BETWEEN DAHARIYA AND BEERSHEBA
For 10 months, Noa knew almost every alley in Dahariya. Her relationship with Abed, a 26 y.o. construction worker, started when she was 16. A young girl from a needy, dysfunctional home in Beersheba. Abed came with more Arabs from the village to work in renovations for a construction project, two blocks from the tenement where Noa lived. Like most of these relationships, this one, too, started from nothing, she passed by the construction site, and she suddenly heard somebody calling out to her: “Hi, beautiful”. Noa turned around, and that was the first time she saw Abed. She was a bit flustered, she smiled and continued on her way, but her heart was warming up. Who has complimented her lately, or ever, that she’s beautiful?
When she passed by there two days later, that was already half on purpose, i.e., she was supposed to walk by in that area anyway, but she decided to go that way there. Maybe she would get a compliment again. How could that not happen, Abed was there again. He sat down on a bench during his work break. This time, he offered to sit together with her for an ice cream. Noa agreed. They went together to the nearby shop. She chose, Abed paid. Noa was in the clouds. She told Abed a little about herself, about her life. “I’ll take care of everything for you, don’t worry”, he told her. They exchanged phone numbers. And here, the connection between them was being woven. They started meeting every week. Abed continued to sprinkle gifts and love on her, and even rented an apartment of her own for her in Beersheba.
What more can she need? For 3 years they were just friends, and then Abed informed her that he wants to get married. They got married, and Noa became a full-fledged resident of Dahariya. In Abed’s case, the rate of his change in attitude towards Noa was not gradual; it was a sharp change, of 180 degrees. A day after the wedding, the curses and the violence started. “Dirty Jew”, “Who loves you at all”, he slapped her. Noa quietly absorbed the violence for a full month. At the end of the month, Noa made her first call to Lehava. She still did not want to leave, but she did want to hear a voice that supported her. She told about her meeting Abed, but did not cooperate with the practical steps.
Even after she already had Muhammed, their first-born son, she still didn’t want to leave there, but agreed to come for a meeting at the barricade. She would always arrive pale-faced, with signs of violence on her body. She spoke little, kept quiet a lot, with a lot of despair in her eyes. That’s the way it was for 5 years, until the tragic end.
At the end of 2019, Noa came to the barricade for another meeting with counselors from Lehava. She looked really terrified, but she refused to say why.
The meeting ended painfully, as usual, but this was also the last meeting. She did not answer the phone or messages for her for a week. The police were updated, and a few days later she was found dead in the apartment Abed had rented for her in Beersheba.
The wound opened up by Noa’s sudden death had still not healed, when the next battle began: She left a 5 y.o. son behind, named Muhammed. Because of Abed’s violence, the court appointed Noa’s parents as Muhammed’s guardians. But Abed is not giving up. He wants Muhammed with him. The parents insist on keeping Muhammed with them and raising him as a Jewish child, but Abed embarked on a legal battle so that Muhammed would grow up with him as a Muslim boy.
The Lehava organization put at the parents’ disposal a lawyer who is an expert on family law, and we are devotedly following up on this case. Another case, one of hundreds, in which the fate of a Jewish boy’s identity would be decided.
Be our partners in saving the children: 074-7871390 | WhatsApp 058-5437398 | Or Google “Lehava donations”. To report incidents or cases: 079-9130000 #2 | www.leava.co.il
