The Story of a Boy Who Became a Suicide Bomber

Marissa McLaughlin, a human rights activist from Seattle, recently spent 3 weeks in Balata refugee camp, near Nablus. She was a
participant volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement - an organization dedicated to ending the occupation through non-violent
resistance, and stayed with the family of Jihad Al-Titi. The Al-Titi home was being targetted for demolition by the Israeli army, due to their
son having been a suicide bomber. Marissa reports...

Balata Refugee Camp sits on the outskirts of Nablus. It is the home to 21,000 residents, and according to the local UN clinic, in the last three months, more than 25
people have been killed by the Israeli army, and 600 injured - mostly children.

The Al-Titi family live on the main street that bisects Balata camp and most of their story is fairly typical of any family in the camp. Halima has been a single mother for
10 years and has raised each of her 10 children in the home that she still lives in. The youngest of her children was Jihad, 18.

Shortly before the Israeli army officially re-invaded earlier this year, they 'unofficially' opened fire on several teenaged boys in the streets of Balata camp. Jihad's
friend was wounded and the Israeli army was not allowing ambulances in to take the wounded to the hospital. Jihad ran out to the street and picked up his wounded
friend to move him to safety. The army fired at him, hitting him on the right side. He lost a huge chunk of flesh and underwent surgery but luckily no vital organs were
damaged.

He was still recovering from this injury on March 1st when an armored bulldozer, accompanied by a tank, pulled up outside the family home. Israeli soldiers stormed
into the home and forced all of the members of the family into one room on the second floor. Halima had just finished furnishing and decorating the first floor in
anticipation of her son's marriage, but the Israeli soldiers destroyed everything. One soldier found the family's life savings - $250 - saved for college tuition, and stuck it
into his pocket. The soldiers then attached detonated 2 plastic explosives to an interior wall and detonated them. The house shook violently, tiles fell from the kitchens
and baths, glass broke everywhere, and cracks appeared in the stone walls extending from the first floor all the way to the ceiling of the 3rd floor. The purpose of these
explosives was to weaken the structure to make it easier for the bulldozer, impatiently idling outside, to knock it down. The family was scared and didn't know what
was going on, as the Israeli soldiers had told them nothing. Just as the bulldozer was about to begin the demolition, reporters from Al Jazeera TV began arriving. The
army backed off, presumably because it wouldn't look good for them to be seen on international TV bulldozing down a home with the family still inside. The army told
the press that they intended to destroy the home because 'suspected militants' sometimes visited there.

Less than a month later, the Isaeli army officially invaded Balata camp. For several days they fired on the residents from Apache helicopters. Many homes were
destroyed. These were not the homes of militants, there didn't seem to be any selection process, they just destroyed homes at random. One belonged to an old
woman who lived with 2 grandchildren. The home was reduced to rubble. Today you can see several families living in tents that they have pitched on the rubble of
what used to be their homes.

On April 9, while the invasion was still ongoing, an older son, Munir - 36, and his 13 year old son, Saleh, were walking home from purchasing vegetables for the family
to eat. They had almost reached their door when they were struck from behind without warning by a tank shell. The shell also hit their home and parts of the home fell
on top of them. Saleh lost his right index finger and suffered severe damage to his hand. His thumb is not functional and is not healing well. It will probably have to be
amputated. Munir's spinal cord was severed by shrapnel and he is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life. Munir has a wife and 8 children who now have
no means of support due to his incapacity.

On April 28, the Israeli army invaded Balata camp again. This time Jihad and his brothers, along with every other male between the ages of 15 and 50 were forced to
strip and were paraded through the streets of the camp blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. They were taken to jail where they were questioned for
several days and where they suffered more humiliation and torture. While the men and boys were away in jail, the Israeli army blasted holes in the walls of all of the
homes in Balata camp so they could move between the houses without entering the streets. They stole whatever money, jewelry, or electronics they could find in the
homes and they terrorized the women and children. What they didn't steal, they destroyed. They spray painted black and red arrows on the walls of the homes to show
other soldiers the paths to take to move through all of the houses in the camp without having to enter the streets.

A few days later the army destroyed the home of Jihad's best friend and cousin, Mahmoud by firing 12 tank shells at it. When they finished, a skeleton of the structure
still stood but the windows, walls, and doors were obliterated. Nothing was left inside. It was just a burned out shell of the building that it once was.

After the Israeli army supposedly "left the areas recently re-occupied", Jihad and some friends were returning home from school where they had been peacefully
protesting the occupation. As they stepped out of the car they were riding in, the Israeli army threw an energy bomb at them. Jihad suffered severe burns to his right
arm, hand, face, hip and thigh and he lost most of the sight in his right eye.

Despite his injuries and losses; despite the fact that the army destroyed his friends' home and his family's homes; despite the fact that the army imposed curfew and no
one could go to work or school; despite the fact that everything had been stolen or destroyed; and despite being jailed without charge, Jihad still managed to keep a
hopeful outlook. He was still the positive voice of the camp, encouraging others not to give up, to look toward a better future.

The Assassination of Mahmoud

On May 22, the Israeli army assassinated Jihad's beloved cousin Mahmoud. Mahmoud and 2 friends were visiting a grave in Balata cemetery when the army fired 8
tank shells, each loaded with over 500 nails shaped like arrows, at them from the top of nearby Mount Al-Tur. All 3 were killed by multiple direct hits and a fourth
person, 300 meters away, died from injuries that evening. 8 bystanders were seriously injured. There was severe damage to the surrounding homes and many
gravesites. Jihad ran to the scene immediately after the murders and found Mahmoud's body in pieces. He tried to pick his body up but his hand passed through the
body through a hole created by the tank shells. Jihad was taken to the hospital and treated for shock. He couldn't stop crying and shaking. After being released, he
refused to leave the hospital and spent the night in the morgue next to Mahmoud's body. The next morning, he passed out during Mahmoud's funeral.

The next day, on May 23, the Israeli army bulldozed what remained of Mahmoud's home - and the homes of 6 other families that adjoined his. The bulldozer also
destroyed many graves in the nearby cemetery. According to what they told the press, they found a 'bomb factory' in the house and they used that as their justification
for the siege and attack on Balata camp. The home had been empty for weeks, since they had destroyed it back in April and there was nothing inside but the burned
up remains of the family's furniture and possessions; certainly no 'bomb factory'. Eight days later, Mahmoud's wife gave birth to his first child - a son.

Jihad took Mahmoud's death very hard. He couldn't stop crying. For the first time anyone could remember his talk centered on all of the injustices he and his family
had suffered. He talked of the crippling of his brother Munir and the maiming of his nephew Saleh. He talked about his own injuries which still had not healed and of
his friends who had been killed or injured. He cried hardest for Mahmoud. The day after Mahmoud was killed, Jihad took some favorite clothing to his best friend and
told him that he wanted his friend to have them. He said that he thought the Israeli army would kill him next and he wanted his friend to have something to remember
him by. For 3 days and nights he sat in front of Mahmoud's grave and refused to leave. Then he disappeared. Over the next 3 days, Jihad avoided his family and his
friends. Halima kept asking 'Where is Jihad?', 'Where is my son?' - but no one knew. Everyone thought he was just spending time alone to deal with his grief.

Jihad's Mission

On the afternoon of the fourth day after Mahmoud was murdered, Halima had a feeling of impending doom and was finally able to reach Jihad on his cell phone. She
tearfully asked him where he was, and told him that he needed to come home now and grieve with the family instead of grieving alone. He answered "I am far from
you. I love you mother, I will wait for you a long time. Now, I don't want anyone else to call me." He hung up and turned off his phone.

Less than two hours later, on May 28th at 6:40 PM, 18 year old Jihad, the compassionate boy who had so carefully planned his future, walked to the center of an
arrangement of plastic chairs and tables in open air café outside Tel Aviv and detonated an explosive belt that he was wearing under his grey t-shirt, killing himself
and 2 Israelis and injuring 50 others. He was the first suicide bomber to come from Balata Refugee Camp, but he wasn't the last. Ten days later, his good friend who
lived in the home next door walked into an illegal Israeli settlement and opened fire on soldiers in training. He was shot dead by other soldiers. A few days later,
another of Jihads' friends also went on a suicide mission.

The Israeli army did not invade and terrorize the people day after day after day in "retaliation" for a series of suicide bombers that came from Balata camp; on the
contrary, it was the children of Balata camp who were turning into suicide bombers in response to the Israeli army's constant brutalities, which they were subjected to
day after day after day. In little over 2 weeks, 3 teenagers from Balata camp conducted suicide missions against Israelis, after endless years of enduring Israeli state
terrorism against them and their families.

Corpse is Hostage

The Israeli army refuses to release Jihad's body to his family. They are holding it to a prison sentence of at least 25 years. Later, when a 17 year old Balata boy was
shot to death by the Israeli army for standing outside the door to his home during curfew, he was laid to rest in the space next to Mahmoud. One member of the Al-Titi
family commented that he was buried in what should have been Jihad's resting place and would have been if they had the body.

The Al-Titi family was not allowed to grieve for long. Three days after Jihad's death, the Israeli army arrested all of the men who were related to or who may have
known Jihad, and interrogated them for 5 days. Soldiers occupied the Al-Titi home after forcing Halima and the children into one room and locking them in. They
remained there for 5 days and used the home as their base of operations from which they terrorized the residents of Balata camp once again.

Tears & Memories

I spent hours talking with what remains of Jihad's living friends. They cried and shared their memories of Jihad with me. One told me that he wished that Jihad was
buried nearby so he could visit his grave and talk to him, to feel that he wasn't so far away. I sensed that each of these 18 and 19 year old boys were struggling with a
decision on whether or not they also should conduct suicide missions. I wanted to wrap my arms around them and tell them NO, don't do it, but I realized that I have no
right to do so. This is the struggle that has been their reality since the day they were born; I am but a visitor for 3 short weeks. Who the hell am I to tell them how to react
to the terrorism that they are faced with day in and day out?

I remember Halima and her children and Jihad's friends and the sadness and despair in their eyes. The memory of holding Halima Al-Titi in my arms while she cried
her heart out, lamenting that she didn't see him before he went, will never be far from my mind. Neither will the words of his brother when I asked if they knew what
Jihad was going to do, 'If we knew we would have held him and not let him go. Who would let their brother go to die? He knew if he told us he wouldn't be able to carry
through with it. That is why he didn't tell anyone. That is why he didn't come to see our mother for 3 days. He loved his mother and if he saw her he wouldn't have been
able to do it.'

Media Lies

I think of the lies that we are told on American TV about how Palestinian mothers 'send' their children out to do suicide bombings and I think of Halima and her
children and the sadness and despair in their eyes. I think of the bullshit that we are told about Saddam Hussein or Saudi Arabia paying these families and I look at
this home in this refugee camp where the girls have to make pudding and sell it on the street for half a shekel a cup just so they can feed themselves and I want to
scream at the people who perpetuate such ugly rumors. How can people be so ugly? Jihad and his family are every bit as much a victim as the 2 people who died
when he blew himself up.

I went to the shopping center in Tel Aviv where Jihad blew himself up. I had read the reports on the major news sites first where I was told that he had chosen to walk
into a crowded ice cream parlor full of children because he was 'evil' and he wanted to kill babies. There IS an ice cream parlor in that shopping center, but it isn't
anywhere near where Jihad blew himself up. There is nothing there that hints that anything ever happened. The paint is not fresh and new. I talked with the owner of
the café where it happened and he admitted that the damage was limited to a few plastic chairs and tables and some shattered glass. What a difference the reality is to
the way it was painted in the press. I also read in the press that Halima had supposedly told Jihad before his mission 'I hope that you are successful'. Not only is this a
plain lie, but the idea is ludicrous.