Suicide Bombing
Nasser Laham
Maan News, Bethlehem Television
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“ [The Palestinians] hear [about a suicide attack] from all of the Arab and Muslim media, who will tell about a hero, a martyr, who committed suicide in the center of Tel Aviv, and about a triumph over Israeli security. If they listen to my translation, they will hear a story and not figures. They won’t just hear numbers - “Eighteen Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing at the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv” - rather, they will hear that these are people who went dancing, they will hear about this pretty girl, and look at her photo. They’ll get a story and it has an impact. We have a story, and they have a story.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ali Abu Awwad
Bereaved Families Forum, Al Tareek (The Way)
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“ The reason for the failure of the previous peace attempts is that they weren’t implemented on the ground, not because the Palestinians don’t want peace. All the Palestinians want peace, even those who carry out suicide bombings. I am sure they want peace, but they have reached a stage in which their lives are of no value. I think this is because there is no peace. If there were peace life would have a value. There would be games for the children, employment and opportunities. While there is no peace, there will be no life.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Michal Eskenazi
Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation
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“ It always comes down to suicide attacks. I was shocked to hear people tell me to my face that they were in favor of them! This was during Operation Defensive Shield or maybe later, in March 2004, at the peak of the second intifada – at least I hope that was its peak. Initially no one actually said it, but in the middle of a conversation it was finally voiced and the people who said it were people I had sat with over coffee the night before, talking about life. I understand the complexity. There is a reason a person will say this-- it's because of social pressure. Some people came to the conference before telling or not intending to tell their community they were going to meet with Israelis. I know I should appreciate that they came.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yoa'ad Shbita
Building Bridges for Peace, Reut-Sedaka
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“ I am against bombing, against killing civilians, but I have no right telling anyone not to do it. I know where it comes from [...] It's more important for me to try and trace what this person has been through. Most people who do it don't just wind up there just because they see the army's in their city. They get there out of desperation. A person thinks, "I want to die," and brings himself to die, that's not an easy thing. So yes, I am afraid;” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ester Golan
Interfaith Encounter Association
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“ [For] many, for the younger generation, all they know about Palestinians are the suicide bombers who kill us, I'm not surprised that they [Israelis] don't like them. It just doesn't surprise me. You know, many of the school children go to school by bus, [but] their parents stop letting them go by bus. Is that a normal situation? That you are scared to go to school by bus because you may not come home, you may be blown up? So I can't even blame those children for hating the Arabs, because they can't go to play football when they want, they can't go out to visit their friends by themselves. Life in Israel has become very restricted.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Riyad Faraj
Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum
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“ We have Palestinians that are not sensible as well. I don't want to tell you that the occupation is the only reason, and I don't want to call a person who blows himself up a terrorist. There are reasons for why he does what he does. For example, he may go home to find his mother or his brother killed -- that is a motivation. Of course it's wrong and I don't support it, and in the end that is what caused the occupation.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
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“ We believe that demolishing the house of a terrorist's family, a family who is innocent, is a collective punishment that is forbidden. A family shouldn't take the blame for a son who went the wrong way. If you mean emotionally - how I approach the house demolition of a man who has eight children and cleans for the municipality and how I approach the demolition of the house of a terrorist's family, I admit I have a certain problem, emotionally speaking. I was asked to appeal the demolition of the house belonging to the suicide bomber who blew up Frank Sinatra cafeteria in the middle of the Mount Scopus campus, in the university's cafeteria. I couldn't make the same effort, put up the same fight for it as I would for an innocent person's house. I know people who were killed in that bombing. It touched me personally. The Committee Against House Demolitions doesn't differentiate between instances though.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Tzvika Shahak
Association for the Commemoration of Bat-Chen Shahak, Bereaved Families Forum
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“ I believe [the suicide bomber] was drugged; his mind was drugged. We need to deal with people who drug minds - clergy members, people who incite violence, those who preach it. A person who took explosives and went to blow himself up is simply weak in character, like a drug addict who can easily be influenced. I pity such a person.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Tzvika Shahak
Association for the Commemoration of Bat-Chen Shahak, Bereaved Families Forum
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“ The day before there had been a suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem and [my daughter and her friends] were scared to take the bus, so they took a taxi to Dizengoff Center. The taxi got them there 15 minutes early. At 3:45, as they crossed the street, a suicide bomber crossed their path and detonated himself, killing himself in the process. He was a young guy, an art student, a resident of Gaza. He murdered 13 people; among them, Bat-Chen.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree
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“ What I can say is that we make their lives hell. The trees are simply left there for all to see, testament to Israel's murderous policies. An olive tree feeds a child for a whole year and once you take it, he dies! Dies or becomes a terrorist. Don't ask later what made a twelve year-old child go and explode at a checkpoint. Don't ask where he came from.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel
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“ How do you explain that it's because of all the suffering that these kids were recruited [to carry out suicide bombings], that you have to understand their allegiances and Palestinian allegiances? How do you explain this to people in Ofra or even to any Likudnik at this point? They say that's bullshit, they don't want to hear it, and there's something to be said for that. They don't want to hear about anybody who's going to justify blood spilling-random blood spilling-like in terrorist bombings.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Gila Svirsky
Coalition of Women for Peace, Women in Black
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“ We [the Women's Coalition for a Just Peace] do not in any sense justify suicide bombing or terrorism, or violence of any sort, not by us and not by them. We certainly understand that and, I speak for myself, I understand that Israel has to defend itself. I know Israel has enemies. I would understand Israel building a wall to protect itself even though I don't agree that it's the best way to go about protecting itself. But the need for a wall does not mean that you go about building it in the territory of the other party. It just inflames the situation even more.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ayelet Shahak
Association for the Commemoration of Bat-Chen Shahak, Bereaved Families Forum
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“ Our daughter Bat-Chen was killed by a suicide bomber in Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv in 1996, exactly on her 15th birthday, according to the Hebrew calendar. She was born on Purim and she was killed on Purim. The doubly happy day of Bat-Chen's birthday and Purim, which is the happiest holiday, has become a very sad day. For us Purim is when fate got turned upside down. There is no more Purim at home. Instead of sending mishloach manot and receiving mishloach manot, our friends bring us memorial cakes. Ofri and Yaela do not wear costumes and do not go to parties, although Yaela, in the past two years has begun to go to parties. Ofri still has not. This period of Purim is hard.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ali Abu Awwad
Bereaved Families Forum, Al Tareek (The Way)
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“ Why do the extremists carry out explosions? They carry out explosions because they want to convey that they are suffering, to an extent that life and death have the same value. We talk in order to exploit the suffering in a more efficient way. Our work presents a greater danger to the Israeli state. An Israeli general said that nonviolence is the most dangerous weapon possessed by the Palestinians, because it undermines all the excuses for the occupation and the legitimacy they claim to have when destroying a house or assassinating someone.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway
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“ Several people I've known have been killed in suicide bombings [...] One guy was an Israeli Vipasana Buddhist meditator, Alon Goldenberg, a hippy guy with dreadlocks I used to dance with. He was on a bus in Wadi Arah, and he was killed by a suicide bomber. I went to sit with his parents in Yaffo. His father is a fisherman. After two hours of talking about Alon and his life and everything they had gone through, they said, "So by the way, what kind of work do you do?" To be honest I felt kind of ashamed in that context to say I work with Arabs, with Palestinians, for peace and understanding. I didn't know what his father thought. A year later we met again at the unveiling of Alon's tombstone at the cemetery near Tel Aviv. As we were standing over Alon's grave, his father asked, "Eliyahu, are you still working with the Arabs?" I said, "Yeah," and I thought, "Okay, here it comes, what's he going to say, and over his son's grave, too." He said these words that I hold with me to this day, that I think of when you ask if I get discouraged. He said, "Eliyahu, I'm counting on you."” [Source in Complete Interview]
Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace
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“ Clearly it’s because a person fought, sacrificed their best years, some people became officers, some are pilots, fighters in elite units, all sorts of quality units. In Israel it is a well known fact that this entitles you to respect and high positions; some people move up and they are the people who are running the country. Clearly the army is central in Israel, and whoever was a combat soldier allegedly has more to say about security and about the conflict. I think this perception is shared more or a less in both societies, which are aggressive. We haven’t got a female Minister of Defense, or someone who hasn’t serve in the military.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Majed Tbeileh
Nablus Youth Federation, The Future Generation Hands Committee
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“ Today there is awareness about the Palestinian situation around the world. This happened despite the Israeli efforts to limit media coverage to bombings. But I think that those bombings helped the Palestinian people; those didn’t happen out of the blue. The Palestinians have succeeded in influencing the Israelis to the extent that they want to withdraw from the 1967 areas so that the bombings will stop. There are means that we should use as Palestinians. I never reject or condemn the nationalist and military operations or call them terrorism. In fact, it is the opposite. I call these operations heroic because they forced the Israelis to recognize the borders of 1967. This is an issue I am not willing to yield on. I still think that we should hold meetings and dialogue with the Israelis and the rest of the world. This might sound like a contradiction.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ofer Shinar
Independent advisor and researcher in Transitional Justice, former consultant to the Bereaved Families' Forum
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“ I cannot describe the experience of hearing a suicide attack; to hear it- it's the worst thing that can happen to you. My girlfriend lives in Jerusalem and I really am very fearful for her life.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace
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“ ...We view the Palestinians and ourselves as having fought for useless things. We struggle for security but simultaneously prevent it; they are struggling for a state but the suicide attacks prevent that; we are in transition to a state of refraining from violence. We don’t use the term terrorist in our group anymore; we talk about people who took part in the violent struggle.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
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“ People say, "but there will be suicide bombings," and I can't promise them that there won't be suicide attacks on buses. I can promise them though that if we don't reach a solution, thousands of terrorists will detonate bombs in the streets of Jerusalem. That's clear to me. There is no wall that can prevent that, no targeted killings or checkpoints either; people who are motivated to do such a thing will slip by easily. I can't promise that there won't be suicide bombings or that there will be peace, yet I can assure you that if we don't reach a solution there will be unprecedented bloodshed.” [Source in Complete Interview]
