Young Palestinian patriot cut down by

Israeli bullet

Mahmoud Alayan
Budour Youssef Hassan
31 December 2015
Mahmoud Alayan was a Fatah party supporter and an active member of its campus
chapter at his school.

He was also an implacable opponent of the status quo in occupied territory to which a
Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority clings.
The Israeli occupation, he insisted, had to be confronted. And so he did, in defiance of
his own leadership and an authority that has invested heavily in preventing
confrontations with the army.
That defiance ultimately cost him his life. He was fatally wounded by a rubber-coated
steel bullet fired by Israeli soldiers at a demonstration in November near the Beit El
settlement outside al-Bireh, a West Bank town contiguous with neighboring Ramallah,
seat of the PA.
Over the past week, the PA has been dispersing violently at times demonstrators
trying to march on the checkpoint near the Beit El settlement, home to the Civil
Administration, the bureaucratic arm of Israels military occupation.
The PA had recently allowed demonstrations in the area, a departure from previous
policy, not wishing to itself become the target of growing Palestinian frustrations.
The generation to which Mahmoud Alayan belongs born after the Oslo
agreement signed by Israel and thePalestine Liberation Organization, leading to the
creation of the PA is disillusioned with decades of peace talks that have not slowed
Israeli colonization and violence.
The youth instead opt for confrontation. And for those who align themselves with the
Fatah movement, founded by the late Yasser Arafat, this means breaking away from
party leadership.
Rock in hand
Alayan, 19, was a constant presence at the Beit El protests. He was injured, rock in
hand, on 11 November the anniversary of Arafats death during confrontations
outside the settlement. A fellow protester carried him away before Israeli soldiers
could seize him. He was transferred with a wound to the head to a Ramallah
hospital.
Alayan was an active member of Fatahs youth wing at the Modern University College
in Ramallah, where he was a third-year nursing student.
True, he is affiliated with Fatah but he also believes that the Palestinian leadership

has failed the people, his mother, Nadhmiyeh, told The Electronic Intifada.
He grew increasingly disillusioned with the Palestinian Authority and has publicly
expressed that, including on the day of his injury, during an event honoring the late
Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, she added.
A day after he was injured, Alayan was transferred from Ramallah to an Israeli hospital
in Tel Aviv.
I knew that his situation was critical and that nothing short of a miracle would keep
him alive. Doctors also warned me that should he survive, he will likely be
permanently disabled. But I also had hope, his mother recalled.
Those eight days he spent in the hospital felt longer and more arduous than the whole
10 years we spent waiting for him to come into to this world, she added.
Bright future
Mahmoud was born on 18 February 1996 after more than a decade of fertility
treatment, and after Nadhmiyeh and her husband Said nearly lost hope of ever having
kids.
Nadhmiyeh said that the birth of her first child was the happiest day of her life.
They marked his birthday this year with a surprise party for Mahmoud, whose future
looked bright he was due to graduate in a year and start practicing the job that he
learned to love most.
My life already feels empty without him and I cannot even contemplate the idea of us
not celebrating his 20th birthday together, Nadhmiyeh said. I miss him asking me to
cook lasagna, his favorite dish, and I will surely miss seeing him slice his birthday cake
next year.
Born and raised in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Anata, Mahmoud had initially
hoped to study information technology but was persuaded by an uncle to pursue
nursing.
He had all the qualities that would make him an admired nurse: he was always quick
to help those in need; he was kind-hearted and treated everyone with respect and
tenderness, said his aunt, Huda Abd al-Baqi.

Palestinian youths confront Israeli occupation forces near Beit El on 11 November.

Mahmoud Alayan was fatally wounded during the protest.
Shadi HatemAPA images
Mahmouds 18-year-old brother Muhammad, who studies in Jordan, came back to
Palestine immediately after learning of his brothers injury and remained by his side.
But Marwa, Mahmouds 16-year-old sister and the person closest to him, could not
summon the fortitude to see him in coma.
I only saw him after his death, when he was taken to the Ramallah hospital morgue,
she said, struggling to maintain composure.
Mahmoud was my best friend. I counted on him to keep my secrets and give me
advice. I would tell him things that I wouldnt even vouch to my mother, Marwa
added.

Mahmoud was the kindest brother in the world, added younger sister Muna.
Massive funeral
Alayan was pronounced dead on the evening of 19 November.
He fought to stay alive until his last breath, his mother said.
Thousands from Anata, Shuafat refugee camp and other Jerusalem neighborhoods
attended Alayans funeral the following day.
The massive funeral was no surprise, Faisal Rifai, a friend of Alayan and a journalism
student at Modern University College, told The Electronic Intifada.
Mahmoud was a very active and popular guy He always helped organize actions to
commemorate anniversaries such as Land Day, the Nakba, the intifadas, etcetera,
Rifai said.
Whenever there was a political action at college, you know that Mahmoud was one of
those behind it.
Mahmoud was also active off campus. He regularly attended anti-occupation protests
well before the latest uprising.
Ive never seen him as animated as he had been since October, his mother said,
referring to the ongoing escalated confrontations with Israeli occupation forces. He
believed that it was up to this young generation to act in order to protect Jerusalem
and al-Aqsa mosque.
Mahmoud was not yet 7 when his father died after a long battle with cancer. His
fathers premature death meant that his mother became his main reference point.
Since he was a kid, he accompanied her when running errands. He helped her harvest
their olives, clean the house and fulfill social obligations such as going to funerals and
weddings.
It was she who instilled in him the obligation to resist the Israeli occupation and stand
up for Palestinian rights.
I always talked to Mahmoud, even while he was in my womb, Nadhmiyeh said. I
told him that he has to be strong and courageous and make up for all the years that

had gone by while waiting for him.

Nadhmiyeh is proud of her son, but cannot help feel a measure of regret.
I wish I could have locked him up at home and prevented him from going that day,
Nadhmiyeh said.
She is doing her best to conceal her pain and appear strong because her young
daughters would otherwise collapse, Nadhmiyehs sister, Huda, said. She cannot
afford to look weak, but her loss is too big for words.
Nadhmiyeh said that two things have kept her going after losing the son she tried for
years to bring into the world: her faith in God and her conviction that Mahmoud lost
his life on the front lines of a just cause.
Others clearly have the same conviction. Whatever their political persuasions, the
youth keep streaming to Beit El and other locations. Theirs is not just a confrontation
with occupation.
Increasingly, it is a confrontation with what they see as a subservient Palestinian
Authority.
Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian writer and law graduate based in occupied
Jerusalem. Blog:budourhassan.wordpress.com. Twitter: @Budour48
Posted by Thavam