Ayat Al-Akhras - Radicalization and Preparation For Violence

Radicalization and Preparation For Violence

During the First Intifada which started in 1987, Akhras' oldest brother was jailed twice for attacking Israeli soldiers, and Akhras became fiercely politicized. During the Al-Aqsa Intifada or Second Intifada which started in 2000, members of her family were wounded and killed by the Israel Defense Forces. On March 8, 2002, a close friend and neighbor of Akhras that was playing with his toddler was hit by a stray bullet fired by Israeli troops as they were on a counter-terrorism operation.

This killing was the apparent trigger for Akhras' attempts to join one of the Palestinian resistance groups. She first tried to join the ranks of Hamas, which turned her away because of a long standing policy against allowing females to fight in physical combat. Hamas, which has claimed responsibility for many suicide bombings in Israel says that the basis for this rule lies in teachings of the Qur'an that says Jihad is the domain of the male. Despite this, Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (which generally also only recruits males) have since each used female suicide bombers. In 2002, the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin made a statement to the press after Akhras' bombing saying that the group would only use women after they ran out of men.

However, Akhras found a group that would accept her: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to the armed branch of Fatah (Yasser Arafat's party), more secular than Hamas. The group already had experience, using at least three other women successfully in suicide bombings against Israel before Akhras. She joined the group and was destined by its leader to be a suicide bomber. She was trained several week before being sent to Kiryat Yovel, a south-western neighborhood of Jerusalem, to detonate in the supermarket. Before her attack, Akhras, like many other Palestinian suicide bombers, made a video in which she lashed out at the regimes and militaries of Muslim nations throughout the world. She said: "I say to the Arab leaders, stop sleeping. Stop failing to fulfill your duty. Shame on the Arab armies who are sitting and watching the girls of Palestine fight while they are asleep."