Palestinian Women and Children in the Throes of Islamikaze Terrorism Part II

           By Raphael Israeli

 

 

               2^ND PART OF 4

 

The Debate over Women

 

We have thus a new situation in which terrorism by Islamikaze, though hitherto solely the trade-mark of Muslim radicals, and rarely at that for the daring few, has become since 11 September an acknowledged universal and common modus operandi in and by Muslim societies, as a mind-boggling comment  of displeasure about domestic or international politics. On September 11 alone, 19 self-sacrificing young  Muslims died  in the US; and since, about one hundred Palestinian terrorists died in the same fashion, taking with them the lives of hundreds of Israelis. The cross-over from an extreme and unusual act  to a current and routine way of action, not only necessitated the widening of the circle of volunteers within Palestinian ranks, but also engendered a new attitude towards the participation of women and children in this sort of battle. Hitherto, Muslim clerics have frowned upon active military service of women in any of the Muslim countries, and the heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have reserved for their women the role of educators and "manufacturers of men"^[1]. The current cross-gender and cross-national universalization of  Islamikaze terrorism, however, has widely opened the door towards banalization and routinization of this stunning phenomenon. Because what it takes from now on is not a trained, strong-willed  and resolute fighter, with high physical skills, battle-field experience, endurance under stress and technical sophistication, but only a common person, male or female, adult or a child, indoctrinated and eager to die for Allah, who knows how to push a button and evaporate instantly into Paradise, while pushing his victims and their loved ones into Hell.

 

The debate surrounding the "martyrdom" of Wafa Idris, the first Palestinian woman Islamikaze, who has been followed by others since, is in itself indicative of the new mood.  Arafat's "al-Aqsa Brigades", took responsibility for Wafa's explosion in the central street of  Jerusalem in January 2002, killing one woman and maiming dozens of others. Much of the initial debate went over her motivations to sacrifice herself, citing personal difficulties^[2]. But  when  fellow Palestinians began to justify her act, quoting the precedents of other renowned Palestinian women-fighters, like Laila Khalid, and predicting that more women might follow suit^[3], the religious aspect of it all broke into the open. Hamas leaders said that Jihad was an obligation that applied to women also, and that Islam had never differentiated between men and women in the battlefield, based on a precedent of the Prophet who used to draw lots among women who wished to join the battle^[4]. Jamila Shanti, the Head of the Women's Activities of the Palestinian Islamic Movement, concurred with the idea of equality of women in the struggle, "provided they avoided inappropriate behavior".  However, the women-martyrs are allowed,  to her mind, to relinquish the veil for the occasion in order to "mislead the enemy". She believes that since the clerics share a consensus that Islamikaze operations are the highest form of martyrdom, there is nothing wrong with them^[5].  The Head of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, however, had some reservations, stating that while women had a role in Jihad and martyrdom, their uniqueness warranted that they must be accompanied by a chaperon^[6], exactly as puritanical Muslims would not allow women to drive or to roam the streets unaccompanied by a brother, a father or a husband.

 

Yassin, bowing to operational requisites,  later amended his  position, realizing that the lone operation of the martyr woman would become unfeasible if she is accompanied by someone who would attract attention and might himself die in the attack. Therefore, he stated that only if the woman were to stay out for the day and the night, for operational considerations, she needed company, while if her absence was shorter, like in the case of martyrdom where she was not supposed to return, she might go alone^[7]. But in a previous case of a would-be woman-martyr, who had been arrested by Israel for attempting to blow herself up, and was released after the Oslo Accords of 1993, she invoked a Hadith where the Prophet was said to have allowed women to go to Jihad even without their husbands' consent, when the land of Islam was invaded, which she thought was the case then.^[8] Thus, for her, as for Yassin, necessity permitted the usually prohibited modes of behavior. At al-Azhar University, where disputes converge in expectation for the rulings of Sheikh Tantawi, an internal debate ensued. While Sheikh  Abu-al-Hassan decreed that the act of Jihad by women against Israelis was permissible, especially when the enemy has "plundered even one inch of Muslim land", in which case they are entitled to "wage Jihad  even without their husbands' consent, and the slaves without their masters' permission", Tantawi ruled in favor of those acts provided they were not directed against civilians. Abu-al-Hassan also quoted precedents from the time of the Prophet when women were said to have been allowed to fight and kill men from among the enemy Infidels^[9].

 

Although Yassin explained that women were simply not needed in the Hamas ranks of martyrs for the moment, because more male volunteers were available than his organization could absorb^[10], the debate continued to rage in the Arab world. Egypt's Al-Sha'b  glorified the woman who could teach all Arab men, rulers, princes and women, a lesson in the heroic defense of their country, in "the battle of martyrdom which petrified the heart of the enemy's entity, and shocked the enemy with her meager, thin and weak body,… when with her exploded all the myths about women's weaknesses, submissiveness and enslavement"^[11]. A Jordanian columnist, who prided himself for the "dignity that women enjoyed in the Arab and Islamic world", accused the Western human rights activists of "robbing women of their rights to be human, and viewed them as bodies without souls", and stressed that Wafa, "never dreamt to own a BMW or a cellular phone, and never carried makeup in her bag, but rather explosives to fill the enemy with horror…". He said that  it was the West who demanded that Eastern women should become equal to men, and that was the way the martyr Wafa understood equality. "Oh Wafa Idris!!! Mercy upon you and shame upon us !!!" was his concluding cry^[12]. Similarly, Afaq 'Arabiya, the mounthpiece of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, accused the West of wasting money in vain,  attempting to "disrupt the consciousness of the Muslim women and make them believe that their bodies and needs were most important". The writer, sociologist Dr. al Maghdoub, launched an all-out attack against that western intervention, which "invokes women's liberation, equality with men, and their right to be prostitutes, to strip, to reveal their charms", and assured that those concept were doomed to fall on deaf ears^[13]. For this "enlightened"  sociologist, those  Westernized  "superficial women " served the West by

giving [Arab] countries their drug-addicted young men and women… who have perverse [homosexual] relations, commit rape, theft, and murder… But they are still a minority, even if they make a lot of noise. The majority of young Muslims are still in good shape. It is true that they are silent, but we have seen how the silence of Wafa Idris ended^[14].

 

In Egypt and the rest of the Arab world, words of support for Wafa Idris also abounded. Dr. Samia Sa'd a-Din, a women herself, proclaimed the end of gender classification in the Palestinian struggle, once Palestinian women have decided to "write the history of their liberation with their blood, and will become time bombs in the face of the Israeli enemy. They will not "settle for being mothers of martyrs any longer", she assures^[15]. Another columnist from the same mouthpiece of the regime, Al-Akhbar, found it strange that while Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lind, was criticizing the American position [of support to Israel], Wafa carried out her act of martyrdom; for when Lind spoke up, men kept silent for fear to criticize American policy. Thus, one brave woman spoke up while another brave woman acted.^[16]. For Al-Ahram columnist, Zakariyya Nil, Wafa Idris was nothing less than a modern Jeanne d'Arc^[17], and another, 'Abd al-Halim Qandil, of the weekly al-'Arabi, elevated her to new heights, asserting that "a nation who has in it Wafa Idris can never be defeated…, for she became the "most beautiful of women in the world, and in the world to come, once she rose to Heaven". He considered her martyrdom as "a death which instilled life" and "a chunk of flesh and blood transformed into illuminating spirit and purity for the generations to come". He praised her beauty when she liberated the Arabs from their sins and "elevated the humiliated nation to Paradise"^[18]. No one, however, reached the summit of praise for her as the Egyptian psychologist, Dr 'Adel Sadeq, the Head of Psychiatry at Cairo's Ein Shams University, who compared Wafa to no less than Jesus Christ. He said that perhaps the Holy Spirit that placed Jesus in the womb of Mary did the same by "placing a bomb in the heart of Wafa and enveloped her pure body with dynamite", and it was no coincidence for him that "the enemy in both instances was the same [the Jews]"^[19].

 

While it was to be expected that the Palestinian terrorist organizations who dispatched Wafa to her death would eulogize her in laudatory terms for her martyrdom^[20], it is much harder to explain in any rational terms the swelling support, symbolic and otherwise, that her act produced throughout the rest of the Arab world, not only Egypt. if one can understand the political machinations of Saddam Hussein, when he decided to erect a memorial  in her honor, one is aghast when a woman film-director, an Egyptian PhD to boot, Amira  Abu-Fattuh, writes under the headline "An Oscar-winning film":   

This is not a movie like all other movies. The heroine is the beautiful, pure Palestinian woman, Wafa Idris, full of faith and will-power. I could find no one better than she, and I could find no film more wonderful than this, that shocked Israel's heart… From Paradise where she is now, she shouts with all her strength : 'Enough glorification of the dead ! Enough glorification of the victories of your forefathers!!!'. They have played their part, and now it is your turn…^[21].

 

This short-lived but symbol-laden "Wafa Festival", was triggered by the London- daily  al-Quds al-'Arabi^[22], but was immediately picked up, like other sensational issues in the Arabic press, and repeated like a mantra, by Arab and Muslims writers of all political convictions. It was as if their oppressed frustration and hatred for Israel and the Jews, regardless of the "peace" Accords that their countries (Egypt and Jordan) had signed with Israel, at a considerable cost to the latter, were merely a new starting point to force her to disarm, to absorb attacks and to duck for more, at the hand of new heroes like Wafa. She was seen as " a spark of light and hope in the midst of darkness, and courageous in deeds, not words"^[23]; a Mona Lisa, only more beautiful than the original, with her "dreamy eyes and the mysterious smile on her lips", and in general "more beautiful than any picture of a woman painted by any artists"^[24]; or her suitcase of explosives that carried her to her death as "the most beautiful prize any woman can possibly win. Her spirit was raging, her heart filled with anger and her mind convinced by the calls of peace and coexistence…"^[25]. Even the horrifying detail of her act sounded like music in the ears of those columnists: "… she quietly made her decision, sought explosives, went to pray, and then chose her target carefully. She went to a big restaurant with dozens of customers. She asked Allah for a Martyr's death and victory… she kissed the soil of the homeland and went calmly to her fate. She inscribed her name on the forehead of history"^[26]. What is even more terrifying is the wish of the writer that the number of victims could have been higher, because Wafa killed "only" one victim, an 81-old lady-passerby in the main street of Jerusalem, but the over-enthusiastic columnist carried her in his dreams to a "restaurant with dozens of customers". This time he was wrong, but at other times, other terrorists like Wafa did kill dozens of unsuspecting  civilians, children and entire families of customers in restaurants, much to the delight, one has to assume, of that zealous writer and opinion-maker.

 

And so Wafa the martyr was made a model of behavior in one Arab paper after another, by columnists of all walks and opinions, government and opposition, especially in "moderate" Egypt , and her act of "donning the belt of explosives and talking to Israel, America and the world, in the only language they understand",^[27]was made the ideal for other youth to emulate. A female columnist, Nagwa Tantawi, dismissed Western culture and  pledged victory to the superior culture of the Arabs and Muslims. She just forgot to say explicitly whether the values she was boasting about included martyrdom and wanton killing, but one could  infer that from her comparison of  Wafa  with President Bush's daughters:

Bush, who leads an oppressive campaign to educate the world, cannot even educate his own daughters. Note the difference between Wafa, the daughter of Arabism and Islam, and Bush's daughters. The difference is the same as the difference between our culture, based on beautiful and noble values, and on the values of homeland and martyrdom, and the materialistic culture [of the West]. This proves that whatever developments will be, victory will be ours – because we have culture and values^[28].

 

There was yet another, rather debasing, aspect touching upon women's position in the Islamic world, in connection with the Islamikaze acts of terror, and that was the discussion of the sexual rewards the male-martyrs were promised in Paradise, something that has no parallel with regard to the female martyrs. The rewards of the hereafter after martyrdom are the most concrete promise, indeed certainty, that pushes the Islamikaze to cross fearlessly the last obstacle of hesitation and embark on the martyrdom venture. Therefore, it is within the Palestinian community, which has trained and sent to self-immolating Jihad the greatest proportionate numbers of its sons, daughters and children, that these promises  are the most vividly described and debated, once they have become a matter of practical and close at hand routine, and no longer of theoretical and remote theology. The debate did not begin in the aftermath of the 11 September events, but it was triggered at the end of the 1990's in the context of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad activities within Israel and against Israelis and Jews. On 19 August, 2001, barely three weeks before the New York horrors, CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a program on the Hamas in which one its operatives, Muhammed Abu Wardeh, was asked to tell of his recruiting activities among would-be Islamikaze. He said, inter alia, that part of his technique was to describe to the novices the way Allah would reward them after they became martyrs by "giving them 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness"^[29]. Embarrassed by the carnal temptations that were involved in what was to be a pure act of self-sacrifice for the sake of Allah, Muslim leaders in the West (not in the Islamic world where this doctrine enjoys widespread currency), raised questions about the accuracy of the translation of the interview and tried to discredit CBS, accusing it of "fabrication" and defamation of their faith, and demanding retraction and apology^[30].

 

The controversy centered around the translation of the houriya term, which all  Muslim conventional  interpretations, including the Muslim ones as we shall see below, are proud to  render as "virgins" , usually with the epithet of "black-eyed", while  some Muslim organizations in the West insisted that it was a metaphoric appellation of "angels" or "heavenly beings". While it would have been much less important to focus on sexual fantasies of the killers than on their horrific acts of indiscriminate killing among the innocent, the news-worthy sexual controversy persisted nonetheless. To counter those denials, Sheikh Palazzi, an Italian Muslim leader, gave references in the Qur'an as well as in Islamic tradition (Sunna  or Hadith) where the doctrine of the 72 (not 70) "black-eyed" "wives" is elaborated in rich and plastic detail^[31], and took the other Muslim leaders in the West to task for their ignorance of the sources. Among Muslim clerics in the Muslim world, by contrast, there is no equivocation, things are clearly and unabashedly stated. In response to an Australian Muslim query about the reward of female martyrs in Paradise, in comparison with the males who got the black-eyed virgins, the Deputy Director of the authoritative Al-Azhar University, Sheikh 'Abd al-Fattah Jam'an responded:

The Qur'an tells us that in Paradise Believers get the black-eyed, as Allah [namely the Qur'anic text] has said: ' And we will marry them to the black-eyed'. The black-eyed are white and delicate, and the black of their eyes is blacker than black, and the white [of their eyes] is whiter than white. To describe their beauty and their great number, the Qur'an says that they are "like Sapphire and pearls"^[32], in their values, in their color and in their purity. And it is said of them : ' They are like well protected pearls in shells^[33], that is they are as pure as pearls in oysters and are not perforated, no hands  have ever touched them, no dust or dirt adheres to them, and they are undamaged'. It is further said :'They are like well-protected eggs^[34], that is their delicacy is as the delicacy of the membrane beneath the shell of an egg. Allah also said: ' the black-eyed are confined to pavilions^[35], that is they are hidden within, save for their husbands…

Most of the black-eyed were first created in Paradise, but some of them are women who acceded to Paradise from this world and are obedient Muslims who observe the words of Allah :' We created them especially and  have made them virgins, loving and equal in age'. This means that when the women of this world are old and worn out, Allah re-creates them after their old age into virgins who are amiable to their husbands; 'equal in age' means equal to one another in age. At the side of the Muslim in Paradise are his wives from this world, if they are among the dwellers of Paradise, along with the black-eyed of Paradise…

If a woman is of the dwellers in Paradise but her husband in this world is not among them, as in the case of Asia, the wife of Pharaoh,, she is given to one of the dwellers of Paradise who is of the same status. Regarding the woman who was married to more than one man in her lifetime, and all her [former] husbands are dwellers of Paradise, she may choose among them, and she chooses the best of them…Thus, it is known that women in Paradise also have husbands. Every woman has a husband. If her husband in this world is a dweller of Paradise, he becomes her husband in Paradise, and if he is an Infidel, she is given to one of the dwellers of Paradise who is suited to her in status and in the intensity of his belief^[36].

           

It is quite understandable that these verses that are attributed to Allah, may be taken as folkloric metaphors by some Muslims who are remote from the front of combat of the Islamikaze. There is no doubt, however, that for Muslims whose pursuit of Jihad is an active and preponderant aspect of their lives, particularly so among young Palestinians, the question of reward in Paradise has been a crucial portion of their worldview, and playing a major role in their motivation for battle. In the Palestinian press, and in the death announcements of the martyrs,  which are usually pre-recorded in person by the Islamikaze and then kept as part of the cultivated "patrimony of martyrdom", that the Palestinian death organizations weave in order to then impart it to their youth, there is no mincing of words; indeed, there is boasting, desire, expectation  and impatient eagerness to take the shortcut and join in one stroke the pleasures of Paradise.  Chilling wordings  as they may sound, such announcements as "Greetings will be accepted immediately after the burial and until 10:00 PM… at the home of the martyr's uncle", or "With great pride the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marries off the member of its military wing, the hero Yasser al-Adhami, to the black-eyed", appear prominently in the Palestinian press^[37], both before and after  September 11.

 

The Hamas mouthpiece, Al-Risala, for example,  published the will of Sa'id al-Hutari who carried out the horrendous massacre of 23 teen-agers at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in Tel-Aviv on June 1, 2001. It said: "I will turn my body into bombs that will hunt the sons of Zion, blast them and burn their remains… Call out in joy, oh mother! Distribute sweets, oh father  and brothers!. A wedding with the black-eyed awaits your son in Paradise"^[38]. Similarly, the bombing of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem ( 9 August, 2001) was "celebrated" by the Hamas with the announcement that the Islamikaze, Izz al-Din al-Masri's, relatives had "distributed sweets and accepted their son as a bridegroom who married the black-eyed, not as someone who had been killed and buried in the ground"^[39]. Other Palestinian youth announced their preference for the black-eyed rather than marrying "women of clay" in this world, while their leaders confirm to them that if "the martyr dreams of a black-eyed, he will get her"^[40].. When Jack Kelley of the USA Today visited a Hamas school in Gaza, he saw an 11-year old boy speaking to his class: "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of the Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys… I will tear their bodies into little pieces and will cause them more pain than they will ever know". His classmates shouted in response: "Allah Akbar!!", and his teacher shouted :"May the virgins give you pleasure" A 16-year old youth leader in a refugee camp told Kelley :"Most boys cannot stop thinking about the virgins"^[41].  Convinced more and more, literally ad nauseam, of the inextricability of the expected heavenly wedding from the senseless death at the best of their youth,^[42]  they commit the act, pulling with them to the abyss of death and destruction hundreds of innocent civilians, and wiping out entire families.

 

Similarly, Palestinian clerics and "educators" such as  Dr Yunis al-Astal of the Islamic Law Department in Gaza University, Sheikh Sabri, already cited above, and the Palestinian Police Chief Mufti, Abu Shkheydem,  spoke chillingly about the weddings of the Islamikaze  with the black-eyed in Paradise, and the joy of their mothers. Al-Astal  asserted that Paradise was the abode of the martyrs, and in it were "the black-eyed confined to pavilions, and also there were women with downcast eyes whose chastity had not been violated before by either man or jinn (Devil)", and that  the world that the Americans and their Arab "eunuchs", i.e. those who supported them, figured to themselves, was "in our eyes, not worth the wing of a mosquito". As a bonus, the Sheikh of the Police force, who is probably actively engaged in recruiting those young would-be martyrs, promised them that from their first drop of spilled blood, they will not feel the pain of the wounds, and they are forgiven for all their sins; they see their seats in Paradise; they are saved from the torments of the grave; they marry the black-eyed; they vouch for 70 members of their families; they gain the crown of honor, the precious stones of which are better than the entire world and everything in it^[43]            .

 

The most prominent Palestinian cleric in Israel, Sheikh Ra'id from Umm al-Fahm, who served as mayor of his town for more than 10 years, asserted in no uncertain terms in an interview to the major Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, that he "had proof" that the story of the virgins had a leg to stand on and that was, of course, the writings in the Qur'an and the Sunna. He specified that the shahid received from Allah six special gifts, including 70 virgins, no torment in the grave and the choice of 70 members of his family and his confidants to enter Paradise with him^[44]. In the instructions given to the Islamikaze of September 11, a copy of which was found in the car of one of them,Nawwaf al-Hamzi, the black-eyed were mentioned twice :

Do not show signs of uneasiness and of tension; be joyful and happy, set your mind at ease, and be confident and rest assured that you are carrying out an action that Allah likes and that pleases Him. Therefore, a day will come, Allah willing, that you will spend with the black-eyed in Paradise… Know that the gardens of Paradise have been decorated for you with the most beautiful ornaments and that the black-eyed will call to you: 'Come, Faithful of Allah', after having donned their finest garments^[45].

 

---

^[1] . See Articles 17-18 in the Hamas Charter. R. Israeli, "The Charter of Allah : The Platform of the Islamic Resistance Movement", in R.Israeli, Fundamentalist Islam and Israel,  the University Press of America, 1993, pp. 144-5

^[2] . See Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 2 February, 2002; Al-Ayyam (the Palestinian Authority), 31 January, 2002; Kul al-'Arab (Israel), 1 February, 2002. All in Memri 83, 12 February, 2002.

^[3] . Kul al –'Arab,  1 February, 2002

^[4] . Middle East News Online, 28 January, 2002; and Al-Sha'b (Egypt), 1 February, 2002

^[5] .Al-Sha'b (Egypt), 1 February, 2002.

^[6] .Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 31 January, 2002.

^[7] . Ibid. 2 February, 2002. In Memri, Ibid.

^[8] . Al-Sharq al-Awsat, 31 January and 2 February, 2002. Ibid.

^[9] .Afaq Arabiya (Egypt),  30 January, 2002; Al-Quds al-'Arabi (London), 31 January, 2002. In Memri, ibid.

^[10] .Al-Sharq al-Awsat, 31 January, 2002

^[11]. Al-Sha'b. (1 February, 2002). See Memri, Ibid.

^[12] .Al-Dustour,(Jordan), 5 February, 2002. Ibid., Part II.

^[13] .Afaq 'Arabiya( Egypt), 7 February, 2002; Al-Quds al'Arabi (London), 8 February, 2002. Ibid.

^[14] . Ibid.

^[15] . Al-Akhbar,( Egypt),  1 February, 2002.

^[16] . Ibid.

^[17] . Al-Ahram,  2 February, 2002

^[18] .Al-'Arabi,(Cairo) 3 February, 2002; and Al- Quds al-'Arabi (London),  4 February, 2002.

^[19] . Hadith al-Madina (Egypt), 5 February, 2002; and Al-Quds al-'Arabi, 6 February, 2002. Memri, 84, part II. Op. cit.

^[20] . Al-Ayyam, (Palestinian Authority), 1 February, 2002. Memri 85, 14  February, 2002.

^[21] . Al-Wafd (Egypt), 7 February, 2002; Al-Quds al-'Arabi (London), 8 February, 2002. Memri, ibid.

^[22] .Al-Quds al-'Arabi, 28 January, 2002.

^[23] .Al-Wafd (Egypt), 3 February, 2002

^[24] . Al-Ahram, (Egypt),  10 February, 2002

^[25] . Al-Dustour (Jordan), 24 February, 2002.

^[26] .Al-Wafd. See ftn. 73 above.

^[27]  Al-'Arabi (Egypt), 3 February 2002; Al-Quds al-'Arabi (London),2 and  4 February, 2002. See also  Al-Ahram (Cairo), 3 and  5 February, 2002; Al-Wafd (Egypt), 1 February, 2002; Al-Gumhuryya (Egypt) , 31 January, 2002; Sawt al-Umma  (Egypt), 3 February, 2002. All in Memri, Ibid.

^[28] . Al-Wafd (Egypt), 3 February, 2002; and Al Quds al-'Arabi (London),4 February, 2002.

^[29]  .Cited in print by Memri 74, 30 October, 2001, article by Yotam Feldner.

^[30] . Ibid.

^[31] .There are no less than 6 references for the virgins and the black-eyed in Paradise that are mentioned or hinted to in the Holy Qur'an, and massive elaborations on those brief references in the vast literature of the Hadith,  Palazzi specifes that those women are available not only to martyrs but to any Believer who accedes to Paradise.

^[32] . Surat Al-Rahman, verse 58

^[33] . Surat Al-Waqi'a, verse 23

^[34] . Surat Al-Safat, verse 49.

^[35] . Surat Al-Rahman,  verse 70

^[36] .Cited in Memri. See ftn. 96 above.

^[37] .Al-Ayyam (Palestinian Authority), 21 July, 2001; and al-Istiqlal (Palestinian Authority), 4 October, 2001.

^[38] . Al-Risala, 7 July, 2001; another case of such a posthumous "wedding" was publicized by Al-Hayat al-Jadida, also within the Palestinian Authority, 4 October, 2001.

^[39] .Al-Risala, 16 August, 2001.

^[40] . Al-Hayat al-Jadida, of 17 August and  11 September, 2001. Memri, ibid.

^[41] .USA Today, 26 June, 2001. Memri, Ibid.

^[42] .Al-Risala, 11 October, 2001.

^[43] . Al-Hayat al-Jadida, 17 September, 2001; see also Palestinian Authority Television, 17 August, 2001.

^[44] . Ha'aretz,  26 October, 2001.

^[45] . Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 30 September, 2001.M emri, Ibid.

Palestinian Women and Children in the Throes of Islamikaze Terrorism Part III

By Raphael Israeli

The Debate over Children Martyrs

Interestingly enough, though the universal Palestinian jubilation vis-à-vis martyrdom has peaked during the Aqsa Intifadah that broke out in October 2000, the Palestinians were "educated" and prepared for martyrdom much before. There are tapes of incitement of school children to become martyrs dating back to 1998, though in most of them martyrdom per se is extolled without necessarily encouraging the young to blow themselves up in the process. Indeed, martyrdom was instilled in them as an ideal not only in the context of the dramatic and much hallowed Islamikaze actions, but also as a routine of a grinding confrontation with Israeli troops, where the demonstrating children, imbued with the audacity to face the enemy and provoke him, could end up dying. In that case of passive death too, unlike the active search of death by the Islamikaze, they would be considered martyrs. Clips abound of young teen-agers vowing martyrdom on Palestinian television, but the most dramatic and world renowned, which was played and replayed by the world media, concerned Muhammed al-Dura. In November, 2000, at the very onset of the intifadah, he was killed in cross-fire, apparently shot by Palestinians as it later turned out, in an area of confrontation where children should have been kept away from in the first place. But since it is part of the Palestinian strategy to push their children to the frontline and then turn their own callousness towards their children into a propaganda campaign against Israel, he was led there by his careless father, and the child paid the price of this life. But then, the Palestinian machine started operating for the glorification of Dura domestically, and calling other Palestinian children to follow his model, and for accusing Israel of his death externally.

The clip on Dura on Palestinian Television was re-enacted by actors, following his tragic death, with his genuine picture being shown lying in the field and, interspersed with many violent scenes of battle, he is always shown in beautiful, peaceful places, running along the beach, or through the Plaza of the Aqsa Mosque, or alongside wonderful fountains, flying a kite in a green pasture, approaching a giant wheel. The soundtrack is telling the children that death in conflict with Israel will bring them to a child's paradise, where Muhammed is tranquil, as we see him playing and waving to the audience of children to "come, follow me here". The main lyrics pass up and back from narrator to choir, to 'A'ida, a popular woman singer ( whose name incidentally means "the Returnee"), with long tresses and dressed in striking flowing red robes. The dead boy Muhammed talks to his father :" till we meet, my father, till we meet !, I go with no tears, with no fears, how sweet is the fragrance of the Martyrs!!! I shall go to my place in Heaven, how sweet is the fragrance of the martyrs!!". The narrator continues:" How sweet is the fragrance of the martyrs, how sweet is the fragrance of the earth, its thirst quenched by the gush of blood flowing from the youthful body"… The screen at this point is filled with two huge roses which are closing in slow motion, accompanying the narrative: "the earth, its thirst quenched by the gush of blood from the body of youth". 'Ai'da continues :"How sweet is the scent of the earth, its thirst satisfied by the gush of blood, flowing from the body of youth". These refrains are repeated several times ending with 'Ai'da singing: " Oh the children of the world say 'till we meet, oh Muhammed till we meet!'. The clip closes with the following credit : "Produced by the Ministry of Information and culture- the Palestinian National Fund".^[1]

These harrowing concepts with which the children of Palestine are indoctrinated on their national television, by their own leaders, to adopt as their own, are supported by the clerics of the Palestinian Authority in general, chief among them is the same 'Akrama Sabri cited above. In an interview to the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram al-'Arabi, the Sheikh not only lay claim, as a matter of course, to all Israel, as part of his struggle, but he stressed the need for martyrdom of children in the process of "liberating" Jerusalem and all the rest of Palestine, in order to prove that the "new generation will carry on the mission with determination". He said:

We have not sacrificed enough yet to be worthy of liberating Al-Aqsa…To liberate Jerusalem, Salah a-Din al-Ayyubi made great sacrifices for a long time, and we have to sacrifice until Allah's victory is completed…The land of Palestine is not only Jerusalem. This land stretches from the Jordan River to the sea. The Palestinian problem relates to all this land. We cannot establish a homeland only by liberating Jerusalem. It is true that Salah-a-Din did not rest until he liberated Jerusalem, but this does not mean that the rest of this blessed land should be neglected or given up…

Every Palestinian is in fact in a state of Jihad. I feel the martyr is lucky because the angels usher him to his wedding in Heaven… There is no doubt that the child martyr suggests that the new generation will carry on the mission with determination… The younger the martyr, the greater he is, and the more I respect him… One wrote his name on a note before he died… It said 'I am Martyr so and so' .In every martyr's pocket we find a note with his name on it. He sentences himself to martyrdom even before he becomes a martyr… The mothers [who cry in joy when they hear of their sons' martyrdom], willingly sacrifice their offspring for the sake of freedom. It is a great display of the power of belief. The mother is participating in the great reward of the Jihad to liberate al-Aqsa. I talked to a young man who said :' I want to marry the black-eyed women of Heaven'. The next day he became a martyr. I am sure his mother was filled with joy about his heavenly marriage. Such a son must have such a mother…

…I am filled or rage towards the Jews. I have never greeted a Jew when I come near one and I never will. They cannot even dream that I will. They do not dare to bother me because they are the most cowardly creatures Allah has ever created… Palestinian children are thus taught, almost from their birth to hate Jews and to glorify Jihad, even to the point of their own death and martyrdom, as an essential part of their culture^[2].

So much for the Chief Cleric of the Palestinian Authority, and his underlings, who are not known to have sent their own children to the "martyrdom" they have been ardently preaching to others. However, in contrast to the clerics who encouraged acts of Islamikaze, obviously in response to the huge wave of popular support for that mode of struggle, there were some mainstream professionals, such as Ashraf al-'Ajrami, a columnist in the Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Ayyam, who realized the damage that the outrageous procedure of using children caused to national interest, and counseled to desist from it. He acknowledged the fact that "the phenomenon of martyrdom was on the increase, especially among minors", but expectedly blamed the "Israeli occupation" for the "degradation of life which pushes many to disdain life and seek the shortest way to the hereafter". But he also admitted that it was the "honor and esteem that the Palestinian people give to the martyr that has had a crucial effect on the emergence of this phenomenon". He also imputed a great importance in this regard to the "funerals of the martyrs and the celebrations held in their honor, which have always been accompanied by talks of everlasting life and eternal serenity in Paradise". Therefore, the rationale of these youngsters goes, why wait through the tribulations of life if one can take a shortcut to Paradise by pressing a button, or purposely come into close range of Israeli shooting ? At the same time, he contends that the enthusiasm among minors to be hailed as heroes and martyrs might encourage their gratuitous exploitation by others. He also concedes that some Gaza children are influenced by mosques and schools, an admission to the ruinous character not only of religious sermons, but also of the Palestinian textbooks^[3], some funded by the European Union, which cultivate the senseless Islamikaze death.^[4]

The columnist, who appears to be well-updated on the techniques and motivations of the young Islamikaze, delves into terrifying details and counsels to desist from this practice, not for the moral burden it puts on the Palestinian leadership, that would be too daring a criticism, but for the damage it causes to Palestinian propaganda:

Some are willing to arm them for money –with pistols, hand grenades, and readily available pipe bombs that cost only a few Shekels. These brainwashed children are imbued with motivation to approach the nearest settlement where they are shot dead by the soldiers of the occupation….

The children's martyrdom promotes the hostile propaganda of the enemies, particularly in reinforcing their claims that the Palestinians send their children to the front line. These are false claims aimed at justifying the indiscriminate shooting at all the Palestinians…The phenomenon also causes the children to rebel against their parents, insofar as the children threaten their parents that they would martyr themselves if the parents did not accede to their demands or did not turn a blind eye on their inappropriate behavior…Moreover, some of the children have used pipe-bombs during arguments amongst themselves…

Collective efforts should be made to contain this phenomenon… All activities having an ill-effect on the children's emotional stability, pulling them in directions outside the normal matters of children, must be monitored… The security apparatuses should apprehend the arms traffickers and collaborators, who are acting among the youths to make money or to exterminate this generation together with its nationalist enthusiasm and its will to fight… It is also important to stop the mosques from engaging in exaggerated political activity and providing grounds for anyone who wants to abuse the minds of youth and minors… The Palestinian media also have a role in refraining from broadcasting pictures affecting the emotional state of children, and from exaggerating in reporting tragic news that arouses the children's feelings of frustration and despair…^[5]

A rare courageous Arab voice against the self-immolation of children was raised by a female Arab journalist, Huda al-Husseini, who was incensed at the systematic sacrifice of children in a war they did not initiate and they perhaps ill-comprehended:

Some Palestinian leaders… consciously issue orders with the purpose of ending the childhood [of their youth], even if this means their last breath. I want to know why we, the Arabs, insist on dying rather than living for our homeland. If these children have nothing to lose, and they think the training is a game, are we supposed to continue pushing them with hypocrisy and stupid enthusiasm to actually lose their lives? Have we exhausted all means and used every argument, have we exhausted our brains, and have nothing left but to gamble with the lives of children and push them to confront Israel? Or maybe the Palestinian leaders –those who are in the PA or those who get ready to fill a role in it—put their trust in the humanity of Israel? If this is what they do, they are wrong…What kind of independence is based on the blood of children while the leaders are safe and so are their children and grand children?.. Are only the miserable destined to die in the spring of their lives? Those children who are killed may not, in their short lives, have enjoyed a fresh piece of bread, sleeping in a warm bed, the happiness of putting on a new piece of cloth, or carrying books with no torn pages to school…

The time for Arafat and those around him has reached its dusk… First of all, these children deserve to live, before we push them to find death. But, what are we doing to them? We abuse their innocence, we supply them with tons of stones, while we sit in our offices and commend their death. Then we accept an invitation for a working lunch or dinner and talk about those children who died holding stones, those that died, probably hungry…^[6].

But others in the Arab world, including supposedly enlightened academics, and certainly populist self-made clerics who do not conform to the establishment, as well as non-Palestinian jurists and other notables, remain unflinching in their support to the Islamikaze. For example, Halim Barakat, a Professor at Georgetown University, castigated the Arab states for their oppression of their populations, but credited the Arab peoples for their awakening from their slumber. He created a rule of thumb whereby the "more technologically advanced the people [of any country], the less moral and more barbaric it becomes", implying that Western countries like the US, which has given him asylum, and Israel, are so technologically advanced that they qualify for his definition of barbarism in their actions against the Muslims in Afghanistan and Palestine. Thus, he turned on its head the definition of terrorism: the barbarians are not those who blew up the Twin Towers or the restaurants and buses in Israel, but those who moved decisively to eliminate them^[7]. Another "enlightened" person, in the person of the Saudi Ambassador to London, wrote a poem praising the Palestinian Islamikaze. The man, Dr Ghazi al-Gosaibi (interestingly, many of the most ardent supporters of the martyrdom attacks, proudly carry the title of PhD, a sign of their Western education), an acknowledged Arab poet, heaped laudatory terms on Ayat al-Akhras, the 17-year old Palestinian girl who blew herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket, killing two Israelis and wounding 25^[8].

The respectable Ambassador, who has been serving his country in London for a decade, so that one could suspect that some civility may have rubbed off to him, wrote of teen-ager Ayat that "doors of Heaven are opened to her"and that the "heart of the White House was filled with darkness". The British Foreign Ministry, which released a statement dubbing "suicide bombing as a form of terrorism", pledged that some senior official would make clear British views to the Ambassador, but did not rebuke the Ambassador nor undertook any other measure against him. The Board of Deputies of British Jews stated that it was "appalled", but no action was taken to oust from civilization the author of that appalling statement^[9]. Another Saudi notable, also a holder of a PhD, Dr Ibrahim al-Sa'adat, a columnist in the government-owned daily al-Jazira, came out with a campaign of idolization of 'Abd-al-Baset 'Oudeh, who detonated himself in the Netanya Hotel during the Passover Seder, killing 29 people and wounding scores of others, and also the young Ayat al-Akhras. His description of his "heroes" is almost as horrendous as the acts themselves:

May Allah have mercy on you, Mujahid and martyr, the quiet hero who infiltrated so elegantly and spoke so gaily. You defended your religion, your homeland, and your people… Courageously, full of willingness to wage Jihad… you executed your assignment and sacrificed your pure soul… The Israeli military, armed to the teeth, did not remove a hair of your head…You knew the Zionists do not honor promises, treaties and understand only the language of resistance and Jihad…

May Allah have mercy on you, 'abd-al-Baset, the beloved son of the Arab nation. You awakened the hope that had begun to dissipate, you restored life [by killing 29 innocent civilians] that had begun to expire; you revived the Arab pride, chivalry, valor and sacrifice that had begun to die, and you caused pain to the people who had begun to celebrate and sing atop the bodies of the children, youth and mothers of your people.. You entered silently, with the faith and the confidence with which Allah inspired you… You reached your destination, you sat down at one of the tables, talked, told a few jokes and laughed with them, and then Allah decreed for you a martyr's death. What heroism, courage and strength – almost unmatched on the face of the earth !

May Allah have mercy on you Ayat al-Akhras ! You left your home for the path of martyrdom and Paradise…You proceeded with a determination, will and strength rarely found, even impossible to find, in a 16 year old girl…

You did not seek advise from the American or Russian governments… you knew that the hand of Allah is supreme, that self-sacrifice is the highest form of Jihad. You were not tempted by, nor did you rejoice in, the life of this world… Oh, beloved of the Arab nation of 16 springs. Marriage was before you, you were a girl engaged and looking forward to …wed; except that you chose Allah, Paradise and martyrdom… You taught the Arab nation a lesson never taught in the schools and universities, and you breathed your last and awakened in us the sensations that had begun to disappear…. May Allah have mercy on you, you Ayat and all male and female Mujahideen. We ask Alllah that the angels welcome you as righteous martyrs, and beseech Allah to give you the highest level of Paradise^[10].

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^[1] . I am indebted to my colleague Dr Daphne Burdman, who brought to my attention the transcript of the clip that was repeatedly shown on Palestinian television throughout 2001 and 2002.

^[2] . Al-Ahram al-'Arabi, 28 October, 2000. Memri, cited by David Kupelian, in 2000 WorldNetDaily.com. See also Gerald Steinberg, the Jerusalem Post, 27 October, 2000.

^[3] . For details on Palestinian textbooks, see R. Israeli "Education, State Building and the Peace Process: Educating Palestinian Children in the Post-Oslo Era", Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, January 2000.

^[4] .Al-Ayyam (Palestinian Authority), 3 May, 2002, Memri 376, 6 May, 2002. On

^[5] . Ibid.

^[6] .Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 27 October, 2000. Ibid.

^[7] . Al-Hayat (London), 4 April, 2002.

^[8] . BBC News, 18 April, 2002.

^[9] . Ibid.

^[10] .Al-Jazirah, (Saudi Arabia), 1 April, 2002. Memri 367, 12 April, 2002.