The Road to Martyrs' Square A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber

In this unique study, Ann Marie Oliver and Paul Steinberg go deep into theworld of the Palestinian group Hamas in an effort to understand what motivatesthe movement's young suicide bombers. Combining in equal measure the criticaland the compassionate, the tragic and the absurd, this memoir chronicles twojourneys--an exploration of the cult of martyrdom, and the struggle forfriendship across seemingly impossible divides.Both authors lived for six months with a Palestinian refugee family in the GazaStrip at the beginning of the intifada, learning about the lives led by them andother refugees. Over the following six years they traveled the West Bank andGaza, collecting graffiti, videotapes, audiocassettes, posters, and other streetmedia. Their book is based on these primary materials (with 66 illustrationsincluded) as well as dozens of interviews with leaders and followers, includinga rare interview with a Hamas suicide bomber whose bomb failed to explode on anIsraeli bus in Jerusalem. Dispensing with the cliches and platitudes surroundingthe Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book provides access to hithertounavailable materials which make it clear that the suicide bomber is not just anIslamist phenomenon but rather a widely shared fantasy that thrives undercircumstances not defined by religion or politics.Here is an important and timely work that will challenge the way we think aboutthe intifada, suicide bombers, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Anne Marie Oliver and Paul F. Steinberg are writers based in Portland, Oregon. They are Research Scholars in Global and International Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and former Visiting Scholars at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.