The Uniqeness of Palestinian Terrorism

By Prof. Louis Rene Beres
Purdue University and Alessandra Delgado,Lima, Peru
May 30, 2002

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 noncombatants - 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.

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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