Palestinian Suicide Bombers Research Paper
Ericka Booze
Professor Hughes
English 360
18 March 2010
Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers To most of us understanding the idea that one would want to give and take a life so effortlessly does not come easy; people who had any hope for the future would not blow themselves up. “Why do Palestinians kill themselves and Israelis in such a horrific way at the bus stops or in a crowded market?” asks Dr. Eyad Sarraj (). Could it be that its part of their religious upbringing and they have been brainwashed, or could it be that there is no other means of fighting back against oppression and humiliation? Try understanding what its like for a people who are simply exhausted, want to go home with, and fed up with all authority that the only …show more content…
Many of them felt that it would only be a short stay and they would soon be able to return home. Since then that idea has become grim and hopeless; many generations have grown up without so much as a symbolic hope that they might ever return home. For a short period in the 1977 Israel started a heavily subsidized “build-your-own home program for Palestinian refugees” (). The program was designed to provide housing for some ten thousand families which included a “plot of land and full infrastructure” (). This did not sit well with the PLO strategy and they became fearful that they would want to support peace and oppose violence. Unfortunately, for those some ten thousand families they were being forced from their homes yet again and back into refugee camps this time with even worse living conditions. Initially, they were living in tents eventually they were replaced with block structures and zinc roofs. They often do not have running water, electricity, and the winter floods are the worst washing in the open sewage. Now, according to the UN relief and works agency (UNRWA) there are over “3.9 million refugees in the camps and growing” (). Despite the increasing population the conditions of the camps continue to deteriorate. “We have no rights and no future. We have a lot of problems; we can't work freely, we cannot own a house, we cannot move around. We are treated as if we are not human,” said 20-year-old Samar, from Shatilla.
Professor Hughes
English 360
18 March 2010
Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers To most of us understanding the idea that one would want to give and take a life so effortlessly does not come easy; people who had any hope for the future would not blow themselves up. “Why do Palestinians kill themselves and Israelis in such a horrific way at the bus stops or in a crowded market?” asks Dr. Eyad Sarraj (). Could it be that its part of their religious upbringing and they have been brainwashed, or could it be that there is no other means of fighting back against oppression and humiliation? Try understanding what its like for a people who are simply exhausted, want to go home with, and fed up with all authority that the only …show more content…
Many of them felt that it would only be a short stay and they would soon be able to return home. Since then that idea has become grim and hopeless; many generations have grown up without so much as a symbolic hope that they might ever return home. For a short period in the 1977 Israel started a heavily subsidized “build-your-own home program for Palestinian refugees” (). The program was designed to provide housing for some ten thousand families which included a “plot of land and full infrastructure” (). This did not sit well with the PLO strategy and they became fearful that they would want to support peace and oppose violence. Unfortunately, for those some ten thousand families they were being forced from their homes yet again and back into refugee camps this time with even worse living conditions. Initially, they were living in tents eventually they were replaced with block structures and zinc roofs. They often do not have running water, electricity, and the winter floods are the worst washing in the open sewage. Now, according to the UN relief and works agency (UNRWA) there are over “3.9 million refugees in the camps and growing” (). Despite the increasing population the conditions of the camps continue to deteriorate. “We have no rights and no future. We have a lot of problems; we can't work freely, we cannot own a house, we cannot move around. We are treated as if we are not human,” said 20-year-old Samar, from Shatilla.