Human face of violence

Anthropology can help decipher underlying political logic when powerful social movements identify and shape a certain vision of oppression. Often, the discipline digs deeper than any brilliant political theory, as it mobilises those who are alert to perceived injustices. In The Making of a Human Bomb, Nasser Abufarha, the founder and chair of the Palestine Fair Trade Association based in Jenin, Palestine, discusses his people's "martyrdom" operations (suicide attacks), which were launched against Israel during the Al Aqsa Intifada between 2000 and 2006.

In his impressive discussions, which are based on interviews with members of the families of "martyrs" and activists from three different armed factions, the author provides rare insights into how Palestinians actually understand the history of the conflict with Israel. Beyond the raw data presented with utmost care — how many bombers hit which targets and the resulting number of fatalities on both sides — Abufarha "seek[s] to understand these violent practices". He stresses that "we must move beyond condemning them and questioning their legitimacy and examine the social and political processes that make them meaningful in their local settings" (page 4). Naturally, many will be angry at such a premise, rejecting any comparison between violence and issues of political legitimacy. The author's praise of Palestinian groups such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) will also disappoint critics although Abufarha presents extensive research to build his powerful thesis.

In fact, one of the more interesting revelations concerns intra-Palestinian struggles, with the PFLP quickly recognising "that if Hamas and Jihad were the only groups carrying out martyrdom operations (ie suicide attacks) and generating tremendous support by doing so, then leadership of Palestinian society would fall exclusively to the Islamic groups". Naturally, this presented dilemmas to the PFLP (and other groups), whose "programmes for social change" would come to naught. Therefore, and ironically, martyrdom evolved into a "form of contemporary Palestinian resistance that has proved meaningful and captured the imagination of [the] Palestinian public … forcing it on some groups and reorganising society" (page 195).

Focused on the cause

It may be possible to argue that Abufarha's analysis illustrates that one can support non-violence without condemning the Palestinian resistance, which pro-Israeli audiences will reject. And while suicide bombings leave an impact on Israelis, he asserts, that "the performance of martyrdom in Palestine should not obscure the reality that these acts of martyrdom include acts of indiscriminate terror". Even more pronounced, Abufarha claims that such sacrifices underscore the Palestinian aspiration for freedom as the stateless nation attempts to deal with and rectify its rootlessness. He concludes: "The experience, collective and individual, as lived and conceived from the daily dynamic[s] of the Palestinian encounter with Israel, shapes the form of violence. Thus performing violence cannot be only seen through the political instrumental calculus."

Palestinian resistance fighters — the fedayeen — adopted a specific course towards liberation even before 1948 when defiance to the Jewish/Israeli occupation was an honoured activity within Palestinian society. After 1948, such resistance took on added value, when anyone who died for the sake of the usurped nation became a shaheed (martyr). This is the essence of Abufarha's thesis. How martyrdom evolved during the first Intifada in the 1980s and especially after the second one started in 2000 are remarkable developments. As the meaningless Oslo accords failed to advance the "peace process", Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which were not widely supported among Palestinians, resorted to bombings. Their hope was for this confrontation to move the Israeli government to come to terms with the fact that the Palestinian nation rejected assimilation and/or submission.

No longer were Palestinians satisfied with throwing stones. Israeli brutality produced a skewed but not illogical action, as volunteers reasoned that if they were to be killed, it was surely better to choose the manner of their death. For Abufarha, the aim of Palestinian bombings was to cause "mimetic terror and fear" throughout Israeli society, which was largely achieved because Palestinian victims imitated the long years of Israeli "terrorism" in the West Bank and Gaza after the 1967 occupation.

Critics of the Palestinians will find fault in Abufarha's choices — since he barely focuses on international law or the morality of armed resistance — and will probably object to the anthropological approach that posits martyrdom operations as primarily a cultural performance. Many will categorically disallow the notion that one has to give equal attention to victims and perpetrators of violence. In doing so, Abufarha insists that suicide attacks are not the deeds of crazy bombers even if the acts may be maddening, because they are a product of the violent environment of the Israeli occupation.

Dr Joseph A. Kéchichian is an author, most recently of Faysal: Saudi Arabia's King for All Seasons, Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2008.