At the Doors of Paradise

Current events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict again make it difficult to predict the future for the wider region of the Near and Middle East in general, and for Is-rael and Palestine specifically. The ongoing expansion of Israel s illegal settlement and military incursion policy, the Palestinian resistance to the occupation, the shock and awe condition of the international community, and the international and global financial crisis to name but a few have led to a constantly changing map of (in-)activities, actions of revenge and aggression. During the occurrence of the isti hadiyat, the situational context in the region is also characterised by insecu-rity, armed confrontations, and political deadlock, which culminated in the termi-nology of a second uprising, the al-Aq?a Intifada. This is also the dominant period focussed on in this study. Since the isti hadiyat did not appear out of a vacuum, devoid of interaction and historicity, I have argued that the surrounding circum-stances of desperation and disappointment play a major role in their creation: this includes their emergence per se and the veneration, glorification, commemoration, and immortalisation of the isti hadiyat in the discursive realm. Thus, in order to heroise martyrs, to transcend and mythologise the individual, a collective in the form of a community or society is necessary. Within the collective, texts (encomi-ums, poetry) and discourses have to be produced that glorify the martyrs. These texts and oral accounts have in turn to be received and accepted by the individual and by society with the intention of commemorating the fallen combatant. By means of discourse analysis I tried to reveal and depict systems of interpretation and world views.