Farewell Maha Nassar

Obituary of a National Progressive Activist Leader
Our Comrade Maha Nassar… The shining star in the sky of Palestine

With pride and honor, the Society of Palestinian Women's Committees announces the demise of its president, the irreplaceable progressive activist, our Comrade Maha Nassar (Um Wadee'), who has passed away today, Friday Oct. 10th 2008, at the age of 54 years.

With the death of the Comrade Maha Nassar, the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Women's Movement, inside and outside the country, has lost a courageous, fearless, guevaric, and leftist struggler, who has always attached words to actions, and who has always been in the front rows. She's always been known for her complete bias towards the poor and her absolute belief in the women's right in full equality. She's never surrendered even in the most difficult missions, nor has she ever hesitated, not for a second, even during the hardest and most glooming situations.

Her actions have always preceded her words, same as Shadia Abu Ghazaleh and Dalal Al Moghrabi and all Palestinian women martyrs. She's always been a stubborn fighter in the investigation basements, and never said a word; only hanging in there and fighting…in the different struggling fields…inside and outside Palestine, inciting on revolution and planting awareness and rebellion wherever she was.

Our Palestinian people have known her in the first and second Intifada, as she's always stood in the front rows of the strugglers against the Israeli occupation. She's also been known as a fighter in the women's rows as an exceptional leader, and has stayed until her last minute, during her struggle with cancer, loyal to the bloods of the martyrs and their sacrifices, and to our people's just goals towards freedom, return and self determination.

Maha is leaving, and we in the Society of Palestinian Women's Committees, are so much in need for her creative energy and her geuvaric revolutionist soul. However, our solace comes from the fact that "Um Wadee'" will always stay alive among us, through her great values that she has incorporated throughout her life, her deep belief in the justice of our national cause, her dedication to her work as a president to this Union, her bounding geuvaric soul, and her courageousness, prowess and leftist belief.

The shining star in the sky of Palestine is leaving, at the time where our people are so much in need for her caring for the national unity; she has always done her best to put an end to the separation status and to reunite the people and country, and so, as part of our loyalty to the woman whose biggest obsession was the country and its freedom, let's get back the unity to the people and country.

1. Comrade Maha was born in the Old City of Jerusalem, on June 10th 1954, after her parents were displaced from Qatmoun Neighborhood in West Jerusalem as a result of Al Nakba in the year 1948.
2. She studied in "Khawla Bint Al Azwar" school in Jerusalem, then in "Al Ummah" College, then "Al Ma'mouniyah", and finally in Ramallah Secondary School for Girls, and served in the Orthodox charity shelter in Al Eizariyeh as a volunteer.
3. She studied in Birzeit University, where her major was in Physics, and was one of the first people who founded the Popular Front Organization in this dignified university, which contributed to the foundation of the first volunteer work committee in the university, and was finally elected as the Secretary of the students' council in 1974.
• She worked as a physics teacher in the Evangelical Lutheran School of Hope until she resigned and dedicated her time to women work. She got her masters degree in Woman Studies.
• She was arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities more than once when she studied in university, after she graduated, and throughout her national activity. She has also been subjected to house arrest and home confinement.
• She contributed to the foundation of the Society of Palestinian Women's Committees in 1980, elected as its president in 1994, and was reelected twice afterwards.
• She contributed to the formation of the Highest Woman Council as one arm of the big Intifada arms in 1987.
• Comrade Maha also contributed to raising the voice of Palestine high through her wide and distinguished relations with the liberal and progressive forces around the world. She also received the prize of the Progressive Woman Struggler (Pasionaria) from the Unified Leftist Spanish Organization.
• The Comrade was known for her rigidness, initiatives, her high leading characteristics, and her dedicated readiness for struggle. She was also known for her modesty and caring for a direct relationship with the Women Bases.
• A member in the Administrative Assembly of the General Union of Palestinian Woman and a member in the Administrative Assembly of the Woman's Affairs Technical Committee.
• Married with four children.
Glory and loyalty to you, our Leader Comrade
You will always remain among us as a never ending revolution

Society of Palestinian Women's Committees