The Palestinian Body as an Instrument of Resistance ‎

Abstract

The Palestinian overcomes fear of death in a psychological and political dialectic ‎that systematizes and charts course of action of Palestinian fighter in his/her ‎resistance against colonizer, rendering death a natural matter that transcends ‎realms of unconscious to consciousness so as to become a motivational program ‎allowing him/her to both simultaneously challenge death and occupier. ‎ The 'Palestinian body' represents a rolling and continuously evolving ideology ‎throughout phases of Palestinian struggle, which made physical human body ‎an implement of resistance deriving its designation from dictates of objective ‎conditions of history predicated on sacred triad of ‘the body of land; body ‎of society; and body of individual’, conceptualized here as ‘bodies.’ In ‎context of relationship between colonizer and colonized, this challenge ‎becomes a spiritual symbol for his/her new existence, far removed from existential ‎anxieties that characterized his/her situation during phase of submissiveness and ‎obedience to technologies of discipline, coercion and torture utilized and employed ‎methodically by Israeli Occupation during last two decades, and treat with ‎Palestinian body as Homo Sacer (Ghandour-Demiri 2010,286-287 ) ‎ This article aims at explaining historical circumstances that have given rise to ‎martyrdom operations as an instrument of resisting as emanating from context of ‎the struggle of Palestinians to gain their freedom; wherein this struggle is that which ‎transformed physical body of 'the Palestinian individual' into a deadly weapon at ‎the service of Palestinians collectively.‎ This research is based on a comprehensive study entitled Survey of Martyrdom ‎operations: facts and statistics (hereinafter referred to as the survey) involving 451 ‎families of martyrs, and using content analysis 80 wells of last testaments/ ‎messages of those who carried out martyrdom operations. and comprised religious, ‎social, and political dimensions.‎ ‎ It revolves around a number of questions. Why would a youth in prime of life pick ‎up a rifle and attack a military base or Zionist settlement? Why would he/she carry ‎explosives in his/her bag? How is it that Palestinian transitioned from shooting ‎bullets to becoming a human bomb and a weapon for resistance when such an act ‎would necessarily result in sacrifice of his/her own body? The article may be ‎counted as a conceptual and theoretical basis for subject of martyrdom operations; a ‎transference into epistemological field concerned with 'human body', as a space ‎intertwined and connected structurally with history, discourse and Palestinian ‎context over span of history of Palestinian struggle to resist.‎