Suicide bombers are perhaps the most devastating type of terrorism Israel has had to contend with since the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hundreds of Israelis have been blown up in buses, coffee shops and malls. Of late, Hamas spiritual leader Ahmad Yasin has also threatened to bomb residential houses. Israeli security forces strive vigorously to establish a profile of the typical suicide bomber, usually young and unattached men.
However, an unanticipated and unprecedented change has emerged in this area since the current violence broke out in September 2000 – suicide women.
Three women have blown themselves up since the violence started, baffling terrorist profilers and loading on their working hours.
The first of the female bombers, 25-year-old Wafa Idris from Ramallah, was an attractive and intelligent girl, who volunteered for the Red Crescent – the Arab equivalent of the Red Cross.
By way of coincidence, French filmmaker Patrick Chauvel filmed Idris while making a documentary on the Red Crescent, two months before she blew herself up in Jerusalem in 2002. After the bombing, he shifted the focus of his film to concentrate on Idris’s personality and acquaintances. The final version of the 26-minute-long film was fully dubbed into Arabic and has been broadcast on Al-‘Arabiyya television.
The documentary showed interviews with Idris’s co-workers and with residents of the refugee camp in which she lived, including her mother. Another interviewee was Marwan Barghouthi, head of the Fatah organization in the West Bank at the time.
A recording of the second female suicide bomber was also shown in the film before she set out for her final mission.
Interviewees on the Israeli side were the wife of Pinhas Tokatli, a victim of Idris’s bombing, and his neighbor.
The question posed by Patrick Chauvel at the beginning of his film was “How does a lively young girl decide to turn into #47 on a list of suicide bombers?”
The answer emerges through the making of the film. Chauvel shows Israeli tanks invading Palestinian cities; pictures of charred cars after the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] attempted assassinations and a segment with Marwan Barghouthi talking about the phenomenon. “Years ago, Hamas and the other factions could not find even one suicide bomber,” said Barghouthi. “Now you can find hundreds of people everywhere who are willing to do that, and why? Because of Israeli barbarity…”
After showing pictures from the scene of the bombing that Idris perpetrated, including horrific pictures of severed body parts, Chauvel interviewed the wife of Pinhas Tokatli, Anna: “If I could, I would ask her why she did it…Jews are good people and we are careful not to harm Arabs. If we harm them by accident we immediately express regret, but the Arabs are killing us left right and center, without remorse, without shame and without fear. They do not fear God.”
Tokatli’s neighbor portrayed him as a wonderful person. “A crazy woman killed him…it can’t be expressed otherwise…I want to send a message to all the Arab mothers: Take care of your daughters and warn them that killing will not get them anywhere.”
Apart from Tokatli’s wife and neighbor, no other Israelis were interviewed for the movie.
The narrator says the attacks Idris carried out posed many difficulties for the Red Crescent’s operations. “Ambulance crews are suspected of smuggling militants and explosives and are now exposed to direct bombings.” There was no IDF response.
A member of the Red Crescent staff is later quoted saying, “Life has become impossible. I leave the house and don’t know if I will return.” Viewers can clearly identify with his feelings, especially when pictures of Israeli tanks in Arab cities run throughout the film. There were no interviews of average Israeli civilians who fear to ascend a bus or walk into a coffee shop.
It should be made clear, however, that the producer had no intentions of making a balanced film portraying the situation on both sides. He only wished to show the activity of the Red Crescent – and was compelled to shift the plot following the attack carried out by a member of the organization.
The result, even if not the original intention, is a biased film that portrays the Palestinian perspective alone. The documentary-like nature of the film creates a sense of authenticity; the pictures shown are not staged, and this is precisely the film’s strong point.
It is clear why Al-‘Arabiyya chose to broadcast this film. Without too many words and pretentious analyses, and by way of interviewing those involved alongside powerful pictures, the viewer understands what seasoned Palestinian politicians strive to convey constantly, not always in a successful manner.