Post by Salem6 on Feb 17, 2004 9:42:36 GMT
By Jenny Tonge MP
In Jerusalem
The British MP travelled to Israel and the West Bank at the invitation of BBC Radio 4's Today programme to meet families and victims of suicide bombers, after she caused controversy by saying she might consider becoming a suicide bomber herself if forced to live like the Palestinians.
My remarks last month, expressing empathy with suicide bombers, had been misinterpreted by the tabloids as meaning sympathy and approval.
Palestinian 'martyrs' are treated as heroes
It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I travelled from Jerusalem to the checkpoint out to Bethlehem and the Occupied Territories.
The morning was cold and wet and added to the gloom of Palestine.
I would challenge anyone to spend a few days here and see the contrasts between modern Israel and its affluent citizens and the third world of Palestine.
The blame lies with both sides - I know that - but the ordinary Palestinian has to live in this third world while most Israelis never go there.
In Israel, the armed forces have F16 fighter planes, helicopter gun-ships, tanks, even nuclear weapons.
The disparity was pointed out to me by a civil society group in Bethlehem, when I asked why Palestinians used suicide bombers.
"Tell the US to give us the arms that Israel has and we will stop such attacks," was the response.
Someone has reminded me that Samson was the first suicide attacker.
Wrath of God
As we talked at our first meeting in Bethlehem the room shook and the earth roared - a 5.6 magnitude earthquake, the first in 10 years, struck causing us to run out of the building and wait.
We were lucky there was no more wrath from God that day.
We met up with some al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists after lurking guiltily in Manger Square waiting for them to arrive.
We were taken to a safe Christian house, where two bearded, shaded, skull-capped men, one with a black Kalashnikov, sat on a sofa near a huge wall hanging of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Suicide attack remarks lost Tonge her front-bench seat
They had heard about my remarks and were pleased that I understood the reasons why they were terrorists, even "proud" of me. This was spine-chilling.
More re-assuring was the statement that they now accepted that Israel had a right to exist and their campaign would stop when Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders, removed settlements and returned Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
It is a different message from the one we have been used to.
National heroes
We visited the family of a suicide bomber. The stories of indoctrination of little children right through their schooldays didn't seem to apply here.
The brothers of Mohamed showed no signs of this and his mother claimed she had no idea her son was planning this until the al-Aqsa Brigade delivered his "memorial" picture taken before the mission.
It is certainly true that suicide bombers are regarded as national heroes here, but what else do they have - born out of despair and the desire to resist occupation, laced with religious belief.
Civilian targets are chosen because there is no way of getting at military targets.
Tonge says Palestinians are humiliated at every opportunity
We visited the spot where the Angel Gabriel "came down" to the shepherds in their fields and drove back to Jerusalem as a rainbow formed over the golden city - surely one of the most beautiful places on earth.
The next day back in Israel, I couldn't find anyone who was willing to see why the Palestinians resorted to suicide attacks.
Some of the Israeli arguments had truth in them, but it was all so negative.
Until, late in the day, we met a single mother whose 15-year-old daughter had been killed in the local supermarket by an 18-year-old female suicide bomber.
Grief-stricken, she had tried to contact the bomber's family, only to find they were "proud" of their daughter.
But then she received a letter from a Palestinian mother expressing her condolences and asking for a meeting. Her young, civilian son had been killed by an Israeli soldier. They were going to meet.
I left this woman feeling that there was the first sign of reconciliation; we know there are many such people in Israel and Palestine, fed up with the stupidity of their leaders.
In Jerusalem
The British MP travelled to Israel and the West Bank at the invitation of BBC Radio 4's Today programme to meet families and victims of suicide bombers, after she caused controversy by saying she might consider becoming a suicide bomber herself if forced to live like the Palestinians.
My remarks last month, expressing empathy with suicide bombers, had been misinterpreted by the tabloids as meaning sympathy and approval.
Palestinian 'martyrs' are treated as heroes
It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I travelled from Jerusalem to the checkpoint out to Bethlehem and the Occupied Territories.
The morning was cold and wet and added to the gloom of Palestine.
I would challenge anyone to spend a few days here and see the contrasts between modern Israel and its affluent citizens and the third world of Palestine.
The blame lies with both sides - I know that - but the ordinary Palestinian has to live in this third world while most Israelis never go there.
In Israel, the armed forces have F16 fighter planes, helicopter gun-ships, tanks, even nuclear weapons.
The disparity was pointed out to me by a civil society group in Bethlehem, when I asked why Palestinians used suicide bombers.
"Tell the US to give us the arms that Israel has and we will stop such attacks," was the response.
Someone has reminded me that Samson was the first suicide attacker.
Wrath of God
As we talked at our first meeting in Bethlehem the room shook and the earth roared - a 5.6 magnitude earthquake, the first in 10 years, struck causing us to run out of the building and wait.
We were lucky there was no more wrath from God that day.
We met up with some al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists after lurking guiltily in Manger Square waiting for them to arrive.
We were taken to a safe Christian house, where two bearded, shaded, skull-capped men, one with a black Kalashnikov, sat on a sofa near a huge wall hanging of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Suicide attack remarks lost Tonge her front-bench seat
They had heard about my remarks and were pleased that I understood the reasons why they were terrorists, even "proud" of me. This was spine-chilling.
More re-assuring was the statement that they now accepted that Israel had a right to exist and their campaign would stop when Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders, removed settlements and returned Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
It is a different message from the one we have been used to.
National heroes
We visited the family of a suicide bomber. The stories of indoctrination of little children right through their schooldays didn't seem to apply here.
The brothers of Mohamed showed no signs of this and his mother claimed she had no idea her son was planning this until the al-Aqsa Brigade delivered his "memorial" picture taken before the mission.
It is certainly true that suicide bombers are regarded as national heroes here, but what else do they have - born out of despair and the desire to resist occupation, laced with religious belief.
Civilian targets are chosen because there is no way of getting at military targets.
Tonge says Palestinians are humiliated at every opportunity
We visited the spot where the Angel Gabriel "came down" to the shepherds in their fields and drove back to Jerusalem as a rainbow formed over the golden city - surely one of the most beautiful places on earth.
The next day back in Israel, I couldn't find anyone who was willing to see why the Palestinians resorted to suicide attacks.
Some of the Israeli arguments had truth in them, but it was all so negative.
Until, late in the day, we met a single mother whose 15-year-old daughter had been killed in the local supermarket by an 18-year-old female suicide bomber.
Grief-stricken, she had tried to contact the bomber's family, only to find they were "proud" of their daughter.
But then she received a letter from a Palestinian mother expressing her condolences and asking for a meeting. Her young, civilian son had been killed by an Israeli soldier. They were going to meet.
I left this woman feeling that there was the first sign of reconciliation; we know there are many such people in Israel and Palestine, fed up with the stupidity of their leaders.