TESTING PILGRIMAGES IN THE HOLY LAND
Two Pakistanis from Derby in England, Mohammed Hanif and Sharif Khan, went as human bombs to Israel - the first killed himself and three Israelis, the second is still on the run after his bomb failed. In Britain there has been media soul-searching over the unprecedented recruitment of British Muslims as Palestinian suicide-bombers. But the truth is that there is nothing unprecedented about westerners traveling to the Holy Land to test their consciences. Indeed Palestine, and the Middle East in general, suffer from an overload of people on a modern pilgrimage to discover the true measure of their belief.
Since the days of Empire, figures like T.E Lawrence and St.John Philby saw the Middle East as a backdrop to their own tortuous voyages of self-discovery. Nowadays their numbers are swelled by Zionists, like New Yorker Baruch Goldstein, a medical doctor who opened fire in a mosque in Hebron in 1994, killing 29 Palestinians. More recently liberal-minded American and European students have joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to try and prevent Israeli Defence Force (IDF) atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied territories. One of these, Rachel Corrie, was crushed by an IDF bulldozer as she tried to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes in March. Mohammed Hanif and Sharif Khan were amongst the mourners at Rachel Corrie's memorial service.
Whether courageous or just unbalanced, the common feature of all of these Western atrocity tourists is the elevated importance that the law of conscience has for them. All in their own way are responding to the frustrating failures of the ordinary political process to attain results. Instead they put their own lives - and the lives of others - in the firing line in an attempt to side-step the difficulties of building a political alternative amongst the populace. In the end, the cause itself falls into insignificance, while the sacrifice of the martyred individual becomes the test of the rightness of his or her actions.
If the people involved were rendered impotent by poverty or oppression one might understand their recourse to desperate measures, but for the most part the modern-day pilgrims are relatively prosperous, with many opportunities. None more so, of course than the prince of tortured souls, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair told Times editor Peter Stothard about his anxieties over the war against Iraq that 'it really gets to you'. He is, he says, ready 'to meet my maker' and answer for 'those who have died or have been horribly maimed as a result of my decisions' (3 May 2003). When even elected leaders see the Middle East as a backdrop to the exploration of their own consciences, and see Arabs as expendable extras in a modern-day pilgrimage, it is little wonder that individuals follow suit.
JAMES HEARTFIELD'S ADDRESS BOOK
James Heartfield's e-mail address book file was corrupted. Anyone wishing to keep in touch should drop him a line at James at heartfield.demon.co.uk
-- James Heartfield