The story of Mariam Abu Dagga, a 33 -year -old freelance journalist killed in an Israeli raid in Gaza, is enclosed in two elements: a camera stained with blood and a letter. The first testifies to his profession, practiced until the last instant. The second, addressed to the thirteen -year -old son Ghaith, became a spiritual testament that has passed the boundaries of the strip, moving the world.
Mariam is one of the five victims among information operators in the attack which, on August 25, hit the Nasser hospital of Khan Youunis. Before dying, he left his son, evacuated for almost two years, words that I am a hymn to life.
Ghaith, your mother’s heart and soul, it is you. I ask you not to cry for me, but to pray for me – reads the letter. And again – I want you to keep your head high, that you study, that you are brilliant and distinct … When you grow up, you will get married and you will have a daughter, call it Moriam like me.
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A message whose echo has been amplified on social networks by activists, including Patrick Zaki. “Words that break the heart”, wrote Zaki, “a mother who, under the bombs, thinks only of the dignity, happiness and the future of her son”. The activist then offered a deeper reading of the Sacrifice of Mariam, inserting it in a gender context: “With an intersectional gender lens, we must remember that the risks ran by men are not comparable to those who face journalist women: exposed to violence, threats and double sacrifices. Mariam remains a symbol of free female courage and voice, which today flies in the skies together with Shireen Abu. Akleh “.
Estimated professional, Mariam Abu Dagga collaborated with international newspapers such as the Associated Press and Independent Arabia, who described it as an example of “rare honesty and courage”. His career had begun under the sign of a personal tragedy: in 2018, while documented the great march of the return, he had filmed the death of a protester, discovering only later that it was his brother. Despite this, and despite the loss of the mother and a dear colleague during the current conflict, he never stopped telling.
A massacre of journalists also
The chronicle of the attack is ruthless. According to the reconstructions, two rapid succession shots hit the Nasser hospital. Mariam, together with other colleagues, was rushing to the first explosion site when it was hit by the second. Mohammed Salama (recovery operator for Al Jazeera), Hussam Al-Masri (collaborator Reuters), Moz Abu Taha (Videoreporter) and Ahmad Abu Aziz (collaborator of Quds Feed) died with her. Their death updates a dramatic balance: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 197 operators of the media killed since the beginning of the war, including 189 Palestinians, an unprecedented number in modern conflicts.
Organizations as reporter without borders have asked for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the protection of journalists, whose voices from Gaza are fundamental since the international press is actually prevented from accessing.
The story of Moriam Abu Dagga thus becomes emblematic of a double tragedy: that of a war that does not spare civilians and that of a free press under attack. His last desire, entrusted to that letter, remains the final act of a mother who has transformed her pain into a legacy of hope.
Ghaith, you are the heart and soul of your mother.
I ask you to pray for me and not to cry, so that I can rest in peace.
Make me proud working hard, having success in your studies and becoming a young man capable and realized. Stop building a future for yourself, to become a respected businessman.
My dear, never forget me. Everything I did was to see you happy, at ease and made.
And when it is time, when you get married and you will have a daughter, please call it Moriam, like me.
You are my love, my strength, my pride and my joy. Always bring with dignity and make your actions honor my memory.
More importantly, Ghaith: never neglect your prayers. Your prayers are your strength.
With all my love,
Your Mother, Mariam.
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