Israeli Writer Living in Palestine Offers Insights on Suicide Bombers

The only Jewish-Israeli journalist living in the Palestinian territories mesmerized a packed auditorium on campus Thursday night, dispelling widespread images that all Palestinians families see suicide bombers as martyrs.

Amira Hass pulled together an amalgam of stories from the families of Palestinian suicide bombers she had encountered, weaving a tale of a rising phenomenon spawned by years of desperation that has deeply divided people across the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The moment of explosion is the moment of omnipotence for these people," Hass said.

Hass, 47, has been reporting for the past decade inside of Gaza and the West Bank for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. She received the 2003 UNESCO World Press Freedom Award.

Hass said families of suicide bombers she knew were often angry at their relatives for engaging in missions because it endangered the entire family. She even knew of parents who, suspecting their children were plotting suicide bombings, had turned them into the authorities.

"What I hear them say is that they are all happy that the suicide bomber is thriving in heaven," Hass said, referring to suicide bombers' speeches to the media. "But I've lived long enough among Palestinians not to trust the speech given to the press."

Still, Hass said all of the would-be suicide bombers or their accomplices had witnessed killings at the hands of the Israeli army.

"They don't understand why the world thinks that suicide bombers are worse than killing 15 civilians from a plane," Hass said. "They think it is noble. Sure it is killing, but they are giving up what is most precious: their life."

While Hass said one could not ignore the influence of religion in convincing a Palestinian to blow herself up, she said religion alone could not explain the proliferation of suicide bombings over the last three-year uprising.

But Hass said in a society with no hope for the future, Palestinian organizations find it easy to recruit, manipulating desperation for political gain.

"Palestinian organizations have used, abused and consumed the needs of Palestinians-their need of revenge," Hass said.

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