Below is an example of a death notice, frequently found in the Palestinian press. This particular one is from the Palestinian daily, Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida, a newspaper officially sanctioned by the Palestinian Authority. It praises the attempt of a 17-year old youth from Gaza to kill as many Israeli soldiers as possible. He succeeded in killing an officer and three soldiers.
The Israeli government argues that as long as such so-called ‘Martydom operations’ continue against soldiers and citizens it is not able to enter negotiations. The Palestinians argue such actions are revenge for attacks committed against them, and are a vital element in the freeing of Palestine.
What is clear is that the Palestinian press is sanctioning these attacks by allowing notices, such as this one, to be published.
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“In the name of God, the righteous and compassionate…the death of those who were killed in the path of God is not counted as death, rather they are blessed with revitalization at the side of God.”
‘With great glory and pride the father of the Martyr Muhamad Mahmud Muhamad Shaldan and his family and the whole Shaldan clan inside and outside the Homeland announces his death to our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic peoples, a son of Islam and of Palestine, may God honor him
‘The leader and martyr
Mahmud Muhamad Mahmud Shaldan
Abu Muhamad, ‘Knight of the Night the Quran was Revealed’
‘who anticipates a reward for his pious deed and thrives in the path of God by sacrificing himself before the age of 18 following an armed confrontation and his incursion into a military outpost on the eastern road of Gaza which led to the death of a senior Israeli officer and three soldiers at dawn of the 28th night of Ramadan, Leilat Al-Qadr [the night that the Quran was revealed], 1423 [the Muslim calendar counts years from when Muhamad left Mecca] which corresponds to December 2, 2002. His pure corpse was escorted from his home in the Hai AlZaitun accompanied by significant crowds which reflected the debt of honor to him of the Palestinian people.
‘God has sheathed the Martyr with His Plentiful Grace and has settled him in heaven with prophets and saints and the pure martyrs and the first comrades [Muhamad’s first followers].
Comment: His father is receiving mourners, if God wills it, in a martyrdom ceremony for those who did not attend in the first place, in his house in HaiAl-Zeitun after the evening prayer near the Shama’a Mosque.