According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a martyr is,
“A person who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny his or her religion. Readiness for martyrdom was a collective ideal in ancient Judaism, notably in the era of the Maccabees, and its importance has continued into modern times. Roman Catholicism sees the suffering of martyrs as a test of their faith. Many saints of the early church underwent martyrdom during the persecutions of the Roman emperors. Martyrs need not perform miracles to be canonized. In Islam, martyrs are thought to comprise two groups of the faithful: those killed in jihad and those killed unjustly. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is regarded as a martyr because he voluntarily postpones enlightenment to alleviate the suffering of others.”
THOSE KILLED UNJUSTLY?
That’s the definition we shall need to understand the unnecessary death of a Palestinian man during a military incursion into the city of Nablus in the West Bank of Palestine by the Israeli Occupation Forces. The man was called a martyr.
The IOF had entered the city looking for Palestinian militants resisting the Israeli occupation. How quickly it is forgotten: the Palestinian people have been living under an oft times brutal military occupation for 40 years, while their lands were and are being confiscated to build illegal Israeli-only settlements, a euphemism for villages, towns, and small cities connected to Israel by a network of Israeli-only roads and highways in the West Bank. Many Palestinians have died during this long struggle, defending their homes and lands from Israeli bulldozers and soldiers ready to kill those who resist.
But this man was not resisting.
Sabbah’s Blog recently provided an understanding of how this man died. In this account, Interview with a Wounded, the wounded one is the man’s son.
This is an interview conducted with the injured son of the “martyr,” Anan al-Tibi, in the aftermath of operation “Hot Winter” in Nablus, Occupied Palestine.
At the end of February 2007, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched a major military operation in Nablus’ Old City. During the invasion, on February 26th, `Anan Mohammad al-Tibi (49) was killed by IOF-troops as he was standing on his roof in the Yasmine neighborhood. His son Ashraf (20) was also shot at the same spot, but survived. This interview was conducted with Ashraf al-Tibi on Thursday, March 1, 2007 at his hospital bed (start video recording).
Now we know that a martyr can be someone killed unjustly. Ashraf al-Tibi’s father is therefore a martyr. He was just standing on his roof minding his own business.
In just the past six years, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Roughly 80% of them, like Ashraf al-Tibi’s father, were innocent civilians, martyrs. Many hundreds of innocent children and infants were among them. Family members, including fathers and mothers, grandparents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, as well as infants, who were among them were martyrs. So too were 80% of the almost 1,000 Israelis killed during this same period as a result of the conflict and suicide bombings inside of Israel. There does not seem to be any particular limitation on the martyrdom of THOSE KILLED UNJUSTLY.
To learn more about Palestinian martyrs read,
Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration (Cambridge Middle East Studies) by Laleh Khalili.
The history of the Palestinians over the last half century has been one of turmoil, a people living under occupation or exiled from their homeland. Theirs has been at times a tragic story, but also one of resistance, heroism and nationalist aspiration. Laleh Khalili’s book is based on her experiences in the Lebanese refugee camps, where commemorations of key moments in the history of the struggle have helped forge a sense of nationhood. She also observes how, as discourses of liberation have evolved in recent years within the international community, there has been a shift in the representation of Palestinian nationalism from the heroic to the tragic mode. This trend is exemplified through the elevation of martyrs to iconic figures in the Palestinian collective memory. This book will appeal to students and scholars of the Middle East, and to those interested in the politics of nationalism, commemoration and conflict.