Ahmad Manasra was 13 when he and his 17-year-old cousin tried to murder a Jewish boy in Jerusalem. The terrorists' story helped propel a narrative about a "children's intifada" seven years ago. That is what that terrorism was called, even though it stemmed mainly from the claim that "Al-Aqsa is in danger."
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A month before the attack, the two took part in a demonstration about Al-Aqsa organized by Sheikh Raed Salah in Umm al-Faham. That is what got them fired up.
The documentation of the attack released last week by Channel 13 News also showed that the "Al-Aqsa is in danger" story played a part in the attack, and that there might be child terrorists in the future who, like Manasra, will claim they suffer from "severe mental disorders."
At one Palestinian school in east Jerusalem, students put on an end-of-the-year play in which they dressed as Jews and Israeli police. One played the part of far-right MK Itamar Ben-Gvir. The students acted out attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and immediately after that, other students dressed as terrorists appeared and acted out the murder of Ben-Gvir and the police. The audience cheered.
Even a terrorist attack that one Ismail Nimer carried on a Jerusalem bus last week, using a screwdriver, was linked to Al-Aqsa. Immediately after that attack, Hamas congratulated the "people of the resistance who defend Al-Aqsa Mosque."
The claim that many of the terrorists are mentally ill or suffer from personal distress is linked to countless attacks. Sometimes, as part of a prisoner's hope of being released from prison because of "serious mental health problems." Sometimes, families claim that they are insane as a way of helping the attackers avoid serious punishment such as having their homes demolished. In other cases, the argument is made to help the alleged terrorist avoid being held accountable for their acts.
All this begs the question – why don't similar issues prompt Jews or members of other ethnic groups to carry out similar attacks? But it's even more important to look at how Palestinian society treats the phenomenon. What the terrorists have in common is that Palestinian society and terrorist groups rush to embrace them, and crown them heroes.
Meanwhile, the mentally ill and people with personal troubles opt for terrorist acts as a way out of their problems, and the Palestinians take these marginalized individuals and boost them into the "martyrs pantheon." All thanks to their attacks on Jews.
The way a marginalized "martyr" sees it before meeting his or her death while carrying out an attack, they earn a double benefit – they posthumously arrive in paradise, and they are remembered fondly and with admiration.
Even if they aren't killed, they and their families gain status. They are given monetary grants from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which have never bothered to distinguish between "normal" terrorists and ones who act out of mental or personal difficulty.
So if the Palestinians don't differentiate between them, there is no reason for us, their victims, to do so. There is no reason for us to consider their mental state or try to understand them.
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