Palestinian Suicide Bombers Research Articles

Human Capital and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers

This paper studies the relation between the human capital of suicide bombers and the outcomes of their suicide attacks. We argue that human capital is an important factor in the production of terrorism and that if terrorists behave rationally, we should observe that more able suicide bombers are assigned to more important targets. To validate the theoretical predictions and estimate the returns to human capital in suicide bombing, we use a unique dataset detailing the biographies of Palestinian suicide bombers, the targets they attack, and the number of people that they kill and injure. Our empirical analysis suggests that older and more educated suicide bombers are being assigned by their terror organization to more important targets. We find that more educated and older suicide bombers are less likely to fail in their mission and are more likely to cause increased casualties when they attack.

Manufacturing human bombs: the making of Palestinian suicide bombers

Trying to Explain Suicide Terrorism * Palestinian Suicide Bombings since 1993 * Organizational Motives * Individual Motives * Societal Motives * Policy Implications * Appendixes: List of Bombings since 1993, Timeline, Wills and Testaments of Suicide Bombers, Organizational Profiles, Resources for Further Research.

When the Underdog Schema Dominates the We-ness Schema: The Case of Radical Leftist Jewish-Israelis

When the Underdog Schema Dominates the We-ness Schema: The Case of Radical Leftist Jewish-IsraelisAner GovrinAner GovrinSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:December 2006https://doi.org/10.1521/prev.2006.93.4.623PDFPDF PLUS ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Cited byCited by1. “Forget the Palestinians, You are Our Mother”: Why Therapists Should not be Dead Right with Their PatientsOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarCatherine B. Silver2. Traumatic Memories and the Need to Punish: The Boycott of Israeli AcademicsOnline publication date: 13 June 2008. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar Volume 93Issue 4Aug 2006 Information© N.P.A.P.PDF download

Rationality, Culture, and Structure in the Making of Suicide Bombers: A Preliminary Theoretical Synthesis and Illustrative Case Study

Suicidal violence involves three levels of analysis: individual motivations, organizational strategies, and societal conflicts. Using rationalist, culturalist, and structuralist approaches to contentious politics, this article explores the intersection of rationality, norms, and conflict in the making of extreme violence. The case of Palestinian suicide bombers demonstrates the interdependence of the three approaches to explaining suicidal violence. For individuals, self-sacrifice is conceived as an act of personal redemption rooted in religious morality and national salvation. For organizations, human bombs provide strategic advantages in the context of asymmetrical warfare. For collectivities, martyrs are venerated when three conditions converge: (1) cultural norms encompass symbolic narratives that honor martyrdom; (2) legitimate authorities acquiesce to extreme violence; and (3) conflicts generate feelings of victimization and threat by external enemies.

"Ordinary People" and "Death Work": Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

"Ordinary People" and "Death Work": Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

Ordinary People and “Death Work”: Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

Applying criminological/victimological concepts and theories, the study addresses the social processes involved in Palestinians’ suicide terrorism and describes Palestinians’ pathways to suicide bombing. The data are derived from in-depth interviews of 7 male and female Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israel for attempted suicide bombing. The social background, context, and experiences of the interviewees, including their recruitment, interactions with the organizations that produce suicide bombing, the tangible and intangible incentives and rewards that motivated them to become suicide bombers, their preparation for the mission, and the strategies employed by the organizations to sustain recruits’ resolve to conform to the plan are described and analyzed. The implications of the findings for theory and public policy are drawn and discussed.

“Ordinary People” and “Death Work”: Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

“Ordinary People” and “Death Work”: Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

Suicide Bombers as Women Warriors: Making News Through Mythical Archetypes

This study explores how mythical archetypes become a journalistic tool for reporting news about terrorism. Textual analysis of newspaper items examined coverage about seven female Palestinian suicide bombers. Mythical archetypes changed initially from the male suicide bomber as Trickster, to female bomber as Woman Warrior, and finally, to the Terrible Mother when the circumstances of the seventh suicide bomber no longer fit the Woman Warrior mold. Findings suggest that journalists negotiate their reporting within two realms—realities of occurrences and resonance of myths—to accomplish their work.

Palestinian suicide bombers

AbstractThe factors underlying the development of Palestinian suicide bombers are explored through a review of published studies and drawing on interviews with five bombers caught before they detonated the bombs they were carrying. The concomitants of becoming a suicide bomber are explored through political, social and psychological processes, including religious and ideological belief systems and personal characteristics. It is argued that there is no single cause or explanation for taking on this role, but that it comes out of a mixture of circumstances, which varies from individual to individual. The current review challenges the common assumption that all suicide bombers are teenage religious fanatics and shows that less extreme personality characteristics can lead to a person deciding to kill him/herself for a cause, given other circumstances. The implications of these findings as well as the weaknesses in the current study are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Editor’s Introduction

Arien Mack Editor’s Introduction SHORTLY AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, SUSAN SONTAG WAS TAKEN TO task for arguing in the pages of The New Yorker that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards since they were willing to die for a cause they believed in. A reader of the magazine wrote to remind her ofAristotle’s argument in the NicomacheanEthics that a courageous person is one who faces fearful things as he ought and as reason directs “for the sake of what is noble.” It seemed that the time was ripe for new reflections on what it means to be courageous, hence this special issue of Social Research. Though our starting point was September 11, and our initial consid­ erations included Palestinian suicide bombers and World II kamikaze pilots, the issue quickly expanded to include a host of questions about the nature, forms, and expressions of courage. Papers in the issue examine the idea of courage as a civic virtue, the classical understanding of courage as a virtue, and the need for courage in a democracy. Two papers, those by Fatos Lubonja and Jirina Siklova, look at the demand for courage in repressive societies, and what happens when those societies change and courage is no longer the order of the day. Other essays discuss the nature of moral, physical, and intellectual courage, and the psychological and physiological bases of courage and fearlessness. At a time when terrorist threats are everywhere, it behooves us to consider once again what it means to be courageous. I AM SURE YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED OUR NEW LOOK. THOUGH OUR design has changed, our content and mission have not. We hope you social research Vol 71 : No 1 : Spring 2004 v like the new design and will continue to turn to Social Research for rigor­ ous and engaging work, on issues both timely and timeless, by leading scholars and writers. Arien Mack Editor ERRATUM In vol. 70, no. 2 (Summer 2003), Anwar Shaikh’s paper, “Who Pays for the ‘Welfare’ in the Welfare State? A Multicountry Study,” contained an error. The author notes that the data labels in figure 1 on p. 531 are reversed: “Labor Taxes” should read “Labor Benefits,” and vice versa. The associated text is correct. vi social research ...

Who Are the Palestinian Suicide Bombers?

The current study uses the content analysis method while focusing on identification of repeated patterns of behavior by suicide terrorists and the society within which they grow and develop. The present study presents a typology—a classification into categories, each represented by a prototype, of suicide terrorists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also identifies prerequisite factors (as without these factors, there is little opportunity for a particular prototype to emerge) and supporting factors (which may assist in the emergence of the prototype, but are not essential) for each of the suicide terrorist prototypes. The suggested typology is based on a convenient sample: details which have been published in the literature describing suicide terrorists. The typology suggests four categories of suicide bombers: religious fanatic, exploited, avenger, and nationalist fanatic. This typology is based on the main motive of the perpetrator, and different trajectories which each suicide bomber undergoes from recruitment to detonating the bomb. The major difference among the four categories lies in the prerequisite factors and their relative importance in comparison to the supporting factors.

Critical commentary on “Who Are the Palestinian Suicide Bombers?”

This article provides a critical commentary to Shaul Kimhi and Shemuel Even's research on Palestinian suicide bombers presented in this issue. The main focus is on the problems with definitional distinction between the motivations of suicide versus “ordinary” terrorists and the method of determining a suicide bomber's primary motive for critical commentary

The social and religious characteristics of suicide bombers and their victims

Using data collected by the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, the authors provide social profiles of Palestinian suicide bombers and their largely Israeli victims. In addition, drawing on a series of public opinion polls, the writers describe the reactions of Israeli citizens to the wave of suicide bombings the country has experienced since the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada in the second half of 2000.

Palestinian Suicide Terrorism in the Second Intifada: Motivations and Organizational Aspects

Suicide terrorism has developed into a widely used tactic, and arguably one of the major strategic threats facing some countries. This article explores various issues related to Palestinian suicide terrorism by presenting a two-phase model to explain the processes and factors underlying the development of Palestinian suicide bombers, and the execution of suicide bombing attacks. The model is applied to the case of suicide attacks that have occurred in the course of the first 21 months of the Second Intifada, from September 2000 to June 2002. The assumptions of the model are tested by taking an in-depth look into the various motives leading individual Palestinians to volunteer for suicide missions, and by discussing the activities and major functions of the organizations that have employed this modus operandi in the specified time frame. It will be concluded that while a counter-terrorism strategy aimed at targeting terrorist organizations may offer short-term gains, in the long run Israel will need to identify ways of removing or reducing the incentives that lead some Palestinians to volunteer for suicide missions.