Young
people who tie explosives round their bodies and blow themselves
up are not brainwashed fanatics. The story of 19-year-old Jehad
Ibrahim Al-Titi, whose shattered body was buried in Balata refugee
camp on Saturday, demonstrates how a young man with his life ahead
of him, can be driven by desperation to seek death as a "shaheed"
("martyr).
Probably
the deciding factor in motivating Jehad on the course that led
to his death was the assassination of his beloved elder cousin,
Mahmoud. Targeted by the Israelis as a supposed Fatah militant,
Mahmoud was paying his respects at Balata cemetery when he and
two friends were "taken out" by a 500mm tank shell filled with
nails, inflicting terrible injuries from which they died instantly.
Mahmoud's
house was demolished, and because he had visited the home of his
cousin Jehad, they came to bulldoze it down, too, on March 1.
The family
was locked in one room, all their furniture was taken out and
burned, and a "plastique" exploded against the wall to weaken
it so the bulldozer could do its work.
Jehad's
sister called the Al Jazeera TV station, and when their reporters
arrived the soldiers left, and the family's home was saved --
for the time being.
From
then on, Jehad was targeted, exactly as his cousin had been. He
was shot in the hand and thigh. He was burned with an incendiary
device.
Five
days later, he telephoned his mother to say he was going away,
but he would be with her for a very long time.
And so
a happy 19-year-old who had everything to live for was buried
behind his home on a June morning.
