Paradise Now

Yesterday I watched a movie called 'Paradise Now'. It is about two young Palestinian men who decide to be suicide bombers. During their mission they become separated. The movie explores what they do next, given the opportunity to reconsider their act.

Suicide bombing is something that I've had a lot of difficulty understanding. Suicide, I have been taught, usually happens when a person’s ability to cope with life has been lost. Their problems exceed their coping resources. There are even suicide assessments that attempt to measure the degree of risk of someone committing suicide. I wonder; would this assessment apply to suicide bombers? Suicide bombing is a political move aimed at destroying an outside enemy. Suicide that only involves the self is about destroying the enemy within.

The movie points to the many reasons why these men have chosen this path. One of the characters talks about being born in a refuge camp and only being able to leave when he needed an operation at 10 years of age. Many shots of everyday life in the West Bank show scenes of poverty and hopelessness. The men themselves fritter away their time smoking their hookah and turning up late to their dead-end jobs. They have developed a deep hatred for Israel, the occupiers (in their terminology). Their despair is palpable. The men who orchestrate the operation that the two characters participate in are remarkably older than the would-be bombers. I couldn't help but wonder at the exploitative nature of these men's work. They tell the young men that paradise awaits them if they complete the mission. When one of the men questions this, the older man looks away unconvincingly insisting that it is true. *Warning: plot spoiler ahead* It is only once the young men are all strapped up that the older man tells them that the bomb cannot be removed by anyone except the person who put them on (a skilled technician). They no longer have a choice.

The primary identifiers of a suicidal person are: a plan, previous attempts, the means to complete, and knowing someone who has completed suicide. I wonder how well this assessment would work with suicide bombers. A plan is in place, they may have tried before but fail due to last minute ditching of plans, they are likely connected to a military organisation who have access to explosives, and they may have had friends who have done the same. But does this mean that they are motivated by the same forces that lead someone to commit suicide alone? Most people who attempt suicide are crying out for help, they don't want to die they just want the pain to end. Many people who attempt suicide experience a sense of hopelessness prior to their attempt. Many people who attempt suicide feel that they can no longer cope, that there is no other way out.

If the movie is anything to go by (and I know often they are not), suicide bombers are much like people attempting to commit suicide alone. What separates them, primarily, is that their purpose is to kill others along with themselves. I can hardly pretend that the issue is simple. There are political, sociological, historical, and economic factors to consider. I can hardly comment on this issue as I have very little insight into these many factors. It saddens me, however, that these men become so desperate and that they feel it is justifiable to commit murder.