"The Divine Impatience": Ritual, Narrative, and Symbolization in the Practice of Martyrdom Palestine Author(s): Linda M.

Pitcher Source: Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 12, No. 1, The Embodiment of Violence (Mar., 1998), pp. 8-30 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/649475 . Accessed: 04/03/2014 12:55
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ARTICLES

LINDA M. PITCHER Medical Anthropology Program University of California, San Francisco-Berkeley

"The Divine Impatience": Ritual, Narrative, and Symbolization in the Practice of Martyrdom in Palestine
Violence is obscured by habits of thought, which predispose us to reject that which falls outside of our notion of "normal" human behavior. By dismissing as incomprehensible, or "pathologic," embodied practices that do not correspond to a "rationally ordered" everyday life, some anthropologists concerned with issues of violence forsake a fundamental responsibility to foster an understanding of phenomena that affronts, offends, or questions our own cultural norms and assumptions. Situations of violence, whether due to contextual or individual instability, by definition defy pregiven notions of "rationality" and "normal behavior." This article is about Palestinian martyrs, youths killed in confrontations with the Israeli military. It seeks to identify the cultural and psychological processes that make Palestinian martyrdom possible within the specific context of Israeli military occupation. It elaborates the ritual, narrative, and symbolic dimensions of a practice that exists within a Palestinian discourse of sacrifice and of national liberation. [Palestinian, martyrdom, embodiment, psychoanalysis, violence]

The shebab [Palestinianactivist youth] began to throw stones. Then the shooting started.One boy was shot dead.... Maha's fiancee picked up the body and starteda funeral procession to the cemetery. The soldiers called a curfew, but no one paid attention.They moved in on the procession.Mahatold the shebabto flee and triedto slow the encroachingsoldiers. She stoppedto confrontthem. They backedher into a corer. She began fightingwith them handto hand.They said, "Stopresistingor we'll
Medical AnthropologyQuarterly12(1):8-30. Copyright? 1998 AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation. 8

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IMPATIENCE" "THE DIVINE

shoot.""Thenshoot me,"she said and made a breakto escape them. She ranten meters before they fired and Mahafell. -Maha Hamdi, 19 years old, martyredDecember 11, 1987, as told by her brother, September5, 1991, Nablus City, the West Bank Listen:When you lose everything,your homeland,your freedom,your right to move freely, when the universitiesareclosed andyou can't go out at night.... Whatcan you do? Believe me, it's a dignity problem.Even to die is better.Of course we love life, but to have dignity you have to be strong-sometimes strongerthanlife. -Hassan Abu-Ahlem,studentactivist,July 29, 1991, the Gaza Strip

in circumstances It is aboutyoungpeople trapped his articleis aboutmartyrs.

beyond their control. It examines a group of individuals who live on the margins, for whom the context of life has become untenable, and who create for themselves "another scene" in the contemplation and endeavor of death. Through the ritual of shahada (martyrdom), these youth speak. They enact a performance that enables a voice to escape the confines of military occupation. This article elaborates the intersection of ritual, narrative, and symbolization in the space of intentional death. It posits the dual face of the martyr, the shaheed, as the self of becoming and the self of sacrifice. The Martyr Stage Navigating dark alleyways and remote corridors centuries old, Fahim guides me through the casbah of Nablus, the largest city on the West Bank. In a dry sewage underpass, a group of teenage boys sit nervously waiting. We approach them. With a dramatic and sweeping gesture Fahim announces, "These are the leaders of the intifada." ' Embarrassed, the six laugh. If not the leaders of Palestine's future, they do indeed embody its present. All six are "wanted" by the Israeli occupation's intelligence division, "Shinbet." All have warrants out for their arrest-two for organizing demonstrations, one for smuggling "subversive materials" (letters and books) into an Israeli prison, two for throwing stones, and the last for throwing a Molotov cocktail at an army jeep. As they recount their transgressions, none appear to me to be "a guerrilla fighter." Thin and fragile, their stark appearance smacks more of horror than of heroism. They fear the interrogation, the humiliation, and the beating they say will certainly accompany "turning themselves in" to the occupation authorities. Living hidden amidst the ruins of the old city, not one has seen his family in six months or more. Ahmed, who has been imprisoned twice before, tells me, The Shinbetcontrolseverythinghere. They are our "government." They follow me because I have experience, ... experience they gave me by putting me in because I understand that this is occupationand I have a prison. I am "wanted" right to this land. And yet I feel freer inside prison than outside. Outside I am always looking behindme for soldiers.Outsidewe live underthis horribletension. In prison we lose this tension because we are in control. We hold classes and daily activities. Some of our best youth are there. In prison we have dignity, integrity.We have control. [NablusCity, August 30, 1991]

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We speak a few moments longer, until the conversationabruptlystops. The subtle crackleof an approaching handradio,like an explosion, bringsa panic that sends all six fleeing in differentdirections.In seconds they have vanished. "Keep walking," Fahim whispers with controlled urgency. Moving mindlessly, I am stunned.Threeheavily armedIsraelisoldiersemerge from aroundthe corer. They are laughing.I am sweatingprofusely.They smile as they pass me by. Thereare 900,000 childrenliving in the West Bank and GazaStrip,all raised by militaryoccupationand by political struggle(Garbarino1991). Theirencounters with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) range from the routine stress of school closures, curfews, travel restrictions,and identity card confiscations,to the acute trauma of beatings,deportations, demolitionof homes, separation of families,even witness to deathor injuryof a parentor loved one. These events, combinedwith the over 1,600 militaryordersregulatingthe daily lives of Palestiniansunderoccupation, have assailed the very definitionof childhood in Palestiniansociety. To say that fear and vulnerabilityare experiencesfamiliarto many Palestinianyouth understatesthe profoundimpactthese emotions have in formulatingthe identity,the self-perceptionof these childrenas a collective whole. Their lives are shapedby the perceivedthreatof a powerfulandever-present the Israelimilitary, "authority," in the securityandwell-being of theirpeople. This sense of inherentlyuninterested violent vulnerabilityevokes a compendiumof emotional response, rangingfrom defiance to despair with shame, rage, and political resolve located prominently there between. It initiates a process of transformation that at best results in the mindfulassertionof Palestinianethnicity,and at worst facilitatesthe perpetuation of violence thatconsumes theirworld. In the summerof 1991, I conductedfieldworkin the OccupiedTerritories on the effects of trauma on the identityof Palestinianyouth.Duringthe courseof three months,I lived with four families2andheld over 60 formalinterviews.Residingin refugee camps, suburbsof East Jerusalem,and a remote desert village, I was exposed to the everyday life of militaryoccupation.Attendingweddings, funerals, how the occupation celebrations,and religious ceremonies,I began to understand touches every aspect of Palestinianlife. Interviewingstudents and shebab (activists), artists and political prisoners, fellahiin (peasants),academics,andhealthprofessionals,I exploredissues of anger and outrage, of helplessness and despair, and of strength, hope, and identity.3 Among the accounts I recordedwere those of shahada,stories of "martyrdom." These were sharedwith me by families and friends of Palestinianyouthskilled in the intifada,and in conversationswith individualsabout violence, sacrifice, and dying undermilitaryoccupation. WhenI initially reportedmy findingson traumatic response(Pitcher1992), I put these martyrs'stories aside as exceptionalcases. It was not thatI failed to recognize the significanceof such accounts,northatI lackeda desireto examinethem in theirintimatedetail.Rather,it was the dauntingtaskof revealingthe complexity of such highly chargedsymbols as the bodies of martyrsand those who deliberately put themselves in harm's way, compoundedby my sensitivity to a "firstand"unworld"prejudicetowardviewing Palestinianactivistyouthas "irrational" tamed,"thatpersuadedme to lock these tales away. My own desire to explore these narrativesunsettled me. Only an outsider could inquire into the quotidianexperience of intentionaldeath with a sense of

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"THE DIVINE IMPATIENCE"

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of the wonder.As JeanGenetnoted,curiosityis a comfortaffordedfrom"therear" And and towers farther afield whereas a (Genet 1992). pen may battleground ivory as texts, no one at a distancecan hearwhat renderthese acts of sacrifice"readable" the martyrwhispersto himself on "the front."I did not wish to capturethis voice. I felt compelled only to acknowledgethat these accountshad moved me to question whatpushes someone to standbefore his or her own purposefuldestruction.I thoughtaboutthe martyr'sthoughts.Was his journeyto the frontlinenot a wondering of sorts,a speculationresponsiveto the tensionsof occupationspokenthrough the scriptof his body? The legacies of these deaths,and of the pain of recountingthemby those who The Arabicwordshahada means "to knew al shuhadaa,leave me uncomfortable. bear witness,"witness to that which life deems impossible in the Palestinianhistory of Israelimilitaryoccupation.Witnessing these stories, I enteredinto a relationship thatboundme to an explicit responsibility.For five years4I have not fulfilled my expressedcommitmentto convey the accountsof Palestinianshuhadaa and of those who live on. andbleakas it is, it might Oncethisdossier is closed,harsh be wiserforpersons of discourse suchas we are... to respect thesealthislife affixed to itselfandto whoseresonance in we to leavewithout anecho,a speech keepsilent.Yetought us haslasted to thisdayandwhichin consequence words of generates by virtue of time?We havenotdischarged ourdebtto thesecorpses. thepassage [Favret andPeter1982:175] Yet how is it possible to bear witness to a ritualthatis markedand sealed in the same moment?Thereareonly these stories of martyrdom, spokenby would-be martyrsandothers,of those who became shuhadaa only aftertheirdeaths.In them, these martyrsare a living absence, a pain, a breakin the narrative of self that returnsin the memoriesof others.DescribingPalestinianguerrillas killed in warfare on the borderof Jordanand Israel,JeanGenet evoked this paradox: death of a... fedayee himallthemore made usseedetails about [T]he alive,made him we'd nevernoticedbefore,madehim speakto us, answerus with new in his voice. Fora shorttimethe life, the one life of the now dead conviction tookon a density it hadneverhadbefore.[Genet1992:82] fedayee In an attemptto give forum to the broken narrativesof shahada,I will present them as I encountered them, and as they were recountedto me, with all their ambiguity intact.How do we begin to interpreta ritualbound to an ineffable death, an expression that is tied to the past, and projectedinto the future, throughthe body of a subjectwho is no longer able to speak?How do we speak of a performance inevitably approachedfrom "the outside," the space of the living (DeCerteau 1988)? My aim is to suggest an interiorstate of the martyrwho is both subjectand object,psychic and corporeal,an embodimentof alteritythat"reason" conceals (1988:250). What I am hoping to reflect is a refractoryimage that touches the "real"withoutconsuming it, thathints at somethingunfamiliarwhile respectingits unknowability.

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12 The Story of Faheem Nezam

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY

Faheem Nezam was martyred March 17, 1989 at the age of 17. The story was told by his mother on August 10, 1991 at the Balatta Refugee Camp, Nablus City, the West Bank. It was Tuesday. Many houses had been demolishedthatday because the shebab were throwingstones at armyjeeps. At 3:00 A.M. the Jesh [IsraeliArmy] called curfew andsealed off all of Nablus.My son hadbeen sleeping,but was awakened by the loudspeakers.He wantedto be with the othershebab,he needed to be with them, so he went out into the night aftercurfew. [a PalestinianinforThey were together in the old city when "a collaborator" mant] spottedthem and told the soldierswherethey were hiding. The Jesh came with their machine guns ready. They were looking for the boys involved in the earlieractionsof the day-which was not my Faheem.As the soldiersapproached them, Faheemdidn't know where to run.He triedto escape up some stairsto the roof of an old house in the casbah;that'swhen CaptainAbu-Daoudsaw him and fired. Faheemwas wounded but kept climbing.He made it to the roof. He turned to face his home and said, "Tonight,I will be martyred." The soldiers came runningbecause they thoughtFaheem was someone else. They shot him many times, in the neck, in thechest, in the stomach,in the kidneys. He fell from the roof. When they went to retrievehis body, they discovered that he was the wrong person. My Faheemwas still breathing.They triedto massage his heart,but this only aggravatedhis wounds.A Red Crescentambulancecame and took him to the hospital.Therehe died. I startedwailing. My When my sister told me thatmy son had been martyred, husbandwas shoutingand the childrenwere crying.The soldiersoutside came to investigatethe noise. We refusedto let them in, but they broke in anyway. They told my husbandand I that we must come with them to see our son and buy a permitto bury the body. When we got to the station,the soldierstold me not to shoutor screamwhen I saw the body. They opened the door and therewas Faheem,lying naked on the floor. He was full of bullet holes. They had stolen everything,even the watch we had given him. They told my husbandand I to bury him right away, before the sun came up, without a funeral,only the two of us. Before we put him into the ground,my husbandsaluted his son and cried. I kissed Faheem and told him, "You are the best soil of Palestine."Afterwards,I let out a zagrout [celebratorytrill], so thatall would know my son was a martyr. You know, my son ... he was not just a boy; my son was more than a man. The Body Inscribed The Palestinian uprising, the intifada, entered its eleventh year on December 8, 1996. Despite the current political climate of Palestinian/Israeli negotiations over territorial "autonomy," a majority of the Occupied Territories remains firmly under Israeli military command. For many Palestinians, the intifada continues to this day. In its first thousand days, one thousand Palestinian men, women, and children lost their lives; 100,000 people were injured (Institute for Strategic Studies 1991). In 1989 alone, the Israeli Defense Force arrested in excess of 25,000 Palestinians in connection with the uprising on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip (Amnesty International 1990). Civilian hostilities spill over the Green (Armistice) Line from Palestinian and Israeli quarters alike, while the Israeli military revises its

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"THEDIVINEIMPATIENCE"

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administrative practices from using plastic bullets to using live ammunition to maintain the occupation (Institute for Strategic Studies 1991). From December 1987 to March 1991, 52,107 unarmed residents of the Gaza Strip (population 700,000) were injured by gunfire, beatings, and tear gas. Since 1982, Israeli rules of military engagement have been extended to include Palestinian children, thereby lowering the permissible age of interrogation and imprisonment to 12 years of age. Ten thousand Palestinian youths have been shot by "nonlethal" ammunition, including rubber bullets, plastic bullets, stones, and tear gas (Institute for Strategic Studies 1991). Since the onset of the intifada, in excess of 240 children under 16 years of age have been killed by the Israeli Defense Force (Usher 1991). The Palestinian body is inscribed by conflict. As it struggles to speak, it is written on by others: the intifada, the occupation, its inheritance, the promise of its legacy. You know, when I see that [the Israelis] are using experimentaltactics, like disable,or using new bullets, I feel as breakingbones at thejoints to permanently though they are using us as laboratoryanimals. No one is immune. No age, no sex, no one. [Dr. Ahmed Yazigi, July 29, 1991, the Gaza Strip] A detailed explanation of the purpose and effects of ammunition used by Israeli soldiers elucidates the extent to which even the interior of the body cannot escape the superordinate confinement of military occupation. Dr. Ahmed Yazigi, former director of General Surgery at Gaza Governmental Hospital, provided the following description: In my position as supervisorof GeneralSurgery,I received about70 percentof Gaza's intifadainjuredin the first year. During those first few months, most of the injuredarrivedwith bullet wounds. Thereare severaltypes of bullets used by the Israelimilitary,each intendedto inflict a differenttype of wound. A dum-dumbulletis madeupof a groupof ironneedlesplacedinsidethebullet's shell. Upon impact with the body, the bullet explodes, spreading iron fibers flesh. This inflictsthe maximumdamage the immediatelysurrounding throughout possible. A high velocity impactreflects the use of dum-dumbullets. Then you have the modified dum-dumbullet. Instead of putting needles or foreign metals inside this bullet, they make the casing itself-the high velocity body of the bullet-so explosive thatit spreadslargechunksof shrapnelthroughout the body. These are more lethal thanthe originaldum-dum. They'realso using a new bulletnow. They call it a plasticone butit is not plastic becauseit containsonly 15 percentplasticmaterial.They put zinc andothertypes of metals inside a plastic casing. The difference is that it inflicts a mono-injury ratherthana multipleone. There is no shrapnelinside. Rubberbullets.My childrenlike to takethese frommy coat pocketwhen I come a piece of home from surgery.A rubberbullet is a casing of rubbersurrounding heavy metal inside. They use these to disperse crowds from a close proximity. They are often lethal, like regularbullets.They say thatthey are not supposedto the chest, the skull, even penetratethe skin, but I have X rays of thempenetrating the heart,fatally. Under military occupation, the body is the locus of displacement (Feldman 1991). Beatings, bullet wounds, harassment, and interrogation violate the intimacy of the body, yet are representative of a larger, collective, and systemic displacement: the displacement of Palestinian refugees evicted from their homes now in-

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14

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side Israel, the displacementof an entire populationdenied the authenticityof a homeland."In a political culture,the self that narratesspeaks from a position of andeditedby others-by politicalinstitutions, havingbeen narrated by conceptsof historicalcausality,andpossibly by violence" (Feldman1991:13). The Palestinian body is a collectivizedbody thatis encodedwith social meanIt is Palestinian ing. granted privilegein the political sphere,a domainthatallows individualexpressionwhereexpressiveoptions are limited. Underthe restrictions of occupation,educational and vocationalambitionareluxuriesthat opportunities Israelimilitarycontroldoes not allow. Such individualisticattemptsat self-determinationare futile underpresentcircumstances.Componentsof individualidentity are necessarilysecondaryto the social exigency of survivalandresistanceunder occupation. Identifyingwith the national struggle serves two functions for Palestinianyouths:it stavesoff danger,and it facilitatessolidarity.Prioritizing the of the accentuates a Palestinian awareness of the copolitical instrumentality body ercive tensions of living underoccupation.It fosters a vigilance thatmakes perilous encounterswith soldiersandpotentialclashes recognizableandmeaningful,if unavoidable. The exalted symbol of the shebab (politically active youth) is an affirmation of the collective Palestinian andmusic as a youth body. Depicted in art,literature, wrappedin black and white-checked headscarfs,the shebab embodies activism, are as visible on the groundas in the folkdefiance, and courage.These "fighters" lore of the people. One readilywitnesses these maskedyouthconfrontingsoldiers, in the streets,spray-painting leafdemonstrating political slogans, or distributing lets publishedby the "UnifiedLeadership." Dr. Eyad el-Sarrajexplains,
Whenyou area teenager,you need a hero. And when the fatherstopsbeing a hero, removedfromthehomeby soldiersor deposedof his public status,somebodyelse must replacehim-the maskedpeople, the activists in the intifada.These are the leaders, the heroes to follow. And of course you cannot be a leader without a withthe military:how manytimes you have beenbeaten, historyof confrontations how many times you have been arrested,how many times you have been shot, and how you persistin doing it. [August22, 1991, the Gaza Strip]

The statusof political activityconferredby peershas affirmedthe collective identity of Palestinianyouth and facilitatesan expressive outlet for theiranger.Politicizing the bodies of Palestinian activist youth infuses them with a sense of purposefulnesswithin the perniciousdomainof occupation. But the social inscription of militaryoccupationandpoliticalresistanceupon the bodies of Palestinianyouthcarriesa dual objectivity.While it seeks to control and order the body by harnessingit to the "collective will," it simultaneously launchesthe "self,"by virtueof an imposed absence,into the throesof a subjective imperative.The externalforces thatshapethe collectivized subjectalso initiatean and internalquandary concerningsubjectiveexperience,individualcircumstance, politics? personalhistory:how does the self speak amidstthe roarof revolutionary thusservesbotha socially cohesive anda personallyindividuatBodily inscription ing function. Social cohesion aims to politicize the body in an expressionof culturalresistance.An introspectivequestioninginitiates the formulationof an individual system of meaning: the creation of the self. Within the tensions of this

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"THE DIVINEIMPATIENCE"

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duality, politically active youths, including those who would be martyrs, are animated.

"Breakfast"-Sawahara Village, July 14, 1991

to preparea breakfastof leban [yogurt], Nida andWisam are awakeby 6:00 A.M khubuz[flat bread],andjibna [white cheese] with zatar [wild thyme]. From the gardenoutside, Nida picks fresh mint for the morning tea. Their mother, UmAbed, is up at the same time. She tunes the radio to a Palestiniannews channel broadcastfrom Syria, and begins work on a needle-point pillow cover she is for export. preparing The sonic booms of Israelimilitaryjets practicingmaneuversover this desert Until thattime there is peace. village on the West Bank begin around8:00 A.M. The deafeningblasts furiously shake the windows of my host-family's home 10 or 12 times per day. The intrusionelicits little responsefrom those for whom this underthe routineof militaryoccupation. has become "normal" The radio is left on all day, a vital connection to a world inaccessible by telephone. Curfews, road closures, travel restrictions-all are announceddaily over the airwaves to an isolated yet ever-attentiveaudience. And then there is folk song and nationalisthymns. "Thisis my favorite music, a mix of traditional Nida comments as she poursthe zatarinto a dish. song. It's by Ahmed Kabour," She begins to sing, "Lenawas a child makingher future.She was shot, Lena fell, but her blood was still singing, .. . for Jerusalem,for Nablus ... Palestinianson the West Bankmake your flesh a bridge so thatotherscan return." the scheduled program.Anotheryouth has been An announcement interrupts beatenand arrestedin confrontationswith soldiers in Arab East Jerusalem.The boy is 18-year-oldTamirNassif of Albireh village. The clatter in the kitchen quiets. The girls search their memories for any with the Nassif family. Wisamredirectsthe taskat hand.She heads acquaintance for the family libraryhiddenbehindthe kitchenpantry.It is therebecausethe last time soldiersenteredtheirhome they confiscatedbooks outlawedby the occupation.She takesa volumedown fromtheshelf, flips to thebackanddutifullyrecords the young man's name and village, as well as the time, place, and circumstance of his arrest. The pages of this log are filled with handwrittenentries and newspaperclippings. Photographsfrom political magazines vividly depict the of a young boy dated moregruesomeaspectsof occupation.She stops at a portrait 9-12-88. "Thisis MohammedNaim. We called him the 'Palestinianmiracle.' He was shot with a dum-dumbulletthatexploded his stomach.He lived for two more yearsandwhenhe died, they honoredhim as a hero.It was a beautifulcelebration." After breakfast,the girls take me into their bedroom. "I want to show you something... ," Nida confides. She shuts the door, closing her parentsand little brotherout. She pulls a notebookfrom underthe mattressand hands it to me. In it I find poems of liberation,drawingsof nationalstruggle,picturesof flowers, of anotherthe the PalestineNationalCharter, youth, of the land.One page reiterates lyrics to a song. "I want them to find this book afterI am shaheeda(martyred)." Nida looks at her sister and says, "Thatwill be the proudestday of my life."

De-limen-ating Subject Shapes

People in a liminal condition are without clear status,for their old position has been expunged and they have not yet been given a new one. They are "betwixt and between,"neitherfish nor fowl; they are suspendedin social space without firm identityor role definition. [Murphyet al. 1988:237]

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The conceptof "liminality" was firstexploredin anthropology by Arnoldvan Gennep.In his work TheRites of Passage, he describesthreestages of "life crises" and other passage rites: separation,transition,and incorporation(van Gennep 1960). Through a series of ritual ceremonies-traditionally marking birth, the coming of age, marriageor death-individuals enter into these stages as one type of person and exit with an alteredidentity.During this transition,subjects are on the marginsof identification.Victor Turnerextended this analysis by identifying specific qualities in the experienceof liminality: suspendedconventional status, tumult,isolation, and transformation (Turner 1967). When the concept of liminality is applied to social conditions less structuredthan traditionalrites of passage-physical impairment,illness, poverty-it raises compelling questions regardingthe social place of people with ambiguousstatus such as "the disabled," "the sick,"and "thepoor."In the radicallydisjunctive"events"of neocolonialism and revolutionary to politics, the natureof liminal transitionsbecome paramount culturalsurvival.In short,liminalitymarksa periodof alteration,a process of becoming. From out of the uncertaintyand disarrayof occupation,the Palestinian subjectemergestransformed. Palestinepresentsa liminalcontextof the most challengingform. Militaryoccupation creates a continuousstate of crisis that inhibits social organizationand subjectivecontrol.Wherethereis no unfettered space,no place for personalbeing, the occupationhas succeeded in implementingwhat Michael Taussig calls "the strategic art of abnormalization"as an effective measure of social control (1990:219). Living underoccupationoffers no clear pathto achieving what is perhaps most importantin times of social upheavaland political crisis, a grounded sense of identity.But in the culturalflux of occupation,the possibility of transformation and the cultivationof a more situatedidentityremains. Under occupation,critical events (e.g., arrests,beatings, collective punishthattraditionally sketchthe ment) confrontthe culturalnormsandsocial standards of "identity" on both individualand collective levels. When one's inparameters ternal and social continuityis challengedby a real or perceived life-threatening event, the relationshipbetween individualand environmentis severely disrupted, compellingthe survivorto probedeeperintodefinitionsof self andagency in an effort to reclaima sense of identityandcontrol.A young Palestinianboy, tauntedby nightmaresof soldiers breakinginto his home, throws stones at them in waking consciousness and feels relief. A Muslim girl defies the traditionalsegregationof public and private spheres to demonstratein the streets against the occupation. These scenarios are not uncommon in the Palestinianexperience. Embeddedin these momentsis the possibility of a situated"mindfulness," an emergentawareness that some components(social, cultural,psychological) of "being"exist without significantreasonor practicalutility, while others necessarilyneed to be emphasizedor alteredto respondto the demandsof survival.Whenthe precariousness of a liminal contextis experiencedby an entirepopulation,as undermilitaryoccuconventionalconceptionsof social roles and pation, its effects serve to transform culturalpractices.
Now we are going througha phase in which a lot of determinedvalues are being challenged.Many of our feelings, thoughtsand roles are up for discussion. [Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj,August 22, 1991, the Gaza Strip]

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Occupationis a transitional period, one in which we are trying to recaptureour identity. [Dr. ShafiqMasalha,August 12, 1991, Bir Zeit]

Despite the trials of occupation,these statementstestify to something constructivein facing adversity. Withall thedifficulties, withall the suffering thatgoes on in Palestine, thereis stillsomething about lifehere. Theoccupation verypositive, something powerful theinner Theunspoken hereis to be yourself. Itis to brings yououtside. struggle knowyourself as a Palestinian. scienceprofessor, [Sa'ebErikat, political August 6, 1991,EastJerusalem] Liminal situationsproduceliminal bodies. In the OccupiedTerritories, they arethe bodies of those thatexpressthe tensionsandtransitions of a culturein crisis. Liminalpeople arein the process of being reclassified;"theyhave died in theirold statusand are not yet reborninto a new one" (Murphy1988:237). Underoccupation, some individualsare more liminal than others. Because of the lethal risk involved in publicly expressingtheir outrageagainstthe occupation,shebabbodies are pronouncedlymore "liminal"than others. Activist youths consciously decide to forsake their historic role as children in Palestinian society (submissive to authorityand deferentialto the traditionalleadershipof their fathers)and accept the potentialconsequencesof beatings, arrests,or imprisonment. For these indiin the intifadais the vehicle of transformation. It directsthe viduals, participation traumaof occupationaway from individualincapacity and internalized"pathology" and towarda collective and proactiveaffirmationof Palestinianidentity. The shebabare creatingnew symbols of resistance(the martyr[shaheed],the political activist [shabab], and the political prisoner)and new principlesof Palestinianethnicity(steadfastness, and sacrifice).They embody a vision perseverance, of Palestinianidentityand agency more responsive to their currentcircumstance thanthe exclusive legacy of traditional familialand social structures. They arecona and subversion of the structing distinctlysubjective indigenous experienceof occupation.They not only resistthe coercive force of the Israelimilitary,butembrace the changenecessarywithintheirown culturalcontext to facilitatethe formationof a Palestinianstate. The shahada (martyrs)take this quest one step further.Death enters their vernacularas a noncompliantalternativeto life under occupation. Theiracts atonethe failureof generationsto cast off the chainsof the occupierand clear a space for the next step forward(FischerandAbedi 1990). They areyouth at a threshold:sacrificingthemselves to bring a nationcloser to life (Murphy1988). Words around Martyrdom In the face of violence and political oppression,Palestinianmartyrsstandtogetherwith othersacrosstime. The Jews themselves were martyrs-rememberthe WarsawGhettoUprising,KrystalNacht, and Auschwitz. Becket, Bonhoeffer,the IranianBaha'i, and Tibetanmonks were martyrsto faith and religious practices. Depending upon how and when one interpretshistory, Irish revolutionaries,soldiers of Vietnamandof the Second WorldWar,citizens of EastTimor,Cambodia, as well as childrenof Guatemala,Nicaragua,and El SalEritrea,and Kazakhstan, vador, gave their lives for a nation. Croatianwomen raped by Serbianmilitias mightbe consideredmartyrs. Certainlythe man standingbeforethe tankin Tianan-

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men Square was prepared to be martyred-ready to die for an ideal of freedom, of liberation, perhaps the vision of a new China. Martyrdom has touched all reaches of the globe. Why, then, do we continue to shroud its meaning with mystery? Why is martyrdom so frequently scorned by "more rational," less invested minds? Must we gaze upon al shuhadaa in dumbfounded silence? We have only to remember. As in Christianity and Judaism, Islam grants martyrdom a hallowed place. The Qur'an states, "Consider not those slain on the path of God to be dead, nay, alive with God; they are cared for" (Sura 3.166). The Qu'ran goes on to elaborate, "And as to those who fight for the cause of God, God will not suffer their works to perish. He will guide them and bring their hearts to peace and lead them into Paradise which He has made known to them" (Sura 47.4-6). In the Hadith literature, one who dies in the performance of a meritorious act dies a shaheed and is seated nearest to God in heaven (Gibb and Kramer 1974:515-516). The contemporary conception of shuhadaa has undergone important extensions to accommodate the social and political peril modern Muslim communities face. Such is the case in Palestine, where traditional notions of martyrdom are suited to the affliction of Israeli occupation. For Palestinians, the discourse of martyrdom has come to include children killed in demonstrations and clashes with soldiers. in our society takeson a differentmeaning.Martyrin The concept of martyrdom English means nothing more thana crazy lunatic.In Arabic,shaheed("martyr") is the ultimate.It's a differentconceptthanwhat Americansare used to thinking in our society. It is a matterof context.To become about.It is not "pathological" a shaheed is very honorable.From a psychological perspective,to reconcile the possibility of deathin a situationsuch as ours is a release. Yes it is extraordinary, yes it is uncommon, but it can be understoodas a healthy release. I have interviewedmany young people who have considereddying for Palestine. For anoutgrowthof despair.[Dr.Ahmed them,the idealof the shaheedis notprimarily Baker, directorof The JerusalemFamily Counseling Center,August 30, 1991, Jerusalem] I don't thinksomeoneputshimself in the placeof the martyr just becausehe wants to be killed. I think most martyrsdie in the course of committing some act of resistance against occupation. He does not expose himself to death recklessly. is ascertainedvery well. Parents, Generally speaking, the event of martyrdom but also with sorrowand forbearance friends,relativesaccept it with tremendous becausehereyou have a situation Thisis important greatself-controlandgratitude. where a person is fighting for the sake of the country,fighting for himself. We must respectthis. [Dr. HaidarAbdul Sha'afi,presidentof the Gaza Red Crescent Society, July 29, 1991, the Gaza Strip] As a youth who wants to become politicallyactive, you are bound by competing feelings. You want to fight a soldier armedwith a machinegun, but at the same time you realize thatyou are totallyexposed and vulnerableto him. You are very fearfulandyou must come to termswith that.To deal with thatis a very complex thing. Firstyou have to deal with your fearof dying, to conquerdeath.You must glorify it as a necessary means to an end-Palestine. In these terms death is no longer somethingto be afraidof. Secondly,you mustbelieve deeply in the notion of sacrifice.You mustbelieve thatyourdeathwill aid in the struggleof those who survive you and call more fightersto the field. is not happeningamong all young people. But it Of course, this transformation

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of activists. within a conscious decision is happening Manyof themmake groups to die. And when they face that decision, they must also face its consebehind. towards acting veryfavorably family people Theystart quences-leaving ingoodterms; because toberemembered their andfriends also,because theywant willcausegreat so death goodof themselves pain.Theywantto leavesomething we find towards theirmemory. thatotherswill notfeel indifferent Particularly, to reconcile thatthosewhowouldbe martyred go out of theirway beforehand orpayoff old debts.If you inquire thesecases,youwill conflicts about personal before findthat shaheed havedonethismonths many theydie.[Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, of theGaza Mental Health Care andCommunity director Center, 22, 1991, August theGazaStrip] There is a tensionin all of these accountsbetween the psyche of the shaheed and the object of his or her action,between the internalcontinuityof survivaland the externaldemandsof sacrifice, between life and death. These extremes,however, are not permanently polarized.Rather,they are equally magnetic,pulled together at the core of the martyr.The words that describe what motivatesthe shaheed reflect a duality in the performanceof an act that is at once profoundly subjectiveand ultimatelyobjectifying.The contemplationand enactmentof martyrdomexists in a differentlyorderedrealm of consciousness,one thatcentersthe individualin his own free will, his own autonomy.Martyrdom createsa cognitive place more spaciousthanone boundby a strictlyexternalizednotion of "reality." The martyrstage allows for the telling of an autobiographical "tale"thatreshapes leads its materialcomponents.Herefact follows fiction; the narrative of the martyr with certaintywhile everyday"reality" in lingers ambiguity. is a tale of heroismand sacrifice.He is a figurewho in The storyof the martyr in life-a union between freedom and death achieves that which is unattainable control,betweenthe past and the future,between the individualandthe collective. He is a figure who enactsa dreamamidsta living nightmare. Treadingthe margins of life anddeath,he stepsout of the confinementof occupationinto a worldless ordered:a place of greatdangerandof greatpotential. For those too groundedin life to considerthe risk of death,the martyris but a player in a romantictragedythatawakensin the living not only a sense of self and thempossibility but also the pain of loss and the pain of living. For the "actors" selves, theirdeathholds promisefor both the nation and the individualin chains. The ritualspaceof martyrdom opens for themthe "otherscene"wherethe contemlife" (a memoryof the past, a fantasyof the future)is possible, plationof "another can be cultivated,and will grow. The martyr'sstory functionsas a mirrorstage, a reflectionthatestablishesa relationship betweenthe self andits realitythatis referential to oneself. It is a subjectivetale availableonly in a refractory image of occupation-a means of formulatinga more permanent"I"in a climate thatdenies its existence.

The Story of Nasser Abu-Bakeer Nasser Abu-Bakeerwas martyred September11, 1987, at the age of 24. His story was told by his motherSeptember5, 1991, at the BalattaRefugee Camp,the West Bank.

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MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY My son was politically active from the very beginning of the intifada.You see, in the slaughterof 1948, so my son felt very committed my fatherwas martyred to riddingus of this wretchedoccupation.He was PFLP [People's Frontfor the Liberation of Palestine]and had been "wanted" by the Shinbetfor a long time. One night,the Shinbetcalled my home and demandedthatNassertum himself in. He refused.Instead,he went underground. He moved out of the house so the rest of us would not be in any danger,and went to live in the ruinsof the old city with the other"wanted" shebab. Then we got a second call from Shinbet. They say thatby the second call the shebabhas less than 6 months to live. By this time the "specialunits"have his and know his history of political activity. At night, they go hunting photograph forthese"wanted shebab" with heat-sensingguns.The secondtimeShinbetcalled, they threatenedme. They said, "Give us Nasser or else we will take your I was very afraidand triedmany times to communicate with Nasser. daughters!" I had no idea wherehe was living. I sent messages with othershebabto find him and tell him what the Shinbethad said. Nasser decided to surrender. He went to the authoritiesandturnedhimself in. The him, interrogated him, beathim, but they refusedhis surrender. They arrested Captainsaid, "I don't want you alive, I want you dead. This is not a hotel! You cannotstay here." On the day Nasser died, there was a great escalation of activity in the camp. Children the campwere throwingstones at all branches of themilitary: throughout the foot patrol,the borderpolice, the special units.The soldierswere runningand shootingin all directions. Nasserwas also fighting.He was spottedby a patrol.An IDF soldierrecognized him andsaid,"Letthe othersgo. We have NasserAbu-Bakeer." The whole patrol came chasing afterNasser. They shot him threeor four times in the legs. Nasser fell. While he laid therebleeding, they interrogated him. They ropedhis legs and draggedhim on his face to the first gate of BalattaCamp.Fromthere,they took him to the civilian administration building in Nablus where they beat him and him for six hours. They shot him again. Then, at 12:30 A.M., they interrogated called Makassedhospital (an Arab hospital in East Jerusalem,two hours away). They said, "Thereis a dog here, come and take him away." When my son arrivedat the hospital, an employee recognizedhim and called our home rightaway to tell us thatNasser had been badly injured.When we got to the hospitalNasser was still conscious. The doctors told us that he had nine holes in his bodyandthatthe soldiersclaimedthathe hadbeencaughtin cross-fire. But there was much evidence of torture.Nasser had internalbleeding, not only from the gunshotwounds. His body was badly bruised,his wrists were purple. His skinwas shredded frombeing dragged.The hospitalstaffsaidtheyweregoing to file an official report against the military. He lived nine more days in the hospital.When he died we honored him with a wedding ceremony, a beautiful of our Nasser to the land of Palestine. marriage

Positing an Interior Future The wounds and scars that engrave the bodies of most political activists document their struggle against occupation and reaffirm their identity as Palestinians. But the martyr's case is distinct. His experience and perception of occupation fundamentally alters the relationship of his body and self to the world. His interpretation of the ominous confinement of Israeli military control reaches beyond his physical being into the realm of existential meaning. Wrought by distressing

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of a sibling or the publichumiliationof a parent,for examevents-the deportation ple-the would-bemartyris confrontedwith an awesome awarenessthatlife under militaryoccupationhas become untenable."[T]he 'atmosphereof certainuncerthe body certifies its existence and threatensits dismembertainty' that surrounds ment"(Bhabha1994:45). This tensioninitiateswithin the would-bemartyrthe reorganizationof a notion of self more firmly rooted in the psyche. His body thus of that psychic integrity,a self less becomes a vehicle, an expressive articulation has yielded the impervulnerableto the occupier.Long beforehis death,the martyr manenceof his body to the strugglefor an autonomousidentity. The cloak of martyrdom wrapsslowly. Althoughoccasionallydrapedin a single gesture,a momentof extremeperil(theshebabthatdefies the soldier's weapon, the "hero"who intervenes to save a loved one from harm), more frequentlythe process thatgraduallydistancesthe self contemplationof death is an intrapsychic from the everyday.It is a periodtied to a strangetemporalityguidedby the speculationof "living"in an afterlife.Consciousnessof the image of deathinvites an exchange, an ecstatic relationshipthattransposes"whatis" with "whatcould possibly be," positioning the more authenticallyfelt "self" of the would-be martyr within an interiorfuture. It would be a mistake,however, to associatethis reflexive statewith delusion or pathology.For its purposeis to createorder,to make sense of a disorderedcontext. It attemptsto conceive of a more autonomoussubject,which speaks with "a freedomthatis never more authenticthanwhen it is within the walls of a prison;a demand for commitment, expressing the impotence of a pure consciousness to masterany situation;... a personalitythatrealizes itself only in suicide" (Lacan 1977:6). The division and speculationof the would-be martyr'sreorientedsubjectivity reveals, in Bhabha'sterms,"anutterlynakeddeclivity"whereinan authentic upheavalcan be born (Bhabha 1994:41-42). "[T]he state of emergency is ... always the state of emergence"(1994:41). Perhapsthe impetusfor this shift in consciousness centers on a need for securityand stability where little exists, or conceivably between the passion to survive and the sense of having already been erased.Whereverthe locus, this intrapsychic pressurecompels the subjectto posit the ideal of anotherlocality, away from the untenablebind of an exclusively material "reality." It is a creative contemplation,similarto a daydreamthat vacillates between conscious and unconsciousperceptionin searchof a situatedidentity.In Palestine, the identityimperativefor those caughtbetweenexternalcontingencyand internal uncertainty pivots arounddeath.For the martyr,it is only in the contemplationof death that the renegotiationof his position in the world becomes possible. It is a contemplationfilled with meaning, where truth is made manifest in a somber pledge of sacrifice.This situatedpraxis, a combinationof self-reflectionandcommitmentto action, enables the would-bemartyrto cross from the exclusive realm of perceptioninto an existentially"real"world of being-a world he now experiences with a fuller sense of controland purpose. In the contemplativeencounterwith death the martyris able to see himself more clearly. The meditation offers a place to consider the meaning of what is "real" to the subject.Lacanidentifiesthis processas thatof the tuche, an encounter with the "real" behinda networkof signifiers(the automaton)thatdelimit"reality" (Lacan 1973). The tuche, the real as encounter,may presentitself in the form of a

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trauma-a beating or an unexpected clash with soldiers-that carries in it something unassimilable (1973). This speaks to the rupture, the initial alienation of self from a strictly experiential view of life. The unassimilable component, revisited again and again in the contemplation of death, is marked by a subjectifying familiarity that finally orients and orders the subject's sense of control. More simply, the would-be martyr comes to associate the experience of his own subjectivity with a contemplation of death in a manner that is self-constitutive; strengthening and reaffirming his sense of self until death is finally enacted. It is an encounter that liberates a part of the self imprisoned by reality; an association in the mind of the martyr that has both a text and subtext that reads, "Never will I be so free (so subjectively in control) as in the ultimate sacrifice for my country (in overcoming death)." I have had clients who I've felt might some day be martyrs.They have no fear of deathor punishment, and theirconfidence is extraordinary. [Dr. ShafiqMasalha, clinical psychologist,August 12, 1991, Ramallah]

The Symbolic Order Have you ever thoughtto dress up as a pen, or as a zebra, and to go throughthe coffin of the universealive? Or to take off your face? It is a questionin the eyes of the quiet who follow disastersin despair. A lady passed throughhim and knockedon the table. He followed her. He wants to catch her to catch her hair. But she brokeher shadow and put her hairon the ground. She followed the poet and dressedas the moon. The Genie of historyin her hands grew and her legs became very long. Her hairgrew longer and longer past the neck of every passenger tryingto kill her. And as this happened The poet still watchedthe lady from behind. At her hair and at her legs. He standsin his place and then he goes.

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This is a very small piece, just a few lines, but it describesthe situationhere. The communityfeeling when you lose everything.What are you going to do? In it thereis someone who is very concernedaboutthe situation.And someone who is very careless.The lady is the land.The observeris the human,andhe doesn't care. He just looks at her legs. The poem has some jokes and some politicalstanding.Thereis bothhumorand criticism. You see, it is very difficult to abandonpoetry in the politics of our people. Maybe in othercountriespeople can do this, but here it is impossible. The life of Palestineis a beautifullady. And the hero is coming to speakout, to free the lady and give her a crown of victory. Somewherebetween the identityof these two individualslies the identityof the Palestinianpeople. [Excerptsfrom an interviewwith Ms. HananAwad, a poet and writer,August 4, 1991, Jerusalem] Poetry is an interpretive practice that bridges what Lacan calls "reality" and "the real." Tied to "reality," it speaks to what is collectively known and familiar; it is interreferential with a host of externalities among which the subject is situated. Anchored in "the real," poetry also articulates those symbols that signify the relation between the subject and "reality." In this realm, according to Lacan, the symbolic formulates the determining order of the subject (Lacan 1977). The real functions to establish continuity in the symbolic order (1977). Under occupation, the juxtaposition of death with the precariousness of life provides one such thread that holds the symbolic order together. It is the symbolic feature most salient in the lives of would-be martyrs and is present in the art, literature, and music of "martyrdom." It is a trope that extends beyond the martyr, as the symbolic form of the martyr can be read as a metonym for the whole of Palestinian suffering. It is a symbol that is to varying degrees present in the consciousness of all Palestinians. Loosely applying the notion of dialectics to the symbolic register of the martyr, the thesis presents a fragmentary image of the would-be martyr ensconced in contingency. The antithetical form signifies a negation, an acknowledgment of the subject through its threatened erasure under occupation. This negation marks the onset of "becoming." The martyr symbolically "overcomes" these two dialectic forms in a synthesis that takes him beyond fragmentation and erasure. Synthesis repositions the martyr within the scope of eternity, solidifying the permanence of his being. When taken together, these three forms mark the process of the martyr's
subjectification.

In Palestine, these forms are organized around themes of absence, sacrifice, and triumph. Colors, gender, the body, and land encode these themes, emphasizing their continuity across forms. Red symbolizes "heart," "body," and "blood," the passion of the Palestinian people, the strength of resistance. White signifies "hope," the promise of the future. Black is the night that blankets the "Palestinian condition," while green represents the land, the symbol of permanence uniting past, present, and future. These are the colors of the Palestinian flag, as described to me time and again. The body and the land are conflated across symbolic forms and artistic genres. Sometimes this occurs through association, as in the lyrics to a song by George Cormos entitled "Ana ismi Sha'b Filistini" (My name is the people of Palestine): Palestine,I have no one but you. I am yourname,I am your son, I am yourpeople. I am worthnothingwithoutyou. My nameis the people of Palestine.Today I die, today I fight, today I live. I have no othernamebut Palestine.

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Other times the confluence is material,a tangible embodiment of land as both male and female. I writeabout Sometimes as a beautiful with Palestine woman lady.I interchange wordforland,ard.Loveis in thewombof Palestine. thefeminine It givesnew to unity.Thewayto love is to fightforthatlady,to bringthesoil and meaning thepeopletogether. Itgivesmeaning to whatis rightin theend. in myview,is alsoa man.WeusealsotheArabic ButPalestine, which watan, is themasculine wordforland. WhenI say"myhomeland," I sometimes usethe I construct masculine. a beautiful man.He is the hero.He is the land.[Hanan Awad,poet,August10, 1991,Jerusalem] Blood is anotherpotent symbol that unites the Palestinianbody to the land. there are poems and songs aboutblood that Throughoutthe OccupiedTerritories nourishesthe land wherea shaheedhas fallen in clashes with soldiers.In the practice of buryinga martyr,the blood-soakedclothing always remainson the body to fertilizethe soil and symbolizehis sacrifice.These codes markthe symbolic space of the martyrpresentin speech,poetry,song, and performance. The first orderof symbolic form, the thesis, reflects the circumstance of the symbolization,the contextof the subject.Perhapsit is best understoodas the field of the "imaginary world,"the registerof images, perceivedor imagined,thatcomWalkingdown the streetsof KalandiaRefugee Camp prise the martyr's"reality." on August 27, 1991, I watchedthis orderunfold as I bore witness to a hauntingly reconstructed worldof play enactedin two scenes. First,I watchedtwo young girls huntingaroundthe guttersand garbageon a streetwhere, I discoveredlater,there had been a confrontation between soldiers and youths the day before. When I approachedthem to see what they were looking for, they opened their hands and showed me theirfindings:bullets,both plastic andlead. They held themup to their shirts,danglingthem therelike a badgesof honor.Symbols of children'sheroism, they were soldiers' bulletsthathadmissed theirtargets.Next I saw a groupof boys playing "Soldiersand Shebab."Those playing soldiers carriedsticks tied to real (though empty) rifle clips. Those playing "the heroes" were swathed in kufiyas, Palestinianheadscarfs.The culminationof these "cat and mouse" games were mock clashes, playedover andover again.One time, the game ended with the shebab luring the "soldiers"into a triumphantambush. Another time, a boy was A third encountersimply "shot" and whisked away by his fellow "guerrillas." ended in a tumbleof wrestleandplay. More thancharades,these games symbolize the "order" of these youths' collective "reality"and their subjectiveplace within the youthof Palestine. thatreality.They reflectthe macabre conflict thatsurrounds The foil to this symbolic form, the antitheticalform, might be termed"the loss of subjectivity"-that which disorientsin madness, which pains underoccupation. In this form a split occurs in the symbolic orderof the would-be martyr. Evoked by a traumatic event, a quiet "deathwish" germinates.Amidst the political, cultural, economic, and agential demands that consume these individuals' world, the voice of the subjectis muted. In the ritualprocess of the martyr,this voice finally speaksin a silentdialoguewith death.The absence of "self' imposed by occupationburrowsdeep into the symbolic orderof the martyr,assumingthe
distinctive features of sacrifice, memory, and erasure.

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as a means to an end; the fulSacrificeis the acceptanceof loss or destruction fillment of an ideal. The call to sacrifice within a living subject whose psychic "wholeness"has already been subsumedby external contingency presents a redemptive invitation.For the would-bemartyr,it is an opportunityto gain subjective controlof life throughdeath,with the addedpromiseof securinga legacy that will carryhis memory (howeverobjectified)into the future. I wastalking to oneof myclients. Hewas 15or 16.Hesaid,"There willbe many deathsbeforewe can liberate Palestine. We cannotliberate a country without blood.AndI amwillingto make thatsacrifice." Three weekslaterhe wasdead, intheintifada. shotfighting Children alloverknowthesestories andcherish them. Thisis howthemeaning of sacrifice is passed downgeneration to generation. [Dr. 22, 1991,theGazaStrip] Eyadel-Sarraj, psychiatrist, August Sacrificeis an ideal sharedby manywho have come close to death.Interviewinga group of politically active youth at Bethlehem University, they proudly showed me their scars from bullet wounds and beatings as evidence of their commitment to the intifada.These indelible brandssketch the boundaryeach has pushed between life and death in the name of sacrifice. "Lossof subjectivity" is further expressedin the exaltationof memory.Memory is somethingthat serves to bringto mind an event, person, object, or circumstance thathas passed. The memoryof a homeland,the memory of shuhadaa who have fallen, the memoryof a time when the "self' was freerbefore Israelioccupation: these legacies interweaveto gauze the space of an absence. For those too young to rememberwhatit was like before such thingsbecame memories,the legacy is more a phantom,an image passed down throughthe memories of theirparents and friends like a shadow thatlooms in the presence of their everydaylives. One day, when I was coming home from a long triptouringcamps in Gazaand inof my hotel, Um-Khalil,greetedme at terviewingrefugeefamilies, the proprietress the door.With knowing eyes and a smoke-filledlaugh, she inquiredaboutmy day and invited me to join her for some coffee in the sitting room. I noticed a needlepointpoem hangingover the fireplaceandasked if she would readit to me. She approachedthe hearthand read, I walkbetween darkness andlight thenightof exile andtheshinning of home. memory ThelandI knew is givenupto strangers There in thesunshine do theyfeel myshadow? tween the subject and "the real"in the formulationof a synthesis. Symbols are erectedto createcontinuitywithinthe martyr'sworld, a synthesisthatconsolidates the subject.Throughthese symbols,the martyrgains a sense of presence, however alteredin its subjectivity.They presentthe fledgling scene of a new reality;a type of subjectivitycloser to symbol thansubjectthat assuages the need for a sense of self. "Presence" of this orderis experiencedto varying degrees of tenacityamong
From out of the circumstance and loss of subjectivity, a reordering occurs be-

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Palestinianyouth,the most frailof which is reflected in the commonplacesymbol of the Hanoonflower. A young man who had been imprisonedseveraltimes told me, We areliketheHanoon; redflower thatgrowswildhere youknow,thisbrilliant in Spring. If youtakeusfromtheground, we willdiein aninstant. Butas longas inthesoil,we willthrive we remain andreturn 2, 1991, everyseason. [September Jerusalem] "Presence"is more stridently articulatedin the expression of sumud, or "steadfastness." Sumudpermeated the ethnic consciousnessof virtuallyevery PalestinianI spokewith aboutthe occupation.It is presentin the literature, the poetry, and the politics of the people. Sumudillustratesa deeply held convictionof Palestinians,young and old, to bearthe hardshipsthatthey face daily underoccupation in the hope of one day outliving the alienation,oppression,and marginalization they have withstoodfor generations.It is often depictedin the image of roots (al juthur)bindingPalestiniansto theirland. Thereare roots extendingfrom portraits of martyrsin privatehomes, roots paintedwith political slogans on public walls, and of course,the symbol of roots growing from the ancientolive tree-the quintessential emblem of Palestinian steadfastness. The perseverancesymbolically of roots reflects the psychic permanenceof the spoken throughthe representation martyrin life andin death. of life over deathin the symbolic form of synthesisis expressed The triumph most vividly in the "victory"of the martyr'sfuneral.It is a ceremonyenactedas a wedding, where the shaheed is marriedto the land, body to soil, past to present-forever. without anend, Thisis thewedding Ina boundless courtyard, Thisis a Palestinian wedding: Neverwillloverreach lover as martyr... orfugitive. Except -What yeardidthisgriefbegin? in thatPalestinian anend.[Elmessiri -It started 1982:201] yearwithout of the shaheed.It is This "marriage" is the ultimatetestamentto the "permanence" "an act of homage to the missed reality-repeating itself endlessly in some never from the life stage that attainedawakening" (Lacan 1973:58) It is a disappearance enables the voice of the martyrto emerge and be heard(Pandolfo 1997). These symbols, organizedaroundthemes of absence, memory, rootedness, and triumph, spokenthrougha vocabularyof body and land,designatea symbolic of "place"that orderthatlocatesthe martyrat its center.They enable a reclamation and in a dream.It is a "felt"place thatcarriesthe ironyof exists only underground death-of no longer feeling-at its apex. It is not a feeling driven by despairor melancholy.The feeling is one of aspiration,of hope, of the possibility of conseand collectively cratinga symbolicorderof meaningthatis at once self-referential affirmativein a timeless universe.

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The Story of Maha Hamdi

Maha Hamdi was the first female martyr of the Intifada. She was martyred on December 11, 1987, at the age of 19. Her story was told by her brother, September 5, 1991, Nablus City, the West Bank. Maha felt humiliated.She was depressedabout how the occupationhad treated our family. Ourbrotherhadjust been releasedfrom an 18-monthprison sentence for throwing stones. Our motherhad also been interrogated recently for hiding wantedshebab.She deniedhavingdone so andspiton the feet of herinterrogators. That got her a month in prison. Maha was outraged.She decided to take action and participateactively in the intifada.She collected stones for the shebab and broughtthem waterduringclashes. She was very reliableand well trusted. On the morning of her death, Maha went to Friday morning prayers at the mosque. When she and the othersemergedfrom the mosque, they were harassed by soldiers. She saw an elderly man being beatenfor being out duringcurfew the night before. Tensions escalated in the camp. The shebabbegan to throw stones. Then the shooting started.One boy was shot dead. People surroundedthe shebab to protectthem. Maha's fiancee picked up the body of the dead child and starteda funeral procession to the cemetery. The soldiers called a curfew, but no one paid attention. They moved in on the procession.Mahatold the shebabto flee andtriedto slow theencroachingsoldiers. She stoppedto confrontthem. They backedher into a comer. She began fighting with them hand to hand. They said, "Stopresistingor we'll shoot.""Thenshoot me," she said and made a breakto escape them. She ran ten meters before they fired and Maha fell. The soldiers left her thereon the groundand ranpast her to pursueotheryouth. The shebabtook Maha to the hospital where she was pronounceddead. They returnedher body to our house later that day. That night, the soldiers came demandingto take Maha's body to an Israelihospitalfor an autopsy.We resisted, but the soldiers broke into the house and beat my motherand my uncle. Two days later,the soldiersbroughtMahaback to the house at midnight.They told my motherto bury the body by herself. No one else was allowed to see her before she was buried in the ground. Conclusion The ritual of the martyr begins quietly with a thought, the thought of dying, the opening of another scene (Pandolfo 1997). In the contemplative encounter with death, a voice emerges from the conscious, the "real," and the dream all at once. It is the voice of the subject echoing on a stage where "reason" no longer matters. It "touches" the symbol of the martyr and recognizes aspects of itself. But as the self climbs into martyr's clothing, as the performance becomes public, a transformation takes place. The subject assumes an image, an image with a history, an image with a voice. He becomes the mirror of the martyr and only in exteriority can he recognize himself (Lacan 1977). He begins to put himself in harm's way, as a way of re-membering the body of the voice he has found. He becomes narrative (L6viStrauss 1967). He becomes an ideal, his self reconstructed in an image. And as he falls before the bullet, he feels no loss, for the performance has allowed that which has been forgotten to be remembered. And somewhere, amidst this crazy gestalt of occupation, the permanence of the martyr's "I" is forever implanted.

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"The act of telling [a story] lends dramatic narrative form to a dialogic process" (Peteet 1994:37). Navigating the contextual ambiguities of occupation, the ritual of shahada enables cultural, political, and intrapsychic tensions to be explored, acted out, and worked through (Hammoudi 1993). Each participant brings to his role an interpretation and each death signifies a unique transformation of subjectivity marked by a common performative deed. The symbols of martyrdom (blood, sacrifice, death, and marriage) articulate the disparate voices of the performers. What is shared is an authenticating enterprise in the space of contextual madness. Rituals can be read as texts of empowerment, enactments of idealized roles, fictions that explain or vindicate reality (Peteet 1994:32). They are stories that grant meaning in performance. The ritual of the martyr is one he performs for himself and for those who survive him. A relationship is established between the presence of the self articulated in death and an absence that remains in the memory of the living. The death of a martyr marks both the beginning and end of public inscription. To the extent the martyr is reconstructed here, and in the retelling of his story by those who knew him, his subjective tale lingers in ambiguity. We can know only the residue of a ritual process that has structured the culmination of a self given in sacrifice to others. What does it mean to prepare oneself as a sacrificial body, a symbol of life and perseverance in death? The state of emergency from which these martyrs act demands insurgent answers that defy our most fundamental assumptions about rationality, the locus of identity, and the will to live (Bhabha 1994). In death, the martyr has projected himself into the unthinkable. He is absolute subject and object at once (Lacan 1977)-a self freed from external exigency, and a body offered in sacrifice to a nation.
NOTES

This article is but a piece of a largercommitmentand learning Acknowledgements. enabledby many people to whom I am greatlyindebted.I would like to thankthe trajectory friendsandfamiliesin Palestinewho openedtheirheartsandhomesto me, especiallyKhaled, andZaherWahabnourishedmy earliest Ranna,Riham,GhadaandWa'el. Dick Rohrbaugh interestsin Palestine. Khalil and Anne Barhoumand CarolDelaney at StanfordUniversity guidedme throughthe complexityandnuanceof this fieldwork.Along with my family, Gay career. Beckerhas been a vital sourceof supportandencouragement throughout my graduate Manypeople offered theircommentsand suggestionto variousdraftsof this article.I would like to thankPeter Solberg, SharonKaufman,JudithBarker,the editorsof this journal,as well as my anonymousreviewers. Last, I would like to thankStefaniaPandolfo.Without her inspiration, this articlewould never have come to be. I am deeply gratefulto you all. Correspondenceshould be addressed to the author at the Medical Anthropology Program,University of California, San Francisco, 1350 7th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143. 1. Intifada is a Palestinian uprising, a principallyyouth-led resistance movement mobilizedto confrontthe Israelimilitaryoccupationof the Palestinianhomeland. 2. It is worth mentioning that I was introducedto various Palestiniancommunities throughthe families with which I lived, families I met in the course of volunteeringEnglish services to a local press agency. The durationof my home stays rangedfrom 2 translation to significantinformantsby to 4 weeks, often not consecutive. Being personallyintroduced families grantedme morereadilythetrustandconfidenceof thecommunities well-respected

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"THE DIVINE IMPATIENCE"

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in which I lived and allowed me access to individualsmore difficult to approach "fromthe outside."While I intervieweda numberof political activists and individualswith histories of arrests and imprisonment,my personal security was never at risk; great care and precautionregardingmy well-being was takenby all with whom I spoke. 3. The namesof Palestinian andpoliticalactivistscited youthwho have been martyred in this article,as well as dates of theirstories, have been changed to protecttheiridentities. Real names cited from interviewswith academics,health professionals,and publicfigures are used with theirexpress permission. 4. This articlewas submittedto MAQ in May, 1995.

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