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Page last updated
March 7, 2007
Understanding the conflict
Violence against civilians - the case of suicide bombings and bombers
1. Driven by vengeance and a desire to defend the homeland
Amira Hass
c. 2,200 words
2. How to stop suicide killings: a debate
Detering Suicide Killers
Nathan Lewin, a Washington, D.C. attorney who frequently appears before the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the Adjunct Faculties of George Washington Law School (Jewish Civil Law) and Columbia Law School (Supreme Court Litigation).
'The nation whose civilians are killed or maimed should, by "targeted assassinations" or other means, be free promptly to execute the immediate relatives of the suicide bombers.'
A stronger moral force
Arthur Green, Phillip Lown Professor of Jewish Thought at Brandeis University.
'My first desire on reading Lewin's essay was to rayz kri'ah, tear my garments, as a sign of mourning on hearing the desecration of God's name. Can we really have come to this?'
c. 2,000 words. Two parts of a whole, which need to be read together.
3. The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations
Part I - The Debate within the PA July 03, 2002
'Recently, there have been several calls from amongst the Palestinian leadership condemning martyrdom operations and demanding their cessation. Nevertheless, a new, clear and determined PA position on this issue has not yet emerged. What is taking place in fact, is a debate in which some of the high ranking officials express explicit opposition to such operations, others call to limit them only to the territories occupied in '67, and others call to continue them unconditionally.'
Part II: A Palestinian CommuniquZ? Against the Attacks
'Recently, the Palestinian daily Al-Quds published a communiquZ? with some 500 signatories, among them leading Palestinians such as Professor Sari Nusseibah [and his wife Lucy], Hanan Ashrawi, Mamdouh Nofal, Ziad Abu Ziyad, and Hashem Abd Al-Razeq. The statement called for a stop to military operations harming civilians in Israel, s they produce no results except for an increase in the hatred between the two peoples and the destruction of the possibility of living side by side in peace in two neighboring states.'
c. 14,300 words in all
4. Our daughter's death is Israel's fault
Alexandra Williams In Jerusalem
The Mirror (London) June 25, 2002
See also [main listings are given in section H]
a) The Ethics of Revenge, a speech by Yitzhak Frankenthal, chair of the Bereaved Families Forum, to a rally in Jerusalem, 27th July 2002
b) Beyond belief
Azmi Bishara, Member of the Knesset
Al Ahram, 2002
A biting criticism of the failures of the PLO leadership and of its consequences
'The most fundamental aspect of the moral crisis in Palestinian politics is that the arena of national liberation struggle and resistance has been left open to those who, with the closure of all avenues of hope, have lost any sense of the meaning of life and seek instead a meaning in death.'
5. Open Gates, despite it all Kibbutz Metzer after the attack
Aviv Lavie
Ha'aretz, November 2002
"After 50 years of no one ever touching a hair on our heads, along come the decision-makers and ruin the peace and quiet. Confiscating land, ripping up thousands of olive trees. Look at us. We're macho men. We can take your land away. We're the masters and you're the slaves. And right after that, the kibbutz is attacked for the first time in its history. Don't tell me there's no connection."
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