Russian women's Mid-East divide

Many Russian women met Palestinian men as students

By Natasha Mozgovaya News Online Russian service in Jerusalem

Natasha, a Russian-born Israeli, crosses an army checkpoint in search of Russian-born Palestinian women.

Today there are about 600 Russian women living in the Palestinian territories, plus a few dozen from Ukraine and about 60 from Belarus.

Last year there were 100 Palestinian students in Russian universities, 700 in Ukraine and about 70 in Belarus.

Many of them come back home with "trophy" wives.

I didn't marry a religion or a people, I married a wonderful man. Nobody promised us a paradise here

Tatyana Ivanchuk

Each Palestinian-Russian family has at least two children, so soon the Palestinian territories could have as many blue-eyed kids as Israel.

There are 52 Russian-Palestinian families in the area of Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahur.

About a month ago, the Russian wife of a Palestinian drove a suicide bomber from the Dheysheh refugee camp to Rishon-le-Tzion.

Two Israelis killed in that attack were also from Russia.

"She is not one of us," protest other Russian wives of Palestinians gathered in the house of Irina Abu Dayeh (nee Safonova) in Beit Jala.

"She emigrated to Israel, not to Palestine. She has nothing to do with us. We all married our husbands back home, we all have university degrees.

"We made our voices heard only once, during a demonstration by foreign wives of Palestinians, under the slogan 'We don't want our children to die'," they say.

'Define terrorists'

I ask them: "Nevertheless, the Gilo area of Israel is regularly shelled and shot at from Beit Jala. Have you seen terrorists around here?"

"Why do you call them terrorists?" Tatyana El Hittib (nee Listopad) asks indignantly.

"How is a Palestinian, fighting for the liberation of his own land, any different from World War II partisans who were fighting against German occupation - except that the partisans were receiving medals?"

"Yes," I reply. "But partisans were blowing up soldiers while Palestinians are methodically blowing up women and children."

Feelings run high after a spate of suicide attacks

"If we had tanks and planes, our army would be fighting with your army," says Tatyana. "But we Palestinians have only our bodies.

"I am concerned about the Jewish children, but I am not sure that even a single Jew had pity on pregnant Palestinian women who were stopped at the Israeli checkpoint on the way to the hospital and died there," she adds.

"We are not teaching hate to our children. We are as frightened as you when they start drawing pictures of war, when they can recognise from the sound of shooting which weapon is being used."

Young men mourned

"What about things like portraits of suicide bombers in schools?" I ask.

"That is a memory of people who committed an act of heroism," says Irina Abu Dayeh.

"We too get sad when beautiful young men, future bridegrooms for our daughters, are being killed."

Tatyana recalls when the Israelis occupied Ramallah and imposed a curfew.

"I had only 50 shekels in my pocket because we were out of work for a year and half already," she says.

"We were allowed to leave the house for a couple of hours every third day, as if we were animals in the zoo.

Russian wives say no-one promised them paradise

"I had a toothache, but couldn't leave the house so I was just climbing the walls with the pain."

Tatyana said she laughed when she heard of the Israeli plans to build a security fence between Israel and parts of the West Bank to thwart suicide bombers.

"When will your politicians finally understand that this will not help?" she asks.

"When will your politicians understand the same?" I reply.

The women reply almost in unison: "Let husbands deal with politics."

I ask them if they knew where they were going when they left Russia.

Tatyana Ivanchuk says: "I didn't marry a religion or a people, I married a wonderful man. Nobody promised us a paradise here.

"When I asked my husband how will we live here he just said, 'We will put up a tent and you will be selling watermelons'."

None of the women were forced to sell watermelons. The majority can only envy the lifestyle of the Russian wives of the Palestinian elite.

Everyday problems

"What do you miss most here?" I ask. "A normal life," says Alena Rashmawi (nee Kalashnikova), from St Petersburg.

"Last week I was trying to get to the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to renew my passport.

"At the Israeli checkpoint a Russian-speaking soldier told me: 'If you are married to an Arab, a Russian passport will not help you. Your husband is a terrorist and you are the same'."

Tatyana Al Hittib says she misses her family in Russia but it can now take eight hours to get to the airport.

"All this exhausts you so much, that every time I plan to visit my mother in Russia, I just say - Mama, let's do it next year."