Suicide Bombings in Israel

Description:

After the second world war, the Jewish people were 'given' a piece of land, which was occupied by England at that time, in which they could create their own state. The people that already lived there, the Palestinians, were not all that happy with those major Israeli cities being spawned next to their own. Also the incredible archievements in agriculture and irrigation made the Palestinians envious. In the end we have disgruntled Palestinians living in the same 'region' as the Israelis. Both want to have their own nation but are not able to agree on which parts will be assigned to who.

Suicide bombing is the act of equiping oneself with explosives, taking a bus to a crowded area with lots of citizens of the group you are opposing and then detonating the charges.

Enablers:

Social

• Support from citizens: 87% of Palestinians support armed attacks against soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• Support from community
• Support from mosque leaders
• Support from schools
• Support from Palestinian media
• Support from (some) parents
• Martyrdom increases one's social status after death, as well as that of his or her family. Their names and faces are used to decorate walls and posters throughout many Palestinian communities.

Financial

• Financial resources are distributed indirectly to family of suicide bombers: This money comes from other Arab countries like Iraq, Syria etc.

Religious

• Islamic Fundamentalism: Although the Islam forbids suicide and harming others, extremists are able to convince others that suicide attacks are the will of Allah. The deep fundamentalism of many Islamic believers makes them easy prey for these ideas.
• Religion is part of a Muslims everyday live, indoctrination via religion is therefore very easy.

Political/Military

• Isreali soldiers keep attacking
• Suicide bombers keep attacking
• Both parties remain stiff with their demands of each other. So even when leaders meet with each other a compromise is hard/impossible to negotiate.
• Long time the (former) leader of the palestinians was regarded a terrorist by the Israelis.
• Hamas, the terrorist activist group

Inhibitors:

• Foreign intervention seems to alleviate the tension at times.
• New palestinian leader (Mahmoud Abbas) tries opening up dialogue with Israel: Credibility of Arafat (previous leader) was very low.

Paradigms:

• Before: Suicide bombers, and terrorism were almost non-existant
• After: Suicide bombers have almost become a everyday happening.

Experts:

Google

Timing:

From the end of WWII after the Israelis started colonizing the region now called Israel, until now.

Web Resources:

• [1] Palestinian Suicide Bombers