubbornness on Palestinian principles and insisting on their rights. Now people are surrounding it because they feel that development and change will be achieved by it.


- How is the Hamas solidarity dealt with in your town?

The more support Hamas gets the more we feel responsibil. Hamas was launched to help its people and we feel we are going to be questioned before God on how we dealt with this responsibility.


- How would you describe the current situation of security forces in Gaza Strip?

I think that the situation in Gaza, the insecurity and the last vandalizing attempts have been done by opponents that don’t want us to have fair and organized elections.
If they tried to deny that, it’s clear to us what the truth is.
Here I want to show you this image; if that corruption and insecurity is caused by Hammas would the Palestinian authority and the government remain silent or without any action against it?
Or it would use all its facilities and effort to stop it?
The insecurity in Gaza Strip can be easily stopped if the responsible bodies had the intent.


- Which kind of outcome do you expect from Israel and from the international community in case Hamas would get a good result in the next elections? Would they give up with the armed struggle?

The Israeli reaction will be obvious towards Hamas’ success in the legislative council elections, but they will not be able to hold that position for long and they will have to accept them at the legislative council when they win the elections. After all the elections, who controls the government is a Palestinian internal affaire and no one has the right to interfere.
Concerning the resistance, Hamas was clear when it announced that they won’t stop it till the Palestinians receive their stolen rights and an end the occupation, with the slogan “a hand to build and a hand to fight”

- What do you think would be Hamas’ attitude towards Israel and the Road Map in that case?

Hamas has a belief that the agreements with Israel will bring nothing but the destruction, oppression and more stolen Palestinian rights, as we all know during the last 10 years the Palestinian authority was committed to the agreements while Israel didn’t commit to any.
Israel only understands the language which expelled it from South Lebanon, Gaza and hopefully from the west Bank.

- What do you think about the forecast made by agents from the Shin Beth, according to whom if Hamas win the elections, the day after there would be a massive attack from the Occupied Territories to Israel?

Hamas is not a country with an army, it’s a resistance movement that tries to use all the means in order to expel the occupation, and if what they were expecting is true, Hamas won’t wait to win the elections to carry that out.

- Do you feel that the people in Palestine still want a secular state, or that Hamas is getting more and more support just because a component of Palestinian society, which asks for a religious government, is growing?

Who calls for a secular Palestine are few and do not represent the people, Hamas is a supported Islamic faction. The Palestinians are Muslims deep in their belief and identity, the people go for Hams because it represents their moral and religious tendencies.

- I read that your husband used to say “be afraid of accepting occupation”. Do you feel that Palestinians are resigned to occupation as a matter of fact or that they are losing faith on the power of politics to change things?

First I would like to correct, my husband’s saying –peace upon his soul- It was in response to my question “do you fear assassination?” “I don’t fear assassination but I fear accepting the occupation”.
To answer your question, the Palestinians can’t accept the occupation as a reality; also they lost the belief in the Palestinian Authority’s ability to change the situation through their peaceful solutions.
And because they believe that Hamas is their savour now, they tend to it more and more, we have a clear policy which never gave up any of their rights easily.
Our rights as Palestinians can’t be retrieved with the insufficient political solutions which serve only Israel and some politicians; Hamas’ vision is that our rights are only retrieved through the resistance.