Good bye to my friends, good riddance to others.
Macdonald
Subject: [R-G] The Making of a Suicide Attacker: Are Palestinians Human? CounterPunch
> CounterPunch December 5,
> 2001
>
> The Making of a Suicide Attacker: Are Palestinians Human?
>
> By Sam Bahour and Leila Bahour
>
> As Israeli warplanes pounded Palestinian cities, Israel's media spin-doctor,
> Benjamin Netanyahu, was being interviewed on the Fox News Channel where he
> likened Arafat to Osama bin Laden and accused him of having "suicide
> kindergarten camps for kids to prepare the next generation of suicide
> bombers" (Dec. 3, 2001). It is exactly this type of hogwash that leads to
> innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives being lost to desperation. Mr.
> Netanyahu should be incarcerated for inciting ethnic violence and hatred.
>
> Regarding the Palestinian children living in the Occupied Territories, if
> there is any hatred toward Israelis brewing in their eyes, it is not being
> taught to them by any parent, school, church or mosque. These feelings, if
> exist, come out of the incidents that occur daily in their lives (Israeli
> F-16 planes circling above their homes and dropping missiles which kill a
> parent, uncle, aunt, cousin, or school mate, their schools being closed,
> their inability to play in their yards, etc.). What Israel has been and
> continues to create is a generation of Palestinian children suffering from
> Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a direct result of the Israeli occupation.
> Unfortunately, the world has turned a blind eye to the atrocities conducted
> by Israel and somehow has turned the Palestinian child into an aggressor
> only worthy of death.
>
> Listening to the mini-army of Israeli media spin personalities, one is led
> to ask if Palestinians are really human. For 15 months now, Israel's
> well-defined whirlwind media effort has been preciously focused on promoting
> its insidious campaign to dehumanize the Palestinian people.
>
> Assuming Palestinians are no different than any other people (they have two
> arms, two legs and all major organs), we then should take a step back from
> the nightly news and media spin and understand why any Palestinian would
> commit suicide, let alone take innocent Israeli lives with his own. Since
> Palestinians are human, the sciences apply to them just as it does to the
> rest of humanity.
>
> Edwin Shneidman, a clinical psychologist who is a leading authority on
> suicide, and who is sometimes called the Father of modern Suicidology, has
> described the ten characteristics of suicide in his book "Definition of
> Suicide" (1985).
>
> 1. The common stimulus in suicide is "unendurable psychological pain".
>
> 2. The common stress in suicide is "frustrated psychological needs".
>
> 3. The common purpose of suicide is "to seek a solution".
>
> 4. The common goal of suicide is "cessation of consciousness".
>
> 5. The common emotion in suicide is "hopelessness-helplessness".
>
> 6. The common internal attitude toward suicide is "ambivalence".
>
> 7. The common cognitive state in suicide is "constriction".
>
> 8. The common interpersonal act in suicide is "communication of intention".
>
>
> 9. The common action in suicide is "egression" (a way out).
>
> 10. The common consistency in suicide is with "life-long coping patterns".
>
> If these are the findings of science, then why is it that the investigative
> reporters of the world do not enter the lives of these bombers to see if
> they fit the profile of a suicidal person? Why the immediate acceptance of
> the Israeli spin machine that Palestinians, in some twisted logic, take
> happiness in killing themselves and others. Worse yet, why do some try to
> understand the bombings in terms of being part of some orchestrated media
> campaign that can be turned on or off at will?
>
> As we look at the research on suicide and try to understand the mind of the
> suicidal individual, the picture should become clearer as to how these
> characteristics apply to a Palestinian suicide attacker.
>
> Dr. Shneidman states in his article "At The Point Of No Return" in
> Psychology Today (1987, p.56), "Suicide, I have learned is not a bizarre and
> incomprehensible act of self destruction. Rather, suicidal people use a
> particular logic, style of thinking that brings them to the conclusion that
> death is the only solution to their problems. This style can be readily
> seen, and there are steps we can take to sto suicide, if we know where to
> look".
>
> Although this research applies to suicidal individuals and not necessarily
> suicide bombers which take additional innocent lives with their act, through
> studying the ten characteristics of the suicidal individual, it certainly
> seems they apply even more so to the suicidal bomber. These individuals seek
> to escape overwhelming emotional pain. Shneidman terms this "metapain" (hurt
> and pain on to of hurt and pain). So, from where does this hurt and pain
> come? If only the answer were as simple as the question. Living under
> Israeli occupation for years with basic human rights stripped away and
> collective punishment the norm would be the best one sentence answer that
> could be offered at this time.
>
> Another quote that seems to apply from Shneidman (1985) is, "There are many
> pointless deaths but never a needless suicide". Every suicide seems logical
> to the individual who commits it. In a suicidal individual's mind, suicide
> is the only way out of an unbearable situation. A person can only cry so
> long with nobody listening before his options become constricted and suicide
> seems to him the only answer. In working with the "typical" suicidal
> individual, the first step is listening and trying to understand the pain,
> frustration and hopelessness/helplessness that he is feeling. "Hopelessness"
> and "helplessness" exactly describe the feelings of the Palestinian people
> living under occupation. It seems nobody wants to hear the reality of the
> situation but at the same time everyone seems so willing to label and then
> be in astonishment when one of these horrendous acts is committed. It is
> past time to look at the reality and begin to provide other viable options
> to the Palestinian people. A simple start to begin with would be giving them
> their dignity and right to existence without occupation.
>
> Suicide bombers are never ever justified in their actions but those who want
> to try to understand may understand their motivation. To reach a logical
> conclusion of why these horrific events take place, one must scratch below
> the surface that the sustained Israeli occupation has made thicker and
> thicker with every passing year since 1967. Further complicating matters,
> Israel has been successful in allowing the passive observer to the conflict
> to equate the actions and mindset of the occupied with those of the
> occupier. This equality is unfair, illogical and unscientific.
>
> We must separate between those who carry out deplorable suicide attacks,
> those innocent victims of the attacks and those that politically plan, fund,
> and recruit for the attacks. The overwhelming majority of those who carry
> out the attacks are no more than normal young men, either born into Israeli
> occupation or still imprisoned by many years of it. They are victims of
> Israeli policies of dehumanization and continued military occupation. They
> lack any means of military resistance while facing a world-class military
> machine. As one of my readers of a past article stated, "[If only the media
> would cover] who they were, what their lives were like, who and what were
> left behind -- it would be a whole different story about public perception
> of the problem in Israel and Occupied Territories."
>
> The innocent Israeli lives, especially those of the children, which such
> attacks so abruptly end, are only to be mourned by Israelis and Palestinians
> alike. Their memories should serve as an eternal burden to all sides that
> without an end to the occupation there are no winners or losers, only more
> mourners on both sides.
>
> As for those political entities that breed in the desperation that
> occupation has created, they take innocent Israeli lives by exploiting
> Palestinians in despair while simultaneously stripping their own people of
> any political agenda, or even legitimate armed resistance agenda, for ending
> occupation. They thrive on disruption and chaos with a clear political goal
> of complicating any chance for a negotiated solution. These entities
> perfectly fit Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy of ending the
> potential for a negotiated peace. Sharon continues to give them, non-stop,
> since his election to office, ripe grounds to operate from--economic
> despair, closures, assassinations, etc. Those that facilitate such attacks
> could not have asked for a better Israeli leader, one that has given them a
> never ending seven day grace period to kill more Israelis.
>
> The US has joined the Israeli media chorus in demanding Arafat to do more to
> stop the suicide bombings. Arafat only wishes he had the power to stop the
> suicide attacks. He does not, for he cannot end occupation. Israel, and only
> Israel, can stop the suicide attacks by giving back Palestinians their
> freedom, dignity and a reason to live by ending 34 years of their brutal
> military occupation and 54 years of suffering. To the person who thinks in
> absolute terms, this may seem like Israel would be giving in to a suicide
> bomber. On the contrary, to the rational, intelligent human being who knows
> that the world does not operate on historical or religious slogans, but
> rather "reality", this would be looking at the underlying problem rather
> than adopting a simplistic "Band-Aid" approach defined by Israel.
>
> If Israel refuses to accept its historic responsibility to end its
> terrorizing of the Palestinians, then, sadly, it should not question why
> science applies to the Palestinian people. As Palestinians and Israelis
> continue to bury and weep for their innocent victims, Palestinians and
> Israelis alike, the world would be well advised to remove its head from the
> sand. CP
>
>
> Sam Bahour, MBA, and Leila Bahour, M.S.Ed., L.P.C., are
> Palestinian-Americans and brother and sister. Sam is a businessman living in
> the besieged Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and frequently
> writes on Palestinian affairs. He may be reached at sbahour at palnet.com.
>
> Leila Bahour is a Counselor at a Psychological Outpatient Counseling
> Practice in the US who has worked in the psychological field for eleven
> years. She spent a considerable amount of time dedicated to the research of
> suicide during her pursuit of her Master's degree and has treated suicidal
> individuals daily in her work over the years.
>
>
>
>
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