Before Amr Khamour, 14, was killed, shot twice by Israeli troops as he hurled stones at a navy jeep in his hometown, he spent his time dancing with associates, recording TikTok movies on his cellphone.
But after his loss of life in January, his mother and father discovered {a photograph} of a handwritten farewell message on his cellphone. “If I come to you a martyr, God willing,” he wrote his mom, “don’t cry. And forgive me for every mistake I made.”
“Don’t be sad, father,” Amr continued, “I wished for martyrdom and I received it.” Then he completed with phrases of affection for his childhood sweetheart: “God gave me the person dear to my heart, Kariwan.”
Fighters who’ve taken up arms towards Israel with teams like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have lengthy left behind ultimate testaments, generally high-quality movies, to take duty for assaults wherein they anticipate to lose their lives.
Now, younger Palestinians, like Amr — not affiliated with the territories’ armed teams however nonetheless prepared to confront Israeli troops — are abandoning messages of their very own. These farewells for family members, requests for forgiveness and exhortations to combat towards Israel are often known as “wills” in Arabic, even when their authors will not be abandoning any materials items. Many scrawl them on pocket book paper, with scratched-out phrases an indication of their uncertainty about what to say.
The farewell testaments replicate a prevailing sense amongst many younger males that loss of life is heroic, significant and inevitable throughout what’s now the deadliest interval for Palestinians in almost 20 years within the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
This week, Israel, saying it wished to root out armed teams, launched its largest navy incursion in many years within the West Bank, within the Palestinian metropolis of Jenin, killing not less than 12 Palestinians, finishing up airstrikes and destroying roads and infrastructure, native officers stated. In all, not less than 155 Palestinians have been killed this 12 months, largely throughout Israeli navy raids in Palestinian cities and cities, or in assaults by extremist Israeli settlers.
It has additionally been a specific lethal time for Israelis. The navy raids have been stepped up final 12 months after a spate of assaults by Palestinians on Israelis. So far this 12 months, not less than 29 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian assailants, one of many highest tolls since 2008.
With the intensifying violence, many younger Palestinians really feel added strain that they themselves should change into concerned within the battle towards Israel and act.
Palestinian society has lengthy lionized “martyrs” — anybody killed by Israeli forces — with lots of their photographs displayed on partitions and banners in Palestinian cities and, extra just lately, on social media platforms like Instagram.
Farewell messages are sometimes revealed by the Palestinian news media and shared extensively on social media, inspiring extra younger Palestinians to write down their very own.
Dr. Samah Jabr, the pinnacle of the psychological well being unit for the Palestinian Authority, stated the writing of such wills was wrapped up with generational traumas for Palestinians residing within the occupied territories, coping with checkpoints and close to day by day raids by Israeli troops. Many younger folks really feel an obligation to tackle grownup roles, together with confronting Israeli troops.
When Jalal Abukhater, a Palestinian author primarily based in Jerusalem and the West Bank, goes to the wakes of younger Palestinians to pay his respects, he stated, he typically hears their associates speaking about following of their paths.
“It’s not that they want to die, but it’s that they feel like there’s nothing else to give to Palestine except martyrdom,” Mr. Abukhater stated. “They think just throwing rocks at the Jeep is the bravest act.”
Some of the farewell messages written by younger Palestinians in latest months have cited the phrases of Uday al-Tamimi, 22.
While on the run after taking pictures at an Israeli checkpoint on the entrance of the Shuafat refugee camp, killing one soldier, he wrote a message wherein he stated his assault “was a drop in the stormy sea of the struggle.”
“I know that I will be martyred sooner or later, and I know that I did not liberate Palestine through this operation,” wrote Mr. Tamimi, a resident of the camp. “But I carried it out with a goal in mind; for the operation to mobilize hundreds of young men to carry arms after me.”
Others have cited the phrases of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, 18, a member of an area armed group in Nablus, who left a quick voice recording as he was cornered by Israeli forces within the moments earlier than he was killed.
Mental well being consultants like Dr. Jabr and Ayed Houshia, a counselor at a boy’s college within the Dheisheh Camp, stated they and others wanted to assist Palestinian youths channel fears or frustrations into productive actions as a substitute of confrontations with Israel forces that might get them killed.
Amr’s mother and father stated they’d tried stopping their son from sneaking out at evening when Israeli forces raided their city, close to Bethlehem.
The Israeli navy stated it had raided Dheisheh on the morning of Amr’s killing as a part of a “counterterrorism activity to apprehend individuals.” It wouldn’t say whom the troopers have been there to detain, however Palestinian state media reported that the military had detained an Italian activist.
The navy stated it was investigating Amr’s killing however gave no different particulars.
Less than two weeks earlier than Amr was killed, his buddy, Adam Ayyad, 15, was shot and killed throughout the same military raid into Dheisheh. Like Amr, he would sneak out of his residence when the military raided the camp to confront the troopers and throw stones, his household stated.
About a month earlier than Adam’s loss of life, his mom, Wafaa Ayyad, discovered a farewell message from him. She ripped it up and begged him to not write one other one, she stated.
But he did, maintaining it in his pocket, the place it was discovered after he was shot and brought to the hospital.
“I wanted to do many things, but we live in a place where achieving your dreams is impossible,” Adam wrote. “Martyrdom is victory. It’s true that your life ends, but at least it ends in happiness.”
Days later, Amr visited Adam’s grave in what is called the martyr’s cemetery on the outskirts of Dheisheh. He instructed his associates he wished to be buried within the empty plot subsequent to Adam.
Around that point, Mr. Houshia, the varsity counselor, gathered his college students and instructed them that resisting the Israeli occupation was not nearly taking over arms — it might imply finding out and planning a future, as effectively. He suggested them to not write farewell messages of their very own.
“Why is a 13-year-old child thinking of his death before he is thinking of his future?” Mr. Houshia stated.
Some of the scholars pushed again, insisting {that a} Palestinian homeland required sacrifice. Others admitted having already ready their ultimate messages, stated Mohammad al-Afendi, 15, a tenth grader who attended the assembly.
After the classes, he stated, Mr. Houshia heard from some mother and father who reported that their sons had begun speaking extra about their futures and their research. But such counseling interventions are overshadowed by the day by day actuality the youths reside in, he stated.
“We can counsel the students, but we can’t prevent the army from raiding the camp,” he stated. “The occupation is the biggest driver among the youth who ask why they should stop when they are subjected to war and death.”
Months after Amr’s loss of life, his associates typically be a part of his mom when she visits his grave, within the very plot the place he stated he wished to be buried. It is roofed in a sea of flowers, actual and synthetic, which she rigorously tends.
A couple of of Amr’s associates admit to having already written their wills. There are additionally different indications that a few of them could comply with in his path.
On one aspect of the cemetery, there’s a row of empty graves. Like Amr, a few of his associates say they’ve already claimed their plots.
Source: www.nytimes.com