Failed Stabbing Of Soldier Botches Chance For Dramatic Marriage Proposal

A friend filmed the episode from a distance.

Ofer Prison, November 7 – A Palestinian whose attempt to kill an IDF trooper, and to use the excitement of the moment to ask his girlfriend to marry him, fell short of its objective when the soldier avoided the attack and disarmed him, depriving the man of the opportunity to see his plan through.

Watda Farouq, 22, sought to stab an Israeli soldier manning a crossing point of the Green Line, with the intention of creating a dramatic, emotional scene that he could parlay into a marriage proposal. He had arranged for his romantic partner Reem Jabb. 19, to arrive at the checkpoint moments before the attack, while a friend filmed the episode from a distance. However, Farouq failed to account for the precautions the IDF has implemented since the “stabbing Intifada” began several years ago, and found himself lying on the ground without his knife, and without his would-be-fiancée.

“I had it all planned out,” lamented the day laborer. “I was going to kill a Jewish pig soldier, and propose over the body. I even got permission from Reem’s family to do this. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen – I know I might get some money from the Palestinian Authority for my actions, though it won’t be so much because I didn’t even draw blood, but I don’t know if Reem’s family will still be okay with marrying me. Even if they are, I’ll still have to find work, because the monthly payments for those who don’t manage to kill Jews are much lower than for those who do.”

In retrospect, Farouq realized his plan’s flaws. “I should have realized I wouldn’t even get a chance to propose,” he conceded. “There would be other soldiers around who wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to get down on one knee and pop the question. But I was so drunk on the propaganda we get fed in Palestinian media – that Jews are cowards, that they’ll run away if we get violent enough – that I didn’t stop to think straight. I mean, we’ve been killing Jews for a hundred years and there are more of them here now than there ever were. They don’t seem to be going anywhere. I suppose I could have found a plan with fewer shortcomings.”

A date for Farouq’s trial for attempted murder has yet to be set; he remains in custody until he is either acquitted, or released following a prison sentence. In the meantime, he hopes his would-be fiancée does not fall for someone with better terrorism-planning skills than he. “I know there’s a Hamas guy around the corner from her childhood home who would love to propose over an exploded Israeli bus,” he acknowledged with a shake of his head. “I guess I have to hope a ‘work accident’ prevents him from doing so.”

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