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A West Bank Village, Home to 12 Recent "Martyrs," Has Suddenly Gone Quiet
(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - Sa'ir, near Hebron, was home to 12 Palestinians who died in violence against Israel over the past five months, the highest number killed in any West Bank town in proportion to the population (18,000). Why have the attacks from Sa'ir halted of late? Sa'ir Mayor Ka'id Jaradat of Fatah said, "I'm raising my son to become an engineer, let's say, or a teacher. He should live in peace with his family, not go out to shoot anybody or engage in a terror attack. That was our message to everybody here in the village after all those martyrs." "The (PA) governor of Hebron came to the village, and we arranged a large meeting with all the dignitaries, clerics, teachers, school principals, representatives of the security agencies. Our message to all of them was: 'We want our children alive.' My message as a leader and representative was, 'I don't want the young people to commit attacks. I want them to live. Let's keep our blood. We don't need or want there to be martyrs every day.' We conveyed this message to the young people via the schools and the mosques. We've tried to calm things down." "The teachers and the principals did not speak out against the martyrs. We never intended anything like that. But they did convey the message that a pupil who does well in his studies, who gets a full education, is the one who shows true steadfastness. He is actually the one who is protecting the Palestinians' right to this land. In other words, those who remain are the successful ones. Not those who die. Those who die are gone, finished."