Amira Haas writes about the cult of death in Palestinian society:
“There are photo studios in Gaza that keep a broken Kalashnikov or an M-16 rifle that no longer works in a cupboard. Sometimes people come to get their picture taken and ask the photographer to stage them in a warlike pose, with the rifle. ‘Like we, in our childhood, 40 years ago, had our picture taken in a cowboy costume with a hat and a pistol,’ notes W. with a sadness that is mixed with self-mockery. But now, if someone is killed in an attack by the Israel Defense Forces and such a militarist picture of him exists, it is immediately pulled out and the dead person enters the pantheon of ‘resistance fighters.’”
