Military

DATE=12/09/01

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT (RE-ISSUE)

NUMBER=5-50646

TITLE=SUICIDE BOMBERS, PART ONE

BYLINE=ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=GAZA CITY

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: First part of two-part series ///

INTRO: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been brought to a dramatic crossroads by another wave of suicide bombing attacks. In the first of a two-part series, Ross Dunn reports from the Gaza Strip on a cult that is spreading terror around the world, but most frequently in the Holy Land.

TEXT: In Palestinian society, doctors and engineers are among the many well-educated people who claim allegiance to Hamas, one of the two groups responsible for killing Israelis through suicide bombings.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a pediatrician who lectures at the Islamic University in Gaza City, is one of the co-founders of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.

He was born 51 years ago in Jibna, a village that became part of Israel. He and his family fled to the Gaza Strip, where he was raised in a refugee camp.

He says this experience -- and eight years in Israeli jails -- have led him to the position that the Palestinians can justify suicide bombings against any Israelis. Even Israeli women and children are not innocent civilians, he told V-O-A, but participants in a brutal military oppression of Palestinians.

/// RANTISI ACT ///

They are occupiers; they are murderers; they are aggressors. So we can't say they are civilians. If we are not under occupation, we will not do martyr bombing. So because of occupation, because of aggression, because of humiliation, because of all kinds of oppression against our people, we are struggling.

/// END ACT ///

Though his medical specialty is treating children, and he has six children of his own and eight grandchildren, Dr. Rantisi sheds not a tear for Israeli children who have died in suicide bombings.

He believes that all Palestinians are now united in their armed struggle against Israel, including members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

Therefore, he says, any crackdown by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on groups such as Hamas could lead to a backlash against the Palestinian Authority.

/// RANTISI ACT ///

They are now joining us in our struggle, and Fatah and other organizations are in the same trench now.

/// END ACT ///

Palestinian Authority Cabinet Minister Ziyad abu Ziyad says that the Palestinian Authority is opposed to suicide bombings. He says they only serve to undermine the Palestinian people's goal to one day achieve independence.

/// ZIYAD ACT ///

We believe that any attacks against civilians inside Israel are against our national interest. They will give an excuse to the Israeli government to refrain from going back to the negotiating table. And it will make the whole world blame us and not support out legitimate goal for independence and freedom, and, therefore, we are totally against suicide attacks. We reject them and we are doing our best to put an end to these attacks, but, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee 100 percent success.

/// END ACT ///

Not all Palestinians want to become suicide bombers. What motivates a young man to kill himself in order to kill his enemies?

Dr. Eyad Sarraj is a prominent Palestinian psychiatrist who specializes in the mental health of children in the Gaza Strip. He says that those who volunteer for suicide missions are often shy people, with distinctive personality traits.

/// SARRAJ ACT ///

First, people who have a problem of power. They want to be in control. And the ultimate form of control, is when you control life and death. Second, they are usually introverts, not very good in (verbal) communication, and they want to exercise the best form of communication, when they are on top of everything and they are in control.

/// END ACT ///

Dr. Sarraj says suicide attackers are taught that their action will transfer them from a hell on earth to a heavenly paradise.

/// 2nd SARRAJ ACT ///

According to the Islamic teaching, (the bomber) isn't going to die -- it is guaranteed that he is going to survive and live a better life, out of the despair. A few times, it was observed that people smiled just seconds before they killed themselves. And I believe that when they go into that kind of trance, they see something that we don't see. The doors are opening for them then, and this is what is so strange, and people can rarely understand. These people are going for a new life. They are not dying. And that is very powerful.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Dr. Shafiq Masalha is a clinical psychologist in the Palestinian territories. He specializes in studying the effects of the conflict on Palestinian children. He says that suicide attackers are seeking immortality, and, therefore, for them, the end always justifies their means.

/// MASALHA ACT // OPT ACT ///

Unfortunately, some of (these) means lead them to believe that they are martyrs who would get a prize for what they do in the eternal life, not the life that we lead, which is more precious, because, in their belief, it is a continuing life, and this a temporary life. So, when they would get such a dear prize for the eternal, this is something that would motivate them to do anything.

/// END ACT /// END OPT ///

But Boaz Ganor of Israel's Counter-Terrorism Research Institute says that becoming a suicide bomber involves much more than a yearning to be transferred to a heavenly paradise. He says the military leaders of the Islamic groups first test the commitment of their candidates, sometimes in the most ghoulish ways.

/// GANOR ACT ///

Just before the attack happens they take the suicide attackers. They order them to dig their own graves, lie down inside, to have the feeling of become deceased.

/// END ACT ///

Just how many more Palestinians are willing to volunteer for such missions remains unknown. But many Israelis now live in fear that the next attack could take place at any time, anywhere. (Signed)

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