Mothers of Martyrs — Excusing Or Promoting Terrorism, Or Something Else

Mothers of martyrs shock us, if we are still able to be shocked. A translation of the words of the mother of the terrorist who stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel on June 30th has been making the rounds on the social media. She comes out in support of what her son did. She is, therefore, being portrayed around the pro-Israel social media crowd as an evil person; what she says certainly corresponds to that characterization.

I must admit, I do not see here a woman who believed what she was saying. I see a woman who was forced to make that pronouncement. Her eyes betray her sorrow and I do not really think she is rejoicing in the martyrdom of her 17 year-old son. You may want to enlarge the video to full screen, as I did, and see if you see what I saw in her eyes.

Having been exposed to videos of mothers of martyrs in the past, my curiousity was aroused. I decided to search for other videos on the Web and view them all at once to explore whether or not there is a possible pattern. The search results were very disheartening.  Regardless of whether a mother is happy for, or distressed by, the martyr status embarked upon by her son or daughter, mothers are all in a trap. I do not believe that they know their way out of that trap. I will explain. But first, let us look at some of what I found.

First is the mother who says she understands why her son chose martyrdom but wished it had been one of his other brothers — because this particular son brought her so much joy.

While I would not like to be one of the brothers she wished martyrdom for, what I found particularly chilling was this:

“It was sad and joyous about him, meaning, he always liked the Shahada (Martyrdom). All children at his age do.” [emphasis added]

Such a statement shocks yet does not shock us. We are well aware of the brainwashing that goes on in schools and on the media teaching children to want to grow up to kill Jews.

And here we see a mother who says she actively raised her son to be a martyr.

In her own words, she raised him to be the martyr that she, herself, could not be in her day. So I guess one of the wonders of feminism is that it has released women from being able to ONLY be mothers of martyrs to now having the option to be one herself. Israel has seen a growing number of women take on the esteemed role of martyr.

Some mothers of martyrs seem laid back in their interviews. We do not know how long after her son’s crime the mother in the following video was interviewed. It is clear that she knew about his plans. It is not clear if she tried to do anything to stop it. She looks calm and undisturbed by his death. Is she really? Perhaps she has numbed herself so she feels nothing? We cannot say based only on this video.

We do know that some parents have called the security services to report a child they suspected had set out to commit terror, asking them to pick up their children before they could carry out their plans. We do not know whether the report was made solely to prevent their houses from being demolished or because they really did prefer their children to be in prison rather than dead.

Some mothers of martyrs are not happy with the pervasive indoctrination into martyrdom. Here is one mother (and father and friend) who was/were willing to come out openly and say so:

I hope they are not in danger for having so openly opposed the culture of death.

To see the extent of mental manipulations that are engaged in, watch this short interview. Amal Al A’araj, calling herself a women’s rights activist, defends the demonstration of joy when a mother’s children are martyred. She says this does not mean that the Palestinian Arab mother has no feelings.

“The Palestinian woman who makes sounds of joy for her martyred son was raised by a Palestinian woman greater than her in her love for the homeland and [the belief] that Palestine ‘is more precious than my sons.’ Palestine is one; I can give birth to 10 or 12, . . . We can all see that she cries first, and then makes sounds of joy.”

So now I ask that you look into the eyes of the mothers of martyrs when their videos are shared with you. You will see eyes that betray sadness and grief, eyes that are lifeless and numb, and eyes that do, in fact, seem to project true joy.

Mothers of martyrs are created by brainwashing. That is the only way to break down a mother’s natural impulse to protect her children no matter how old they are. There is no other way to understand how a mother goes from screaming out the pain at her loss to handing out candies as if the day of his death is his wedding day.

I am sad for all these mothers of martyrs.

I am sad for the mother who does not agree with sacrificing her children but cannot say so out of fear for her own life or perhaps the lives of her still-living children. I am sad for the mother who has had all her life-energy drained from her until nothing seems to remain, and I am sad for the mother who has been so brainwashed that she sincerely believes that this is how a mother should behave and even feel.

Grooming Children for Martyrdom

As I write these lines I reflect on the changing nature of parental expectations of their children over the ages. Our Western way of encouraging our children to find their own way in the world, to discover for themselves how they want to earn their incomes and run their lives is still so new in human history. And perhaps in many Western families this is not strictly true even today. For is it not true that birth order determines in many families around the world the fate of that child? This son is to enter the Church; this son is to take over the family business; that son is to be the one to go to university; this daughter is to remain unmarried to look after her elderly parents, etc.

In the Palestinian Arab family, this child or these children are to be martyrs. Just another variation on a theme.

If you raise a child to be a martyr what does that mean about your attachment to that child? And what if the “wrong” child is the one to pick martyrdom, as we saw in the first video in this article?

A Mother of a Martyr Meets a Mother of a Victim

Finally, I want to show a set of two short videos. The mother of Rachel wants to talk with the mother of Ayat, the young woman who killed Rachel in a terrorist attack. She wants to talk mother to mother. She makes an attempt to break through the sense of righteousness that allows Palestinian Arabs to see terrorists as heroes when they kill Jews.

But Ayat’s mother cannot set aside the it-is-all-because-of-the-“occupation” stance, a victimhood Palestinian Arabs seem to think is uniquely theirs of all the peoples of the world. Only if Rachel’s mother would be willing to accept that there is terrorism because Israelis are horrible occupiers would Ayat’s mother agree that they have anything in common.

There is likely a reciprocal relationship between mothers of martyrs and Palestinian societal endorsement of martyrdom. What is it going to take to break the vicious cycle? And don’t tell me the answer is peace talks or stopping the so-called “occupation.” The only thing that will stop this martyr-worship is when terrorism against Jews (the Zionist enemy) will exact too great a price for the Palestinian Arab leaders to bear.

Mothers of martyrs has been the subject of some academic papers and I will bring you what I learn from reading the professional literature at some future time. For now, I hope you are as saddened as I am at the stealing of souls, the results of which have turned mothers of children into mothers of martyrs.