Creating more martyrs is not the answer
Bold Robert Emmet,
the darling of Eireann.
Bold Robert Emmet,
he died with a smile.
Farewell companions,
both loyal and daring.
He lay down his life,
for the Emerald Isle.
So goes the chorus of “Bold Robert Emmet” a tribute to the leader of the 1803 Irish rebellion against British rule. “Rebellion” is perhaps the wrong word in this context since Emmet’s uprising was little more than a riot. However, it’s not for his ineptitude that Emmet is remembered. The decision of the British to execute him ensured that he would always be venerated in Irish folklore as a noble martyr. By killing him, the British gave him a position in history which he didn’t otherwise merit.
Somewhere in the slums of Gaza there may be some budding songwriter composing a tribute to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, who was killed by Israeli missiles yesterday. Now that he has become a martyr, the differences which many Palestinians had with his methods will be forgotten. Yesterday Yassin was a living human being with all the weaknesses of human existence. Today and forever more, he is a symbol of resistance.
Israel is yet to learn the lesson that creating more Palestinian martyrs only makes their country less secure. Walk the streets of any Palestinian city and you will see poster after poster celebrating the sacrifice of the shaheed, those who gave their lives in this intifada. Staring out from the posters are men and women, boys and girls, often with al-Aksa mosque serving as a backdrop.
Some gave their lives while taking those of others, blowing themselves up on Israeli buses or attacking military bases. Others died with stones in their hand. Many perished simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of how they died though, these 3 000 martyrs give strength to the Palestinian people. Their deaths validate the Palestinian cause and stiffen the resolve of those left behind to fight on.
Yassin now takes his place at the head of these martyrs. Killing him will not bring greater security to Israelis. Indeed, listening to Israeli government ministers yesterday, it is clear that, at least in the short-term, they have accepted this obvious fact. Hamas will unfortunately re-double their efforts to spill Israeli blood in the wake of yesterday’s murder.
“Just wait though”, the Israeli government promises, “in the long-term, the killing of Yassin will increase Israeli security”. Yet I can’t see how this will happen. At an ideological level, right-wing Israelis can’t bring themselves to admit that yesterday’s missile strike, and all the other “counter-terror” measures address the symptom rather than the cause. Killing this person or that person, closing down this city or that city will not bring Israel long-term security because it doesn’t deal with the underlying problem.
Israel must accept the reality that Palestinians are fighting this grossly unequal war not because they’re evil, not because they’re genetically violent, not because they’re led by psychopaths but because they’re living under a brutal occupation. The closures, the curfews, the checkpoints, the killing, the land seizure, the countless daily acts of humiliation; this is the fuel of Palestinian violence.
Yet many Israelis seem incapable of taking on the blindingly obvious tenet, present in conflicts everywhere, that oppressed people will resist their oppressors. Instead they thrash around for excuses, looking for demons to crush in the hope that this will bring the Palestinians to heel. All it brings is more martyrs, more pain, more killing, more blood.