An Irrational Response to Terror

by Rachelle Marshall

From a distance it is difficult to comprehend the depths of pain and anguish endured by the victims of the recent bombings in Israel and by those who loved them. Nor is it easy to condemn Israelis who witnessed the carnage and cry out for punitive action. Distance does bring into focus, however, the irrationality involved in both the atrocities themselves and in the reaction of Israel and the United States.

The suicide bombers not only destroyed hopes for peace, as they set out to do, but brought disaster on their own families and neighbors. The response of the Israeli government has been equally self-defeating. Imposing collective punishment on two million Palestinians by barricading them in their towns and villages, sealing houses, and making sweeping arrests, is no more likely to prevent future attacks than similar measures did in the past. The government's action will, however, shut down a Palestinian economy already crippled by repeated border closings and land confiscations and make it difficult for Palestinians to obtain medical care, attend school, or even buy food. With 60,000 workers barred from their jobs in Israel, the situation of many families will become desperate.

An Israeli colonel was recently quoted in The New York Times as saying during a punitive raid on one refugee camp: "These are hothouses for murderers. Such phenomena don't grow in a vacuum." If the colonel is right, the harsh tactics currently being used by the government against Palestinians are planting seeds that in due course are destined to produce more violence.

The recent tragedies have roots deeply planted in nearly three decades of Israeli military occupation. In February 1983 Time magazine reported testimony by a group of soldiers describing widespread brutality by the army against West Bank civilians. An investigation revealed that commanders had ordered soldiers to raid villages at night, round up the male inhabitants at random, and beat them. Soldiers invaded schools, arrested students for no cause, and clubbed them, sometimes breaking their bones. In at least one case youths were hung from the crossbars of a soccer goalpost and kicked and beaten. According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz of Dec. 17, 1982, the military governor of Judea had ordered soldiers "to let the locals have it hard…because if we don't beat them hard there will be disorder." The brutality did not end with its exposure but only intensified a few years later when young Palestinians took to the streets during the intifada.

Much of the deliberate sadism reported in the early 1980s took place around Hebron. It is no coincidence that three of the suicide bombers were from the same area. As small boys growing up under military occupation they witnessed the abuse and humiliation of their elders on a daily basis and knew many who had been jailed and tortured. As residents of a refugee camp they knew by heart the grievances of their displaced families. At least one of them saw Israeli soldiers cripple one of his brothers with gunshots.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian boys are today living in similar circumstances. If Israel reimposes iron-fist policies on the West Bank and Gaza, thus increasing the poverty and desperation of the inhabitants, at least a few of these youths are bound to grow up filled with hatred, convinced they have no future and that only an act of suicidal revenge will give meaning to their lives. As the recent tragedies have shown, neither border closings nor other precautions provide protection against such fanaticism. In imposing collective punishment, the Peres government will not succeed in stopping violence but will only clamp the lid on a seething kettle and turn up the heat.

Unreasonable Demands

It is unreasonable for the Israelis to demand that Yasser Arafat stop terrorism when the Israeli government has been unable to do so until now despite having an entire army at its disposal. Equally senseless are the threats in Congress to cut off the $500 million in U.S. aid promised to the Palestinians over the next five years. Making the job of the Palestinian Authority more difficult will not make Israelis any safer.

In the long run, the way Israel and the U.S. can fight terrorism is to work with Palestinian leaders to change the conditions that give rise to it. Just as Israelis need security, Palestinians need the freedom to develop their own independent democratic institutions and a productive economy. Although for the moment these goals seem out of reach, both sides must continue the effort to achieve them.

Asking the Israelis to forego punishment and revenge may be difficult, but no more so than asking Palestinians to forget the theft of their land and the years of suffering they have endured. Without an even greater effort to achieve reconciliation, the outbreak of senseless violence that so recently destroyed 61 lives is almost certain to be repeated.