Suicide in Palestine: Narratives of Despair

This book is the first anthropological study of suicide in the Arab world today. It discusses the effects of life under Israeli occupation on the mental health of young Palestinians, using selected case studies of men and women who have attempted suicide in the West Bank, above all in the city of Ramallah, but also in Jenin. The book is not about martyrs, or those who gain so much media attention by dying for a "holy cause"; rather it concerns those who wish to die for entirely private reasons. Contrary to what might be expected, fatal suicide levels in Palestinian society remain low compared with Western norms, despite the many stress factors that have been shown to contribute to suicidal behavior in the West, including unemployment and social deprivation. In particular, suicide is found to be contrary to the concept of Palestinian identity, of a people under siege for whom resistance is paramount rather than giving in to depression or despair. Above all, Nadia Dabbagh's findings confirm the importance of what she calls "the ripple effects of war." Her research was carried out after the first intifada, during a so-called "peace-building" period, but it clearly reveals the trauma suffered by Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories. The stories she tells mirror the disillusionment of those who had hoped that their lives would improve once fighting subsided and the Palestinian National Authority had been established. The book aims to foster an understanding of suicide in the Islamic world more generally, looking at current and historical attitudes to death and self-killing in Islamic and Arab thought. The distinction between suicide and martyrdom is explored in detail, as are current perceptions of these phenomena in the Muslim world. Book jacket.