Last October, in the early hours of the morning, a young expectant mother called Fatima Abed-Rabo awoke with intense labour pains; and she and her husband Nasser set out in a friend’s car for the hospital in Bethlehem, in Israeli occupied Palestine.
The couple had been trying for a second child for three years and had undergone fertility treatment. “The news of the pregnancy had made us so happy,” said Nasser, “that we celebrated by replacing the tin sheeting on our home with a concrete roof.”
The couple were stopped at the Israeli military roadblock just outside their village. The soldiers turned them back, even though Fatima was now haemorrhaging. They got a taxi, hoping that would be allowed through. Again, they were turned back. No explanation was given; one soldier mimicked Fatima’s moans.
Fatima gave birth to her baby in the taxi. She remembers the soldiers hurling her husband’s ID into the blood on the floor.
“We cut the umbilical cord with a razor blade,” she said. “My husband wrapped the tiny boy in his jacket, and eventually one of his relatives found a back route.”
— source johnpilger.com | John Pilger | 16 Sep 2002