Palestinians Suicide Martyrs (Istishhadiyin): Facts and Figures

Palestinians Suicide Martyrs (Istishhadiyin): Facts and Figures Los Martires Suicidas Palestinos (Istishhadiyin): Realidades y Numeros Abstract How beautiful for the splinters of my bones to be the response that blows the enemy up, not for the love of killing, but so we can live as other. We do not sing the songs of death, but recite the hymns of life. We die so that future generations may live. The suicide martyr (Istishhady) Mohammed Al-Ghoul, Jerusalem operation, 18 June 2002. I wish I had so many lives to avenge time and time again and respond to the many massacres and many insults perpetrated against the Palestinian people. The suicide martyr (Istishhady) Maher Habisheh, Haifa operation, 2 December 2001. The nation that masters the death industry is unbeatable. The suicide martyr (Istishhady) Fouad Al-Hourani, Jerusalem operation, 9 March 2002. We, the martyrs, may talk less, since we have realized that blood talks louder. The suicide martyr (Istishhady) Samer Shawahna, Hadera operation, 29 November 2001. What is the use of life if death chases us from all directions? We will go to it before it comes to us and revenge for our selves before we die. The female suicide martyr (Istishhadiya) Ayat Al-Akhras, Jerusalem operation, 29 March 2002. These are some of the words written in blood and light by the Palestinian suicide martyrs (Istishhadiyin) in their wills. The current thesis explores the Palestinian suicide martyrs (Istishhadiyin) and the martyrdom operations from the point of view of their families and relatives. The study has tackled the issue of martyrdom operations as a multi dimensional phenomenon addressed by both theoretical and applied researches. The thesis addressed a new social phenomenon which spread in the Palestinian society in all its groups, youth and social classes. The Palestinian suicide martyrs (Istishhadiyin) were able to implement two hundred qualitative martyrdom operations that rocked Israel and raised a large scale wave of reactions locally and internationally; they constituted a turning point in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; it is rare to find a similar phenomenon to this one with this huge number of Palestinian suicide martyrs in any other place in the world. They have their own psychological, social, religious and national features which qualified them to do this strategic action. Besides, the thesis focuses on identifying the main motives which drove the Palestinian youth to carry out such operations and the relationship between the emergence of these operations and Israeli crimes committed against the rights of the unarmed Palestinian people. To sum up, the current thesis is considered the first survey study of the Palestinian suicide martyrs (Istishhadiyin). It is expected that its results would add new scientific knowledge to its field in particular since it discusses a new and important topic in the history of Palestinian struggle. The thesis will be an important source of reference to those concerned in the area of martyrdom operations especially in the information it will reveal on the phenomenon, which crossed beyond the borders of Palestine to become a world phenomenon. The researcher in honored by this national duty to be the first performer of this duty within his own potentials as being one of the researchers of the topic of Palestinian suicide martyrs in a scientific survey. The suicide martyr (Istishhady) which crystallized in the field of the Palestinian struggle defined in the thesis as a Palestinian term with religious and popular significances given to the person who is with premeditation and full conscious fitted an explosive belt on his body, carried an explosive satchel bag or drove a suicide car bomb in order to cause a blast and harm among the enemy and did not have any chance of going out of it alive. It is important to separate the western concept of suicide from the Islamic concept martyrdom. The focus here is on martyrdom, the involves using one's death in a defense of one's holies, homeland, money and children by inflicting losses on an enemy, not on suicide which is the self-inflicted intentional act designed to end one's own life. This kind of Martyrdom is called for by the collective Palestinian mentality, and it is reinforced by the Palestinian societal culture; this is a social, respected and acceptable behavior since it is the title of sacrifice for the sake of others, lifting of injustice and regaining of Palestinian lands and rights.