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Maria Alvanou
who entertains suicidal tendencies. 12 For the suicide bomber, it is not the
determination to kill him or herself, but rather the determination to kill the enemy
that is the driving force (Israeli, 1997, p. 104). 13
The criminal dimension of the Palestinian struggle
The word “terrorism” entered our vocabulary of European languages at the dawn of
the French revolution as “régime de la terreur” and was viewed as an instrument of
the State designed to consolidate the new revolutionary government and protect it
from “subversive” elements. The first for which the original term “terrorist” was
used, the Jacobins, spoke of themselves positively as terrorists, with the famous
phrase of Robespierre:
Virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless...terror
is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation
of virtue… 14
After many years and a lot of blood spilled, today's definition of the term in a
random dictionary reads as follows:
“Terrorism is the use or threatened use of violence for a political purpose to crate
a state of fear which will aid in exhorting, coercing, intimidating or causing
individuals and groups to alter their behaviour”.
(Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1976, p.
2361)
As it is generally recognized and repeated often, there is no general official
definition 15 of terrorism, although there are many functional descriptions. “Ten
years of debates on typologies and definitions have not enhanced our knowledge of
the subject to a significant degree ...the study of terrorism can manage with a
minimum of theory”; 16 hence, for the purpose of this paper the definition of
terrorism chosen is the following: “(1). It is premeditated and aims to create a
climate of extreme fear or terror. (2). It is directed at a wider audience or target
than the immediate victims of the violence. (3). It inherently involves attacks on
random and symbolic targets, including civilians. (4). The acts of violence
committed are seen by the society in which they occur as extra normal, in the literal
sense that they breach social norms, thus causing a sense of outrage; and (5).
Terrorism is generally used to try to influence political behavior in some way: for
example, to force opponents into conceding some or all of the perpetrators
demands, to provoke an over-reaction, to serve as a catalyst for more general
conflict or to publicise a political or religious cause, to inspire followers to emulate
violent attacks, to give vent to deep hatred and the thirst for revenge, and to help
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