Arab martyrs not madmen

Palestinian suicide bombers aren't typical suicide victims. They are not depressed. The 'terrorist' in Israel is the 'martyr' and hero in the Palestinian territories.

THE Israelis may label them as terrorists, but Palestinians laud them as martyrs, and young men, galvanised by a heady mix of religion and patriotism, are jostling to get in the doors of Islamist organisations in Gaza City.

Perfectly integrated into society, they are mostly young and university graduates, but rarely fathers. They certainly have nothing to do with "ordinary" suicides.

"These people do not have to be depressed to die," explained Iyad Zaqout, a psychiatrist at the Gaza Mental Health Programme, a non-governmental organisation created in 1990.

"Their act is more of an altruistic suicide because they feel that what they're doing is good for the rest of society," said the doctor, comparing them to Japanese kamikaze pilots in World War 2 and Buddhist monks in Vietnam who committed self-immolation.

The opinion of others counts for a lot in Palestinian society, which never hesitates to glorify and reward its heroes.

Once indoctrinated by radical Islamic groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, "they think only of killing by going to Israel and they forget their own death", said analyst Ziad Abu Amr, a specialist in Islamic subjects.

Just before detonating their explosive-laden belts or emptying a Kalishnikov assault rifle at passers-by, these "human bombs" enter a kind of trance.

"They're not drugged," said Zaqout, "or else they would not be able to pass military checkpoints. But they only think of their actions: to kill people and to destroy.

"They are not afraid. Some witnesses have even seen them smile. All their normal emotions become like they're numbed."

After the attack, the identity of these "human bombs" is quickly revealed.

It is the moment that the "terrorist" in Israel becomes a "martyr" in the Palestinian territories.

His portrait appears on walls. His family is interviewed on television.

"When I came back from work on March 2, 2000, lots of journalists were waiting at my home," said Yassin Abu Ayad, a blind father of nine children in a refugee camp in Gaza City.

"That was how I learned that my 24-year-old son, a graduate in management, had become a martyr in Ramallah."

At the time, the elderly man had disapproved of the intentions of his son, who was killed by the Israelis while he was preparing an attack.

"It was the intifada then," he said. But now he sees things differently. "I would urge not only my son to do this, but all Palestinians."

Candidates for suicide attacks are often seen at funerals for the "martyrs," all dressed in white, including a hood, pledging their readiness to die and enter paradise where, they are promised, 70 young virgins are waiting for them.

"The armed wing of the Hamas movement has no problems recruiting," Abu Amr said. "The mosques are filled to the top, and every day they repeat a litany of sufferings facing Palestine. To kill oneself has become both a religious and patriotic act.

"Moreover," said the analyst, "Islamic movements all around the world are suppressed.

In Palestine, in contrast, Hamas has legitimacy, which gives it a spokesman's role. By exploding oneself for this cause, the martyr knows all the Muslim world is watching him."

Suicide operations have cost the lives of more than 200 Israelis since 1994, the vast majority of them unsuspecting civilians killed in buses, on streets and in markets, restaurants and discos. -- Sapa-AFP