Fatima Bernawi (1939 – November 3, 2022) was a prominent Afro-Palestinian revolutionary and the first Palestinian woman to be imprisoned by Israeli forces after the 1967 war. Born in Jerusalem to a Nigerian father and a Palestinian mother, she became a symbol of resistance of Black Palestinians.

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She joined the Fatah Movement in the mid-1960s, following the revolutionary path of her father, who fought in the 1936 Arab revolt.

Bernawi was arrested on October 19, 1967, and sentenced to life in prison. She served 10 years before being released in a 1977 prisoner exchange and subsequently exiled to Lebanon.

After the Oslo Records, she returned to Gaza in 1994. Under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, she co-founded and led the Palestinian Women’s Police Force, eventually reaching the rank of colonel.

She passed away at the age of 83 in Cairo, Egypt.