A suicide bomber's world

Palestinian militants are intensifying their use of suicide attacks against Israel. Since March 4, 15 suicide bombers have taken the lives of at least 52 people, the vast majority of them Israelis. One of the most deadly occurred last Thursday in a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem; another bomber struck a coffee shop near the Israeli port city of Haifa Sunday evening.

In recent weeks, the Monitor has interviewed Palestinian militants involved in suicide bombings, a young man who has considered carrying out such an operation, the father of a deceased bomber, and some Israelis who were affected by one attack. The following accounts offer a closer look at this form of violence - the motivations of its perpetrators and the experiences of its victims.

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK

Hassan, as he asks to be called, holds a brand-new professional degree from a Palestinian university. He faces a career choice that says much about the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the one hand, he might like to get into human rights work. Another option is "martyrdom" - perhaps by carrying an explosive into a crowd of Israelis and detonating it.

"I have become capable of sacrificing myself for my religion and my homeland," says Hassan, who was interviewed on the condition that his real name not be used. Having spent several years in Israeli jails for militant activity, he worries that the exposure could put the Israelis back on his trail.

A slender, soft-spoken young man with wiry brown hair and a narrow face, Hassan wears jeans, a brown T-shirt, and delicate, metal-framed glasses.

He has the intense, slightly uncertain demeanor of a university intellectual - hunching his shoulders and crossing his legs, he smokes a lot and fidgets endlessly with a ring on his right hand as he speaks.

During a two-hour meeting in the leafy garden of a private home in Ramallah, Hassan is gentle-humored in his explanations of the theology and logistics of suicide bombing.

Martyrdom-seekers, as they consider themselves, reject any notion that their actions constitute suicide, which is forbidden by the Koran. Hassan says candidates are chosen for their piety and sincerity; anyone who seems troubled or suicidal is screened out.

The proper motive is to take jihad - a holy war to defend or promote Islam - to the extreme. Those preparing for an operation, Hassan says, spend much of their time in prayer in an attempt to separate themselves mentally from the world as they know it.

They see jihad as a "pillar" of Islam, an obligation. "As long as people occupy Muslim land," Hassan adds, "that obligation remains." Hassan is a member of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that advocates the eradication of Israel.

Would-be bombers are always free to step back, even during the final moments of their missions, Hassan insists.

"It is written in the Koran that the hearts of believers are in the hands of God," he says. "He can make them change their minds, so the choice is always wide open."

The bombers typically are not members of Islamic Jihad's secretive "military wing," which is known as the Jerusalem Brigades. They are part of a corps of pious volunteers who implement a bombing's final phase.

Members of the military wing handle just about everything else involved in suicide operations. Some specialize in assembling the combination of explosives and nails that most bombers employ, others in defining targets, still others in penetrating Israeli security and bringing the bomber close to a target site.

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