REPRESENTATIONS OF SUICIDE BOMBING

As in any colonial triumph, the colonized are expendable and, interiorizing his/her domination, know themselves as such. It should be noted that the control of the body has always been one of the master obsessions of the colonial mind, a fixation engendered by the recognition of colonialism’s outer limit. The who annihilate themselves in order to kill would appear to face a condition in which their suicidal choice has become ontologically – and not only strategically – the only one available. Lorenzo Verancini – Suicide Bombers: a colonial phenomenon, 2002

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS Reem al-Riyashi, suicide mission at an Israeli checkpoint, killed eight, wounded ten, January, 2004 Shi’ites march through Karbala in a show of force towards ISIS, June, 2014 (Photo from Getty Images). Bus bombing, Jerusalem, 2002 – 18 people killed (Getty Images) Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 2014, Four people killed. Mahmud Hams, Gaza City, 2014

ESCALATION – THE LANGUAGE OF DEFENSE & OFFENSE

Baruch Goldstein, 1956-1994 Massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Hebron, OPT February 24, 1994 Bus bombing, Afula, , April 1994 GENDERING THE SUICIDE BOMBER

Undated photo of Undated photo of Wafa Wafa Idris, widely Idris most commonly used circulated in the in Western reporting of OPT. her attack. Ramallah, January 31, 2002 Wafa Idris on the cover of Time magazine, April 15, 2002 Ayat al-Akhras, killed herself and two Israelis on March 29, 2002, in Jerusalem. Still from al-Akhras’s martyr video. Ayat al-Akhras and Rachel Levy, 2002 Screenshot from Andaleeb Takatkeh’s video statement before her mission, distributed by Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, April, 2002.

“I have chosen to say with my body what Arab leaders have failed to say…My body is a barrel of gunpowder that burns the enemy.”

Tarek Al-Ghousein (Kuawit/Palestine)

From Self-Portrait Series, 2003 Noel Jabbour From Palestinian Interiors 2001 , Snow White and the Madness of Truth, Stockholm, , 2004 Hanadi Jaradat

Suicide attack in a restaurant in , October 4, 2003. 21 People killed, over 50 injured. , Israeli ambassador to Sweden, destroys Feiler’s piece. January 16, 2004 DISRUPTION & HORROR

Nir Elias, Reuters – Photo of the Year, 2002. Israeli police inspect the head of the suspected bomber. March 21, 2002, Jerusalem. THE INDELLIBLE IMAGE