ABSTRACT
On 8 June 2003 a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus which was near a stop in front of a large office building not far from the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in Jerusalem. This incident, one among many other violent events, is the focus of the following analysis which examines Israeli culture and its relation to restorative processes. In this attack 17 people were killed and over 100 were wounded. The event was part of a chain of violent acts, responses and counter-responses which were escalating during the second intifada period (2000–4) both in Israel and in Palestinian territories. The direct victims were the bus passengers and the driver, the surrounding bystanders who got injured and their family members. The more indirect victims were the Jerusalem citizens, the Israeli-Jewish community and to some extent the broader worldwide Jewish community which shares collective memories and imagined destiny with Israel as a Jewish state. The victims came from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Israeli-Arabs, ultra-orthodox Jews and an immigrant worker. The direct perpetrator was the person who committed suicide by detonating the bomb, turning himself into another victim of the event. Behind him, as an indirect perpetrator, sending him for his mission stood the Hamas military wing. The Palestinian people overall supported this act as a revenge for the strikes in Gaza against the Hamas leader (Moghadam 2003). Behind them — to a certain level — stood the global Arab community striving to protect its oppressed people — the Palestinians. The violation which occurred here was the shattering of life and well-being of innocent citizens by using a disguised person who chose martyrdom and self-destruction as a method of attack. The latter produces horror for itself. The responsibility for the event in the narrow sense is on the direct and indirect perpetrators as described above. However, it is clear that it is only part of a chain of violence in which targeting and bombing become routine resulting in an endless bloody circle which entices the most extreme responses. This case will be used here as a micro-cosmos for understanding Jewish and Israeli approaches to violence and reconciliation. It can be used as foundations for weaving a restorative process which takes into account the cultural sensitivities and inspirations of both parties.
