Making Palestinian "martyrdom operations"/"suicide attacks": Interviews with would-be perpetrators and organizers

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 102-119

  Merari, Ariel ^a   Fighel, Jonathan ^b   Ganor, Boaz ^b   Lavie, Ephraim ^a   Tzoreff, Yohanan ^c   Livne, Arie ^b  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

^b Intl Plcy Inst Counter Terrorism   (Israel)

^c Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies   (Israel)

Author keywords

Suicide attacks; Suicide bombers; Suicide organizers; Terrorism

Indexed keywords

EID: 77951644974     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: 15561836     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546550903409403     Document Type: Article

References (8)

1. Martin Kramer, "Sacrifice and 'Self-Martyrdom' in Shi'ite Lebanon," Terrorism and Political Violence 10, no. 3 (1991), 30-47 (p.34).
2. In the interviews with the would-be suicide bombers and organizers of suicide attacks we used the Arabic term amaliyya istishhadiyya (martyrdom operation) to denote a suicide attack. This is the term commonly used by Palestinians for these attacks.
3. Throughout the paper we use fictional names for the study's participants, so as to protect their identity.
4. With regard to foreigners who volunteered to join al-Qaeda in Iraq, Felter and Fishman found a connection between the agent of recruitment and the willingness to become a suicide bomber. By their findings, the rate of volunteers for suicide missions was high among those recruited by an acquaintance, a neighbor, an organization activist, or through the internet (ranging from 57.8% to 100%), but relatively low among those recruited by a family member (18.2%).
5. See: Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, "Becoming a foreign fighter: A second look at the Sinjar records," in: Brian Fishman, ed., Bombers, Bank Accounts, & Bleedout: Al-Qaida's Road in and Out of Iraq (West Point: Combating Terrorism Center, 2008). Available at: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/pdf/Sinjar_2_July_23.pdf.
6. Lester and Lester commented wisely: "Death is a gradual process and no one moment can be identified as the time when it occurs. From the viewpoint of suicidology, the question of when physical death occurs is less important than the individual's subjective experience of death. He may consider himself 'as good as dead' when his body is still functioning, or he may expect his consciousness and awareness to continue beyond bodily death."
7. See: Gene Lester and David Lester, Suicide: The Gamble with Death (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971), p.23.
8. Benmelech and Berrebi found that the education level of Palestinian suicide bombers during the second intifada was positively correlated with several criteria of success in their suicide mission. See: Ephraim Benmelech and Claude Berrebi, "Human Capital and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers," Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no. 3 (2007), 223-238.