THE UNIQUENESS OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISM
30 May 2002
By Prof. Louis Rene Beres, Purdue University and
Alessandra Delgado,Lima, Peru
According to The Covenant of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement is
"universal." All Palestinian groups - whether it be the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and its subunits or any other "revolutionary"faction
- share an understanding that "There is no solution for the Palestinian question
except through Jihad....(Holy War)." As
for Israel, all Palestinians have a firm obligation to "obliterate it." The
Charter of the PLO mirrors the Hamas Covenant, calling the "nucleus" of the
Palestinian movement only those who are "fighters and carriers of arms.
All terrorist groups, of course, emphasize violence and the use of force, but
the Palestinian groups are altogether unique in several important ways. Most
significant of all is that, for the Palestinians,violence is generally its own
reward. Rejecting more instrumental views of force, Hamas, PLO and all other
movement organizations have now come to regard terror
violence as an end in itself. The root of this dark sentiment lies in their
common and all-consuming hatred of "The Jews."
When Haj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spoke together with
Hitler on Berlin Radio in 1942, he cried out: "Kill the Jews -kill them with
your hands, kill them with your teeth - this is well pleasing to Allah."
Today the PLO call for annihilation of Israel still remains codified at PA
websites and publications, and the Hamas Covenant still calls insistently for
the "realization of Allah's promise: `The Day of Judgment will not come until
Muslims fight the Jews, killing them.'"
Directed toward Jews, the violence of Palestinian terrorism is always
"sacred" violence. Unlike terrorists in other parts of the world, the
Palestinian movement fighters aspire to immortality. Paradoxically, that is why
they commit uniquely homicidal forms of "suicide." Urged on by Arafat-appointed
clergy in the mosques, they believe fully that by dying in
the religiously-mandated act of blowing up Jews they buy themselves free from
the penalty of death. As for their fiery self-immolation, it is only a momentary
inconvenience on the "martyr's" journey to union with God Almighty. Identifying
the PLO as "a father, a brother, a relative, a friend," the Hamas Charter
instructs: "We (all Palestinians) know the
Palestinian problem is a religious one, to be dealt with on this premise....`I
swear by that (sic) who holds in his hands the Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish
to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill,
assault and kill.'"
For terrorists elsewhere in the world, suicide is something "crazy,"certainly
not a tactic to be used as a proper strategy of
revolutionary confrontation. For the Palestinians, however, suicide in the act
of murdering Jews represents the very highest form of political engagement, a
properly Islamic method that distinguishes it from merely secular forms of
insurgency. Consider, for example, the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru, a
Latin American terrorist group that took
74 hostages at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru on December 17, 1996. After
the kidnapper's initial demands were rejected by the Government, the terrorists
threatened to blow the entire Embassy as an act of suicidal desperation.
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's response was to say simply: "There
cannot be peace talks or agreements while terror is being used as the principal
argument." Again, the terrorists threatened: "If the Government doesn't cede, we
will die with all the hostages." Five months later, on April 22, 1997, with not
a single hostage harmed, the hostages were
rescued.
Unlike Palestinian terror groups, who seek to inflict gratuitous harm on non
combatants - often by filling bombs with nails, screws and razor blades - the
MRTA rejected suicide terrorism as both irrational and inhumane.
Palestinian terror seeks national self-determination, but shouts to the world that even after statehood, violence must continue against the Jews. Every map of every Palestinian group features a new Arab state incorporating all of Israel. Not only Al-Fatah, the Arafat faction of PLO, but also the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; the Palestine Liberation Front; Al-Saika and the PLO itself have already exterminated Israel cartographically.
Terrorism has brought pain and suffering throughout the world, but
Palestinian terrorism remains grotesquely unique. In Latin America, groups such
as MRTA and Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) have resorted to bloodshed in a
class-based fight for social, economic and political equality. But their
violence is plainly instrumental and their goals have nothing to do
with genocide. In Peru, moreover, whenever Sendero Luminoso exploded bombs in
cars and buses, citizens uniformly condemned the terror.
All Palestinian terror groups, on the other hand, are determined to use violence
even where it is manifestly unsuitable for political gain and -as expressed at
Article 15 of the PLO Charter - to achieve "total elimination of Zionism in
Palestine." As for Palestinian civilian populations, they regularly
celebrate even the most barbarous forms of anti-Jewish terrorism. When a terror
organization linked closely to Arafat took credit for the May 27 Petah Tikvah
attack on babies and children at a suburban ice cream parlor, thousands of
ordinary Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah cheered the "heroic military
operation."
Latin American terror groups fight for human improvement and survival, but
look ultimately toward peace and coexistence. Palestinian terrorists, on the
other hand, fight to expunge an entire people, the Jews, from the face
of the Middle East. Palestinian terrorism is not a plea to Israel to relieve
material needs, but rather a demand to die so that Arabs can realize their
spiritual wants. Citing to a major HADITH (an Arab term which refers to the oral
tradition by means of which sayings or deeds attributed to the prophet Muhammed
have been handed down to Muslim believers), King Sa'ud once informed a British
visitor to his court: "Verily, the word of God teaches us, and we implicitly
believe it, that for a Muslim to kill a Jew, or for him to be killed by a Jew,
ensures him an immediate entry into heaven and
into the august presence of God Almighty."
Palestinian terrorism, based upon fanatical religious hatreds and
intentionally wanton killings, bears no close resemblance to other forms of
contemporary terror violence. Starkly medieval, it seeks the death and
dismemberment of individual Jews and the total annihilation of the Jewish State.
It follows that there can be absolutely no civilized justification
for its manifold crimes and harms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
LOUIS RENE BERES was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is author
of many books and articles dealing with terrorism and international law.
He is Professor of International Law, Department of Political Science, Purdue
University,LAEB Building
West Lafayette IN 47907,USA
TEL 765/494-4189
FAX 765/494-0833
EMAIL
BERES@POLSCI.PURDUE.EDU
ALESSANDRA DELGADO, a Peruvian student at Purdue University, is
studying the history and activity of Latin American terror groups.