Interview with Milad Ayyash’s sister

Editor Palestine Monitor/17 May 2011

Some have called him the first martyr of the Third Intifada. Milad Ayyash, who was shot to death last Friday, 13 May—two days before the anniversary of the 63rd Palestinian Nakba—was 17 when he died. His sister told Palestine Monitor that on the day he died, Milad woke early to spray-paint on a wall outside his house, “Palestine is Free on May 15th.”

Gathering outside of Milad’s home for his funeral procession. Photo taken from silwanic.net

Milad was shot near the settler house, “Beit Yonaton,” in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud by a settler security guard. According to reports, after a Molotov cocktail had been hurled into the building, someone from inside pulled out a rifle and shot Malid within 20-30 meters. According to his family, friends and neighbors after Milad was shot, the Israeli army fired tear gas, smothering Milad and his friends and stalling Milad from getting to the hospital for an extra thirty minutes.

After three operations at the Al-Mukassad Hospital, Milad succumbed to the gun-shot.

Palestine Monitor spoke with one of Milad two sisters, Waed Ayyash, 24, in the Ayyash home in Ras al-Amud. Four days after her brother’s death, Waed says everything still feels like a dream.

Palestine Monitor: Tell us about Milad.

Waed Ayyash: He was a naughty boy when he was young. He was strong and not afraid of anything. He didn’t like school, he didn’t have a goal in his life, but he loved Silwan so much. He wrote on his facebook wall before he left the house on Friday that he wanted to die or have freedom. His favorite word was “dandara,” which means upside down, he wanted to make everything here, in Palestine, go upside down.

He told me four days before he died, “It’s near.” He told me that on the 15th of May, you will see. I asked him, ‘You will make Palestine free?’ And he said, “No, I will make it dandara.’

PM: What did Milad do on Friday morning?

WA: He woke early from sleep, he never wakes early, and wrote “Palestine is free on May 15th on the wall outside.”

Before he died he gave his neighbor his shisha and said take care of my girlfriend, mother and gave him one of his t-shirts. He invited all his friends on Friday for a big breakfast, falafel and hummus.

He seemed to know that he will die on this day.

He was always wore his hat and wouldn’t go anywhere without it. If he didn’t have his hat on, our mother would ask—‘Where is your hat.’

But when he was shot, his hat fell off and he shouted, “My hat, my hat! Bring me my hat!” Because he knew that his mom would want his hat.

PM: How was Milad involved with Silwan? What did he think about the occupation?

WA: He always loved Silwan—there are many problems here and he would always watch what happened between Israelis and Palestinians, he would always watch.

My uncle has been in prison for 25 years for shooting two Israelis during the First Intifada. My dad was also in jail for ten years—he was put in prison in 1975 and the Israeli soldiers told his family that he had died. It took them several months before they found out he was alive in an Israeli prison.

Milad is very young and the things that happened to my uncle and my father is inside him. But we are a normal family, we don’t talk a lot about these things, but because of that we can’t believe what happened.

PM: What happened on Friday?

WA: A settler guard from the big house shot him, his friends tried to hold him but they [Israeli soldiers] shot so much tear gas. Milad was lying on the ground, his friends tried to hold him but they couldn’t because of the gas. Thirty minutes after, they took him to the hospital. He had been bleeding for thirty minutes before he got there. His mother said all his blood is for Palestine and only a little blood left on his trousers for his mother.

They shot him with a “dum dum.” They haven’t used these bullets since the Second Intifada—they usually only use tear gas and rubber bullets here.

PM: What was Milad’s funeral like?

WA: His funeral was very huge—maybe 2000 people came as we marched from our home to Al Asqsa Mosque. Also in Egypt they made for him a funeral. People from all over Jerusalem came—but only from Jerusalem. We have family in the West Bank who could not come because the Israelis don’t let them come here.

PM: What will your family do now?

WA: We will try to sue the man who killed Milad. The Israeli army is telling us they don’t know who shot the bullet, but they know, of course they know. When Samer Sahan was killed last September, the man who killed him stayed in jail for only two weeks.

Milad is buried in Salawneh Cemetery in Bab Al-Rahma. Photo taken from silwanic.net

URL du billet: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1817