An editorial in the Egyptian government daily Al-Masaa praised
suicide/martyrdom operations, and called on Palestinian organizations to not publish the
names of the bombers so that their families’ houses would not be demolished. The
article focuses primarily on female suicide bombers, following the debate in
the Arab media over Hamas’s dispatching of Reem Al-Riyashi, a mother of two, to
carry out the January 14, 2004 bombing in Gaza. The following is the
translation of the editorial : [1]

“We ask again, why do the various Palestinian organizations insist on
publishing the name of everyone who carries out a martyrdom operation against the
Zionist entity?

“We have no argument regarding the question of the legitimacy of these
operations, because they are considered a powerful weapon used by the Palestinians
against an enemy with no morality or religion, [an enemy] who has deadly
weapons prohibited by international law, that is not deterred from using them
against the defenseless Palestinian people.

“Even if during [a martyrdom operation] civilians or children are killed -
the blame does not fall upon the Palestinians, but on those who forced them to
turn to this modus operandi.

“Ultimately, we should bless every Palestinian man or woman who goes calmly
to carry out a martyrdom operation, in order to receive a reward in the
Hereafter, sacrificing her life for her religion and her homeland and knowing that
she will never return from this operation.

“But at the same time, we wonder about the reason for publishing the names of
those who carry out the [martyrdom] operations; [this publishing] is a
valuable gift that the Palestinian resistance gives the Zionist entity, since as
soon as it receives this gift, the armies of the [Zionist] entity hasten to the
home of the martyr’s family, wounded by the loss of its son, in order to
multiply its pain by destroying its home. Moreover, the home of the martyr’s family
is always destroyed negligently, causing serious damage to or the collapse of
the neighbor’s home.

“We ask the leaders of these organizations: Give us one good reason for
publishing the names of the martyrs whom, it can be assumed, martyred themselves
for the religion, the homeland, and the people, and not for any other reason.
The Lebanese resistance published [the names of] those who took this path during
the years of the Zionist occupation [in Lebanon] without any logical
justification. We were surprised that the Palestinian resistance is employing the same
method, also without any justification. “This is even though the situation is
different, as the Shahids in the case of Lebanon, such as Sanaa Muheidali and
other women, lived in territories not under the control of the Zionist
occupation, while in the Palestinian case, [they live under Zionist occupation].”

[1] Al-Masaa (Egypt), January 2, 2004.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2004 and is filed under arabpress.