An Interview with a Palestinian Suicide Bomber
In late August, 2001, following a string of suicide bombings against Israeli targets carried out by Palestinian militants mostly associated with the HAMAS movement, al-Majalla, a leading Arabic language news magazine, published an interview with a suicide bomber in Gaza who is awaiting the call from his superiors to launch his strike against Israeli targets. The transcript of this interview follows:
*What is your name?
- Ahmed......
*When were you born?
-1982.
*Where were you born?
-......... [unprinted]
*What educational level did you complete?
-Secondary school.
*Are you married?
-I am a bachelor.
*Do you really intend to carry out a suicide bombing?
-If God wills it.
*Why?
-Because Zionists are [expletive deleted] who only understand force. They are strong but they use their force against the Palestinian people, against the future of the Palestinian people, and aim to send them into exile yet another time. We realize today, more than at any time in the past, that the trials of 1948 shall not be repeated. The land belongs to us and we need to assure Zionists and the rest of the world that we are prepared to die to defend the land and that we won't depart from it except as corpses.
*Why haven't you carried out an operation before now?
-Because the Brothers (al-Ikhwan) have not permitted me to up to now.
*Would you ever change your mind?
-Praise God, if I were able to, I would this very day scatter the pieces of my body over the dust of Palestine as a way of taking pleasure in this land. So, I think about how to carry out this operation all the time and about how the gains outweigh the losses.
*What if you don't succeed in killing any [Israelis], as has happened with more than one of your fellow suicide bombers?
-God have mercy upon all of them, I don't know the circumstances in which they found themselves. I don't know what they could have been thinking at the time. Don't forget that the jihad fighter acts under extraordinary circumstances.
*What do you mean by extraordinary circumstances?
-I mean that while on the way to carrying out an operation, one's final thoughts are of the success of the operation and of inflicting the maximum losses on the brutal Zionists, not of being thwarted.
*Do you know what you will be doing in that moment? How have you prepared yourself for it?
-I have complete faith in God, praise to Him in the highest, Who will be with me. My aim is not just to inflict losses upon the conquerors, but also to secure victory for my people, my family, and my country.
*Is there any way you could justify abandoning your position and your opinion?
-My friend, I heed the honorable Brothers and my training and trust in their reasons for postponing my mission. I would rather carry out my mission today than tomorrow. And, here I say truthfully to you that the mission could be carried out at any moment, perhaps before we finish this conversation, and I have resolved to put my trust in God.
*I appreciate your zeal and your exuberance, but, what if you carry out your operation while negotiations are resuming between Palestinians and Israelis? Don't you think you'd be shedding your blood in vain?
-I beg God's forgiveness, my brother, whatever happens today is up to God. For God has commanded us to carry out jihad to defend His religion and our land. Zionists must understand that Palestinians are prepared to die defending their land and defending their beliefs and their survival. As I've told you, the Palestinian authority has gotten to the point that it is unable today to deny or disregard the bloodshed of its people. The coming negotiations will not be over kilometers, but will be about eliminating the occupation completely and the return of the stolen al-Aqsa mosque. No Palestinian can today make concessions or negotiate merely for the sake of negotiations.
*With respect to Israel's occupation of Orient House and its imposition of Judaization upon all of Jerusalem, will your martyrdom play a role in getting Orient House back to the Palestinians?
-It's strange how you reporters think. I tell you that martyrdom is an obligation and it is the truth. There is no worse disgrace than living beneath the shadow of occupation by arrogant Zionists. We, as the Palestinian people, have up to now wished to live either submissively in the Zionist domain or in Arab refugee camps. But God has forever promised that we will enter the al-Aqsa mosque as our ancestors have done before us.
*Has it been determined where you will carry out your operation?
-I wouldn't tell you even if I knew.
*Let me ask you this: is your training designed to succeed in a particular kind of place?
-I assure you, as God has made clear to us in the Holy Qur'an, "Say, nothing befalls us except what God has decreed for us."
*Do you visit your family?
-Of course. I still live at home. I love the times I've spent there.
*Won't your parents and your sisters miss you?
-The only thing that governs my thinking, apart from my sisters, is that I would love to give them what no one else can: to be able to live with honor and dignity and pride and glory by my becoming a martyr they can be proud of.
*How many are in your family?
-Three sisters, one of whom is married and the other two are children.
*What do you do in your spare time?
-I work in one of the bakeries. I buy some old bread and resell it elsewhere. As you know, the Zionists control all the labor markets and have confiscated our right to live in freedom and honor.
*What would you like to say in conclusion?
-We do not possess equipment or technology of any kind capable of standing up to the cudgels of this tyrannical, authoritarian aggression propped up by ugliness, by modes of killing, bloodshed, and stockpiles of American arms. So, we know that our bodies are the only things we have with which to confront the rhetoric of supremacy. With these bodies we will defeat the occupation and its supporters, if God chooses. I hope He grants me success.
August 19-25, 2001
Translated by Ted Thornton
Concluding Note: The use of suicide bombers in Middle Eastern resistance movements dates from the successes of 1983 and 1984 in driving the United States out of Lebanon. (more) See also Arab reactions to attacks in 2003.
See also, "Suicide-Bombers: Just What Are They Dreaming of?, "The Economist," Feb. 9, 2008