The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations: Part I & II

MEMRI ^ | Wednesday, July 03, 2002 | staff

[backhoe]

 

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From: "MEMRI" <memri@memri.org>

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Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 9:59 PM

Subject: The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations: Part I

> Inquiry and Analysis - Jihad and Terrorism Studies/PA
> July 4, 2002
> No. 100
>
> The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations: Part I - The Debate within the PA
>
> To view this Inquiry and Analysis in HTML format, please visit:
> http://memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA10002
>
> 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.
>
> Calls Against Martyrdom Operations
> PA Chairman Yasser Arafat issued several calls to stop these operations. In a speech on Nakbha Day (May 15, 2002) he said: "We declare today our un-acceptance of operations against Israeli civilians... The Palestinian and Arab public opinion is convinced that such operations do not serve our goals. Rather, they cause disagreements [with the international community] and unite large parts of it against us. You know better than me that such operations cause dissent... Let us remember the Hudaybiya agreement...."(1)
>
> After the two martyrdom operations carried out in Jerusalem in June 2002, Arafat issued another statement calling to totally stop these operations.(2)
>
> Other high ranking Palestinians have voiced clear opposition to martyrdom operations and called for a popular unarmed Intifada. The new PA Interior Minister Abd Al-Razzaq Al-Yahya said in a symposium in Gaza that as early as September 1998 he called in writing to refrain from an armed confrontation with Israel and endorsed a strategy of popular uprising. The present character of the resistance does not accumulate to any big strategic achievement rather the opposite. It causes losses and damages and accumulates feelings of vengeance hate and enmity between Palestinians and Israelis. Viewing the Palestinian armed resistance as a form of deterrence is nice words that have no basis in reality because such a deterrence can exist only when both parties have WMDs.(3)
>
> Former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Nabil Amru, told Al Quds daily: "...Of course I do not support martyrdom operations. I must not be happy that the sons of my people blow themselves up in this way. I cannot send my sons to such operations. In addition to that the political reality and the Palestinian leadership oppose such operations..."(4)
>
> Arafat's Advisor on Military Affairs, Mamduh Nofal, suggested that the Hamas movement should be ousted from the "national Palestinian forces." Since it crossed all lines and violated the common denominator agreed upon by all the Palestinian forces. Nofal accused Hamas of striving to destroy the peace process as well as the PA through martyrdom operations against Israeli civilian targets which grant Sharon justification for his military assault with the backing of the White House and unofficial backing of some Arab countries.(5)
>  
> Calls to Continue Martyrdom Operations:
> PA Deputy Minister of Awqaf and preacher in the Al Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Yusef Jum'a Salamah, said in a Friday sermon: "The U.S.'s description of martyrdom operations as terrorism is false and libelous. The Palestinian people ... has no way to defend itself, its land, and its honor, except through this way. If the Jews are scared of these actions let them withdraw from the Palestinian lands and then the martyrdom operations and the armed resistance will cease because there will be no need for it. America and the entire world should understand that ... there is no way for that oppressive occupation but to pass away... Let me stress that the armed resistance is continuing. Our people is steadfast and the people with all its religious factions agrees to armed resistance to the Israeli occupation regardless of the number of casualties. The whole Palestinian people backs it leadership whose sole goal is to remove the occupation and create a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its c!
> apital."(6)
>
> Calls to Limit the Operations to Territories Occupied in '67
> Palestinian Cabinet Secretary, Ahmad Abd Al Rahman, stated: "Martyrdom operations are the most noble, most sublime means of battle, that the Palestinian people have created... However, these operations should be [limited] to the occupied Palestinian lands beyond the June '67 borders."(7)
>
> A similar position was voiced by Minister of Planning and Regional Cooperation, Nabil Sha'ath, who stated: "We support martyrdom operations but only of the kind that emerged in Jenin, and sought to confront the Israeli aggression, or of the kind planned by the youth of Khan Yunes, who surrounded themselves with explosive belts waiting for the Israeli invasion in order to blow themselves up against the Israeli tanks."(8)
>
> Former Arafat advisor, Bassam Abu Sharif, wrote in an article that martyrdom operations against civilians should be stopped and directed only against soldiers and settlers: "We say again to all those who plan operations targeting Israeli civilians: 'Stop these operations because they severely damage the supreme Palestinian interests and provide Sharon and his government [an excuse] in international circles.' The resistance to the occupation should continue in all forms and means but not through martyrdom operations against civilians. It is time to take a Palestinian stand to stop such operations in order to serve the supreme Palestinian interests."(9)
>  
> The same position was voiced by the Director General of the Palestinian Information Ministry, Hassan Al-Kashef, who praised in his regular column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida the attacks on the settlement Adora [south of Hebron] which according to him was "a model" for the right type of Palestinian resistance: "The successful military operation in the Adora settlement is the Palestinian reaction in the right direction as well as in the right time and place... It came from the right direction and refutes Sharon's and Bush's allegations because it was not targeting civilians in a restaurant or a hotel..."(10)
>  
> The Position of the Leaders of Fatah
> Two basic approaches can be observed in the positions of the Fatah leaders: The first, puts conditions on the cessation of the martyrdom operations while the second totally ignores Arafat's position claiming that Arafat "no longer controls the military wing of the Fatah."
>
> In an interview with the Israel Arabic Weekly Al-Sinara, the Secretary General of the Fatah in the West Bank, Hussein Al-Sheikh stated that some of the operations were "not in the right time nor in the right place." "Sharon is the one to blame for the escalation and the Palestinian reaction. The ball should not be in the Palestinian court."(11)
>
> In an interview with the London daily Al-Hayat conditioned the cessation of martyrdom operations on a statement by Fatah that it is ready to stop the operations in the depths of Israel on two conditions: First, that Israel totally refrains from entering PA territory and second, that Israel stops the policy of assassinations. At the same time, Al-Sheikh demanded that the armed resistance continues albeit only beyond the June '67 borders.(12)
>
> Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and member of the Fatah leadership, Hatem Abd Al-Qader put other conditions to the cessation of martyrdom operations: "It will be possible to exert concrete efforts to cease such operations if Israel commits itself to the following: First, Israel should commit itself to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people, namely to stop the incursions; Second, Israel should withdraw from the occupied Palestinian lands; Third, Israel should remove the siege from the Palestinian people who live in prisons; Four, Israel should release all detainees; Five, the international community should give the Palestinians guarantees that they will be able to implement their right to operate beyond the '67 borders... Without these conditions it will be difficult to limit these operations. No one can do it as long as the Israeli aggression continues. And whoever claims that he can stop these operations without the suitable [supportive] atmosphere!
>  - is dreaming or has delirium." Abd Al-Qader also explained why Fatah members do not respond to Arafat's call to refrain from such acts: "The Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, who are the military arm of Fatah are not subordinate to a central decision taken by the political leadership... Arafat doesn't control them anymore. Israel bears that responsibility."(13)
>
> Endnotes:
>
> (1) Al Ayam (PA), May 16, 2002. In his speech Arafat elaborated on the agreement that was signed between the Prophet Muhammad and his Meccan rivals in 628 A.D. for a temporary period of ten years, which later became a precedent and a religious time limit to any peace agreement with non-Muslims.
> (2) Al Ayam (PA), June 20, 2002.
> (3) Al Hayat Al Jadida (PA), June 14, 2002.
> (4) Al Quds, May 29, 2002.
> (5) Al Hayat Al Jadida, June 9, 2002.
> (6) June 13, 2002, http://www.lailatalqadr.com/stories/p5130601.shtml
> (7) Al Ayam (PA), June 4, 2002. On another occasion Abd Al Rahmad said: I call upon the Hamas movement to act in the territories occupied in '67 and stop the martyrdom operations inside Israel... "
> (8) Al Quds (PA), May 31, 2002.
> (9) Al Sharq Al Awsat (London), May 2, 2002.
> (10) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 28, 2002.
> (11) Kul Al-Arab (Israel), June 24, 2002.
> (12) Al Hayat (London), June 9, 2002.
> (13) Al Sinara (Israel), June 21, 2002.
>
> *********************
> The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East.  Copies of articles
> and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
>
> The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
> P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
> Phone: (202) 955-9070
> Fax: (202) 955-9077
>

---

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "MEMRI" <memri@memri.org>

To: "MEMRI Subscribers" <memri@memri.org>

Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 6:29 PM

Subject: The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations Part II: A PA Communiqué

> To view this Inquiry and Analysis in HTML format, please visit: http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA10102
>
> Special Dispatch - Jihad and Terrorism Studies /PA
> July 5, 2002
> No. 101
>
> The Palestinian Debate Over Martyrdom Operations
> Part II: A Palestinian Communiqué Against the Attacks
>
> Recently, the Palestinian daily Al-Quds published a communiqué 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, as 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.(1)
>
> Professor Nusseibah: Version I
> In an interview with the Arab-Israeli daily Al-Ittihad, Professor Nusseibah explained the reasons behind the communiqué: "We must turn to means that serve our goal - which is to remove the occupation and get rid of its barbaric acts of repression. We do not think that murdering Israeli civilians serves our just, human goals; it turns the well-known murderer who destroys villages, murders children, usurps lands, and banishes people, into a victim who markets himself to the world, seeks support, and justifies his barbaric acts against us. Whatever the cruelty of the enemy, who has not a trace of human characteristics...  Palestinians must not sacrifice their moral values in addition to their body. We must cling to human, moral values and standards, because our strength lies in our adherence to values and morality."(2)
>   
> Professor Nusseibah: Version II
> On the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera, Professor Nusseibah explained the reason behind the communiqué in a another way. Appearing on the same panel with head of the Hamas politbureau Khaled Mash'al, and Umm Nidal, the mother of Muhammad Farhat, [who appeared in a video sending her son to commit a martyrdom attack](3) - Professor Nusseibah said that the [signatories'] objections to military operations referred only to operations against civilians within Israel: "There is a general consensus that we naturally support resistance in general and resistance to the occupation in particular. [There is a consensus] that there is no life under occupation, and that most of the Palestinian people is very much prepared to martyr itself to achieve liberty and independence and to restore its honor. I [too] agree to this. There are different kinds of resistance. There is armed resistance and there is unarmed resistance, which is legitimate resistance.  Then this resistance can be public and b!
> e popular [such as the kind] in which the Palestinian people engaged throughout  the many years of occupation. Similarly, within the framework of armed resistance there is resistance for attack and resistance for defense.  [Now] martyrdom operations are [another] kind of resistance. There is on the one hand martyrdom for defense, like the heroes who martyred themselves to defend their land and their homeland in the Jenin camp, or the martyr hero Fares Odeh who fell victim to the soldiers of the occupation, and on the other hand there is martyrdom in an attack. Even in martyrdom in an attack, a distinction can be made between martyrdom in an attack directed against military targets and one directed against civilian targets."
>   
> "In our [communiqué], we referred to this kind of martyrdom - the armed operations with explosives [targeting civilians in Israel]." 
>   
> "I wish to emphasize that we did not condemn [the operations] and did not appeal to the emotions.  We appealed as brother to brother, to consider this issue, and so there will be a genuine [re-]evaluation of the issue in which every thinker and all those concerned would participate, so as to examine the benefit and the damage of operations against civilians within Israel."
>   
> Referring to Umm Nidal's pride in and justification of her son's martyrdom, Professor Nusseibah glorified her, saying: "When I hear the words of Umm Nidal, I recall the [Koranic] verse stating that 'Paradise lies under the feet of mothers.'(4) All respect is due to this mother, it is due to every Palestinian mother and every female Palestinian who is a Jihad fighter on this land. I do not wish to mix political statements and political commentary with the respect every Palestinian feels for every Jihad fighter and for anyone who truly thinks that there is no life under the occupation, except in freedom and dignity."(5)
>   
> A similar statement by Professor Nusseibah appeared on the Arab news site Albawaba: "The communiqué that I, along with hundreds of others, signed was clear. We did not address our brothers in the various resistance factions to chastise them, or to condemn them, or depict the resistance as terror, or to de-legitimize it.  None of these words appeared in the communiqué ... [Our] aim was to convey a message that there is a need to reexamine the benefit of the [martyrdom] operations within Israel in the context of the goals we seek to accomplish."(6)
>
> The PA's Response: Version I
> In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz(7), Yassir Arafat said that he supported this communiqué. 
>
> The PA's Response: Version II
> In an unusual move, the PA's mouthpiece Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily discredited the list of names on the communiqué stating that the paper checked the names and found that some were children under 10, others were deceased or mentally ill people and it also included Egyptian actors.(8)
>   
> A Counter Communique'
> 150 Arab intellectuals, among them many Palestinians, issued a counter communiqué supporting suicide/martyrdom attacks. This communiqué stated: "What is required today from the Arab Palestinian people, of all factions, is to resist the occupation and remove it from our land by all ways and all means, primarily [through] armed struggle with all weapons that can be found, in response to the Zionist military machine armed with American weapons and an overt bias against our people, our cause, and against all the causes of the Arab world."(9)
>
> Endnotes:
>
> (1) Al-Quds (Palestinian Authority), June 19-22, 2002.
> (2) Al-Itahad (Israel), June 20, 2002.
> (3) See MEMRI Special Dispatch Special Dispatch 391.  In an interview with the London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Umm Nidal stated: "Because I love my son, I encouraged him to die a martyr's death for the sake of Allah... After the martyrdom [operation], my heart was peaceful about Muhammad. I encouraged all my sons to die a martyr's death, and I wish this even for myself."
> (4) This is not a Koranic verse, but a Hadith (tradition ascribed to Muhammad), about mothers being the that mothers are the highest beings, such that even Paradise is beneath their feet.
> (5) Al-Jazeera television (Qatar), June 29, 2002.
> (6) http://albawaba.com/news/index/php3.sid=217603&lang=a&dir=news, June 24, 2002.
> (7) Ha'aretz, June 21 and this also appeared in the PA daily Al-Ayyam on June 24, 2002.
> (8) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), June 26, 2002.
> (9) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), June 30, 2002.
>
> *********************
> The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East.  Copies of articles
> and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
>
> The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
> P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
> Phone: (202) 955-9070
> Fax: (202) 955-9077
> E-Mail: memri@memri.org
> www.memri.org

[backhoe]

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[knighthawk]

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The Islamic Legitimacy of The "Martyrdom Operations"

[backhoe]

Appreciate it, neighbor- thanks!

[knighthawk]

Anytime! At your service!

[Madame Dufarge]

Viewing the Palestinian armed resistance as a form of deterrence is nice words that have no basis in reality because such a deterrence can exist only when both parties have WMDs

Uh-oh.

[backhoe]

Be sure to subscribe to MEMRI's free eletter ( click the link ) to see unexpurgated translations of "what's really being written" over there. Our "watchdog press" studiously avoids telling us anything about it.

[Valin]

Bump and bookmarked.

[backhoe]

Appreciate it!