Martyrdom

The released Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons continue to make their declarations of intent to re-commence their 'struggle' against what they claim to be the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. These committed terrorists are not referring simply to Israel's military presence in the West Bank and blockade of Gaza under Hamas; they refer to the very existence of Israel as a foreign presence on land consecrated by Islam to Muslims.

The interloper Jews must be persuaded to leave. Persuasion is most effective when it is committed with explosives. Suicide vests represent a valuable alternative. Enabling those who wear them to choose their victims, their sites, their timing. Enabling those who wear them to sacrifice themselves supremely, to become that coveted Palestinian hero; the esteemed martyr. Whose name will live forevermore in the annals of Palestinian hero-worship.

Whose name will be festooned upon on a public square, a street, a community centre. Whose name will become familiar to children whose tender minds are turned to the burning ambition to become like their heroes; martyrs. For to sacrifice one's body to the fiery pyre of Palestinian vengeance upon the Jews is laudable beyond belief, causing great celebration among the populace, a symbol of purity and piety combined.

Among those women who have been released as a thousand-to-one exchange with Hamas-held IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, there is Wafa al-Bis, returned to her family home in northern Gaza. Stating her firm intention, in chorus with other released female Palestinians held in prison for violent crimes against Israel, that she intends to fulfill a childhood ambition by "sacrificing" her life for the Palestinian cause.

Cheering schoolchildren were urged to follow her example. "I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs", Wafa al-Bis passionately told those children who surrounded her home. The children responded as good Palestinian children indoctrinated with the values prevailing among the adults who teach them with the chant: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine."

Wafa al-Bis was stopped by suspicious Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint at the Gaza border, with 10 kilograms of explosives sewn into a belt inside her underwear. She had been en route to a hospital in Israel where she had been given permission to seek treatment for burns sustained in a gas tank explosion. When stopped at the checkpoint she attempted to blow herself up, but was unsuccessful, as the detonator malfunctioned.

"I wanted to be the first female martyr from Gaza to kill Israeli soldiers and I wanted to kill as many as I could. I had wanted to be a martyr since I was a kid. I regard what I did as an honourable thing. It was my dream to be a martyr, but God didn't let me. As long as there is going to be occupation over all of Palestine, martyrs will be there to resist and to fight, and I will be among the first of the strugglers.

"This is an honourable thing, and I would be a suicide bomber three times over if I could", she said. Her mother, Salma, said she had no previous knowledge of what her daughter had committed to. But she was prepared to encourage her daughter, nonetheless. "This is Jihad, it is an honourable thing and I am proud of her", said her mother.

Hamas has announced it would award $2,000 to each returning Palestinian prisoner that Israel frees.

Tutoring children in the uber-national
glories of heroism has been a standard
feature of many societies. None have
perfected that passion to the degree of
emotional dedication to the standards
the Palestinians have managed. None
too young to be inducted into the halls
of vicious hatred. Inspire fear and
dread and hatred born of self-preservation
rears its serpent's hissing head. From the
cradle to the grave, infancy to agedness,
the sublime spark of tolerant humanity
is drained, replaced by implacable
loathing and a will to the pride of
celebrated martyrdom. This, indeed,
represents the fate of an unfortunately
lost tribe. In the ecstatic blessing they
perceive in hastening the deaths of
others, through terror-induced atrocities
they find their sublime salvation.