Suicide Bombers Are People, Too

Khaled & Said dream of blowing themselves up

"Suicide Bombers Are People, Too." That's the headline to a story coming out of MSNBC/Newsweek. Yep. It's true. I didn't make it up.

The story promotes a recent film by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad entitled, "Paradise Now." In the film two otherwise ordinary young Palestinian men growing up in a Nablus refugee camp are selected to take their turn in a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv. They encounter a young Palestinian woman who decries that sort of violence and seeks peace in other ways.

According to the article,

"Paradise Now".... is one of the first feature films that tries to show the potential killers/martyrs as people.

People? Sure.

Normal people? Uh.......no.

Is it normal human behavior to want to blow oneself up?

Is it normal human behavior to want to kill innocent men, women and children?

I can imagine the movie dialogue.......

Said: How's things?

Khaled: Not too bad. Mom had me go down to the corner store to pick up some cigarettes for Dad. The toilet's broken again and my baby sister seems to spend every day either crying or messing her diaper.

Said: I know what you mean. My Mom and I spent most of this morning trying to decide what sort of water filter to install in our house. Here, have another puff on the hookah. It's your turn.

Khaled: Thanks. (He takes a puff) You know....growing up as a displaced Palestinian refugee isn't all it's made out to be. What sort of future is there for us anyway?

Said: Yeah. I guess we could both finish school (unless the Israelis close it or bomb it again). But then what? There's no work around here? Israel isn't hiring any West Bank Palestinians any more. It's hopeless.

Khaled: If only......... (he sighs).

Said: "If only" what?

Khaled: I was just thinking that if we could be free and independent in a country of our own without Israel pushing us around and destroying everything that we try to build up around here.......I was just thinking that things would be a lot better.

Said: How? What do you mean? That there would be no more poverty? There would be plenty of jobs? There would be........would there be more girls?

Khaled: Stop it. Knock it off. That isn't what I was talking about. I was talking about, well, you know........about our signing up for being suicide bombers. How that will supposedly make everything better for everybody.

Said: Except for the Jews of course!

Khaled: Yes. Sure. But.......uh......I was thinking that how can blowing myself up and killing a restaurant full of Israelis make anything better for us back here? The more I've been thinking about it the less sense it makes.

Said: Hey, stop thinking that way. You know how we both hate this place and how we want something better. You and I know that its never going to get better. We're doomed to live our lives in existential angst. Frankly, I'm filled with angst up to here! (He gestures to his forehead) The only way out of this is to go out in a blaze of glory! Freedom at last! A paradise awaits us, Khaled.

Khaled: Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not as sure as I used to be about all that. Maybe there really is some purpose and meaning to our lives besides killing, dying and hating the Jews. Maybe, just maybe the Prophet (blessed be his name) not only believed that "struggle" is good but that there are more ways to struggle for salvation and peace than just violence and killing infidels and Jews. Maybe the suicide bombing thing isn't really what is going to get us to the freedom and peace we are really looking for.

Said: Huh?

Khaled: I mean, maybe it's better to live and hope and........

Said: (Interrupting) Oh! Now I get it! It's a joke! You're joking! Good one, Khaled. You really had me going there for a minute!

Khaled: No. No. I'm not joking. I'm having second thoughts. I'm so confused. Why don't the people sending us out with suicide bombs ever send themselves out? Or their own children? Why is it always someone else's children? Like you and me? Why do the people on the other side of the wall always seem so happy, prosperous and....so.....so free?

Said: Because they are living off of our suffering. They steal everything we have ever had and destroy what they can't take with them.

Khaled: And that is what makes them happy? I don't think that's it. We have been killing and trying to destroy Israel for a long time. It doesn't seem to have made anyone around here very happy. What do they have that we don't have?

Said: Freedom.

Khaled: So it comes back to that again. Freedom. You know, I have never known freedom. Ever since I was born...and you, too...Israel has been here. (He spits) Maybe we could move to Jordan or some other place where there is freedom already. Maybe.....

Ali: (A man wearing a traditional Palestinian head scarf walks up and says): Hey....I have some good news for you. You have both been chosen to be sent into Israel tomorrow. Be at my house in 60 minutes and I'll fill you in on your mission. This willl be a glorious day for our people when the blood of Jews flows freely in the streets of Tel Aviv! Go home, get your business in order and say your "goodbyes" the way I taught you. You know, so they know what you are going to do but without you really telling them anything specific. Oh, by the way.....if you've written out your farewell speech you might want to bring that, too. We'll be videotaping it later this evening. (He leaves)

Said: God is Great, Khaled. What an honor to have been chosen. And so soon, too! Think of it! The freedom! Paradise at last! No more Nablus. No more squallor. No more oppression. No more......

Khaled: (Interrupting with a small smile) ....I know....no more angst! Said....I want freedom, too. You know that. But there has got to be another way. There has to be......

Said: Dreams and wishful thinking are not realities, Khaled. The only true reality is death; that and the paradise that awaits those who die in a martyr's glory! Well, what about it? Khaled? What about it? Are you coming?


I guarantee that the movie will have a lot of that kind of dialogue in it.

But does that make these folks human? Are they just people like you and me?

To imply that they are does a great disservice to the reputation of humanity. Such casual conversation about killing one's self and innocent others is not normal.....it is pathological. By pathological I mean that normal, healthy human thought has been twisted and warped by indoctrination and/or circumstance to the point where something close to a psychosis has taken effect.

Interestingly, the MSNBC article on "Paradise Now" is linked to a "Related Story" identified as "Dickey: The Pathology of Suicide Bombers."

Young men sitting around and talking in any way resembling what I have "made up" are of the same ilk as those who kill and eat their victims (like Jeffery Dahmer) or those who, although serial killers, manage to live otherwise normal lives...including being married and raising their own children (like the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader).

For a movie to become celebrated for showing us the "human side" of such monsters is disgusting.

For such a movie to make tons of money and be submitted for consideration as a nominee for an Academy Award is, or should be, criminal.

Note #1: I have not (yet) seen this film but am basing my comments on what others have said, including what appeared in the (mostly favorable) MSNBC/Newsweek article cited above.

Note #2: If you think that my fabricated dialogue must be way off base, consider this: The MSNBC article actually says that, in the movie, the young men

"...discuss such mundane things as water filters with their mothers just hours before they’re chosen by a militant group to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv."

The article concludes with a snippet of dialogue from the movie itself. Compare it with what I have written and then reread this post in light of what you find:

Khaled: “If we can’t live as equals, than at least we can die as equals. As long as there is injustice, someone must make a sacrifice.”

Suha: “There’s no sacrifice in revenge. If you kill, than there’s no difference between victim and occupier.”

Khaled: “At least in death, we have paradise.”

Suha: [she slaps the back of his head] “There is no paradise! That only exists in your head.”

Khaled: “I’d rather have paradise in my head than live in this hell.”

Normal? Sure.....

Note #3: (Update) BBC has posted a photo essay on the making of this film. Several of the captions seem to have been lifted straight out of my "fabricated" film diaglogue. It's almost uncanny.