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March 7, 2008
Suicide killers studied
U of T sociologist researches bombers' motives.
RHONDA SPIVAK
In an extensive study of Palestinian suicide bombings, three University of Toronto researchers have concluded that the bombers were not psychologically unstable and were often motivated by personal vengeance not religious zeal.
The study was carried out by political sociologist Robert Brym, with the assistance of two PhD students – Palestinian Bader Araj and Israeli Yael Maoz-Shai. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded their work, in the amount of $127,000. The results have been or will be published in several academic journals, including Social Forces, Contexts, the Canadian Journal of Sociology and Political Science Quarterly.
In order to create a statistical database about suicide bombings in the second intifada, Brym consulted the online database of the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzylia, the website of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Ha'aretz, al-Quds (published in Jerusalem) and al-Quds al-Arabi (published in London). Additionally, in 2006, Araj personally interviewed 45 militant Palestinian leaders and 43 close relatives or friends of suicide bombers (comprising a sample of about 25 per cent of the families of bombers). Moaz-Shai interviewed 75 counterterrorism experts in Israel.
In finding that virtually all the bombers were stable, Brym reported in Social Forces: "The organizers of suicide attacks don't want to jeopardize their missions by recruiting unreliable people.... It may be that some psychologically unstable people want to become suicide bombers, but insurgent organizations strongly prefer their cannons fixed."
He also found that the suicide bombers did not experience extraordinarily high levels of economic deprivation.
In his study, published in Contexts, Brym observed that his research with Araj "shows that Palestinian suicide missions are in most cases prompted less by strategic cost-benefit calculations than by such human emotions as revenge and retaliation."
He concluded that a majority of bombers, like Palestinian female lawyer Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, 29, who killed 21 civilians in a 2003 bombing at Maxim restaurant in Haifa, were "motivated by the desire for revenge and retaliation." She acted to avenge the deaths of her brother, an Islamic Jihad militant, and cousin by Israeli security forces, he said.
Brym found that, "In Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza between 1981 and 2003, fewer than half of suicide missions were perpetrated by individuals with discernible religious inclinations."
He concluded: "In its origins and at its core, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not religiously inspired, and suicide bombing, despite its frequent religious trappings, is fundamentally the expression of a territorial dispute."
He and Araj were able to identify the organizational affiliation of 133 out of 138 suicide bombers between September 2000 and July 2005. Sixty-four per cent were affiliated with Islamic fundamentalists groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while the rest were aligned with secular groups such as Fatah.
In analyzing data pertaining to Israeli counterterrorist operations, Brym said, "We do know that of the nearly 600 suicide missions launched in Israel and its occupied territories between 2000 and 2005, fewer than 25 per cent succeeded in reaching their target. Israeli counterterrorist efforts thwarted three-quarters of them using violent means."
However, his study found that harsh repression can intensify bombings and prompt bombers to devise other, more lethal, methods to achieve their aims.
He concluded that, "In general, severe repression can work for a while, but a sufficiently determined mass opposition will always be able to design new tactics to surmount new obstacles.... One kind of 'success,' usually breeds another kind of 'failure' if the motivation of insurgents is high."
In a paper to be published in Studies in Conflict on Terrorism later this year, Araj concludes that, based on his interviews, harsh state repression "should not be perceived only as a reaction to suicide bombing" but "often precedes and is a major cause of suicide bombing."
In order to try to return Palestinian public support for suicide bombing to more moderate levels, Araj is of the view that Israel ought to avoid targeting civilians and ought to arrest organizational leaders rather than assassinate them.
Brym said there is only one lasting solution to suicide bombings – real peace. He added that Israel's tit-for-tat military approach in responding to suicide bombings has been "wrongheaded," since it radicalizes Palestinians and exacerbates the Arab-Israeli dispute.
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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