Palestinian Fanatics

Israel has been targeted by Palestinian terrorists who believe the land belongs to them. This scenario is nothing new, and has been primary to cause terror to Israelis since the beginning of the last century, especially after the 2017 Balfour Declaration when persecuted Jews from Europe were given safe passage into Palestine; land previously occupied by Jews before the Roman Empire decided to call the region Palestine.

According to the United Nations, called the League of nations in those days it was approved that Jewish settlers could come to Palestine. However, a certain segment of hostile Arabs was against it so much so that riots were commonplace. Spearheaded by troublemakers it led to the massive massacre of 67 Jews in the middle of the night whilst they were sleeping in the neighborhood of Hebron in the southern West Bank in 1929. With this in mind, everyone should be able to understand the difficulty Jews faced then, as they still do today, especially considering October 7^th 2023.

What is important to remember is that Israeli hostages still remain in Gaza. Aljazeera online newspaper has a completely different viewpoint by saying Israel has imprisoned 10,000 Palestinians ‘Political Prisoners’ and that for every Palestinian released, another 15 are held captive. Additionally, they say the number of Palestinians being held has doubled since the war began. Aljazeera jornalist also points out that many children are detained, and that it is a violation of their rights.

Worse still every time the IDF have to attack Gaza they have been proclaimed genocidal. In other words, according to many who believe Palestinians have a right to a Palestinian state Israel is the aggressor. Now that may have been true if it happened before October 7^th 2023.

However, it didn’t and there are still hostages unaccounted for. If Palestinians are so righteous then what gives them the right to invade Israeli territory, take hostages, and then hold them.

In fact, Gaza was given to the Palestinians to manage their own land in 2005. Remaining Jews, some with businesses were extracted from Gaza the same time, often against their will, and the land was returned as an independent state for Palestinians to occupy. Much financial aid was sent from around the world to rebuild Gaza and make good use to help the people of the land build infrastructure, construct property for families, and create opportunity for residents to develop their own businesses. Instead of putting the money to good use, Hamas, the elected leaders of the land built tunnels, rockets, and a military infrastructure to attack Israel while hiding behind the human shield of their own citizens.

Consequently it puts a lot of pressure on Israel to stand its guard and protect Israelis from infiltrators; those wishing to inflict bloodshed on Israeli soil. So much unwillingness to live in peace has meant many Palestinian have been arrested. Israel has taken prisoners. Imagine living in constant fear of malitia attacking you in the middle of the night when you are at sleep. Palestinians might argue that Isreal is detaining political prisoners, but to what degree is not known. Perhaps they were linked to suicide bombers who notoriously killed Israelis cold bloodedly like in Hebron.

In 1994, around 10 years after suicide attacks began in Lebanon, Palestinian groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad began using suicide bombers against Israeli targets to disrupt talks for a potential peace process. Many of these attacks were deliberately targeted at civilians. Over time, at least 742 civilians were killed and 4,899 were wounded by suicide bombings in Israel and the Palestinian Territories according to data from the University of Chicago. In Lebanon a further 88 civilians were killed by suicide bombings and 160 were wounded.

The first attacks occurred in April 1994, when eight people were killed in a car bomb attack on a bus in Afula in Israel. Hamas claimed responsibility. Bombings continued sporadically in the 1990s with seven in 1995, three in 1996, five in 1997, two in 1998 and two in 2000.

An upsurge in Palestinian suicide bombings followed in the next three years decade with 103 bombings. The increase corresponds with the second intifada following the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations. As violence intensified, the military wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, also began to deploy suicide bombers.

Many of these attacks were deliberately aimed at civilians. In part this reflects a broader decline of the taboo on targeting and killing civilians over the last century. But it is also a specific feature of the campaigns of the Islamic militant groups involved.

Attacks against Israeli civilians were justified by claiming that two things.  First, that they are non-believers who are an extension of the Israeli occupation, and therefore legitimate targets who do not qualify as civilians. Second, that Israel had killed many innocent Palestinian civilians and this was therefore a justified act of revenge.

Mahmoud Ahmed Marmash, a twenty-one-year-old suicide bomber who blew himself up near Tel Aviv in May 2001 explained such a decision on a video before his mission: ‘I want to avenge the blood of the Palestinians, especially the blood of the women, of the elderly, and of the children, and in particular the blood of the baby girl Iman Heijo, whose death shook me to the core…. I devote my humble deed to the Islamic believers who admire the martyrs and who work for them.’

His argument captures the mixture of religious and personal motivations which fuel suicide bombings. On the one hand his death was part of a wider religious Jihad, on the other it is motivated by a very personal desire for revenge.

For the first time suicide bombings began to be used as a means of transmitting fear throughout a whole population. These attacks were no longer unorthodox tactics in a guerrilla war against a state military, but a horribly effective means of terrorising civilians.

Popular support for suicide bombings in the Occupied Palestinian Territories remains high. A 2013, Pew survey of global attitudes found that 62% of those questioned in the Palestinian Territories believed that suicide bombing can often, or sometimes, be justified.

It is such a shame many Palestinian supporters have not studied how difficult it has been for Jews to settle in Israel, overcome adversuty, and make headway to survive and in several cases become prosperous.

Israel is a nation of believers in independence, hard work, honesty, loyalty, and the integrity to make the world a better place. If only Palestinians could forgive and try to get on together.

All the best!

Prof. Carl Boniface