Story link
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Commemorating the year-old uprising against Israel, Palestinian university students opened an exhibition Sunday that included a grisly re-enactment of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Wearing a military uniform and a black mask, a Palestinian set off a fake explosion in a replica of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, where a suicide bomber killed himself and 15 other people last month. It was one of the deadliest attacks in a year of Mideast violence and drew widespread international condemnation.
The exhibit at Al-Najah University in Nablus was put on by students who support the militant Islamic movement Hamas, which carried out the Jerusalem attack. Support for Hamas traditionally runs high at the university, which is a hotbed for Palestinian militants and has produced a number of suicide bombers. Thousands of people, most of them university students, visited the exhibit, which is to run for a week in the university cafeteria.
In another part of the exhibit, visitors looked through dark windows to see mannequins dressed as suicide bombers. Each had Islam's holy book, the Quran, in one hand, and an automatic rifle in the other - real suicide bombers often assume this pose in videos they make before staging attacks. One room pays tribute to three Hamas leaders killed in targeted attacks by Israeli troops. Three open graves surrounded by candles hold white coffins for Jamal Mansour, Jamal Salim and Salah Darwazeh, all senior Hamas figures in Nablus. The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him.''
Looking at the exhibits, economics student Ghadir Haddad, 19, said she identified with the displays. "This exhibition shows the reality we live in. Suicide bombings here, killings there,'' she said. "I'm very happy because, as they kill and torture us, they are also killed and tortured.''
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Commemorating the year-old uprising against Israel, Palestinian university students opened an exhibition Sunday that included a grisly re-enactment of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Wearing a military uniform and a black mask, a Palestinian set off a fake explosion in a replica of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, where a suicide bomber killed himself and 15 other people last month. It was one of the deadliest attacks in a year of Mideast violence and drew widespread international condemnation.
The exhibit at Al-Najah University in Nablus was put on by students who support the militant Islamic movement Hamas, which carried out the Jerusalem attack. Support for Hamas traditionally runs high at the university, which is a hotbed for Palestinian militants and has produced a number of suicide bombers. Thousands of people, most of them university students, visited the exhibit, which is to run for a week in the university cafeteria.
In another part of the exhibit, visitors looked through dark windows to see mannequins dressed as suicide bombers. Each had Islam's holy book, the Quran, in one hand, and an automatic rifle in the other - real suicide bombers often assume this pose in videos they make before staging attacks. One room pays tribute to three Hamas leaders killed in targeted attacks by Israeli troops. Three open graves surrounded by candles hold white coffins for Jamal Mansour, Jamal Salim and Salah Darwazeh, all senior Hamas figures in Nablus. The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him.''
Looking at the exhibits, economics student Ghadir Haddad, 19, said she identified with the displays. "This exhibition shows the reality we live in. Suicide bombings here, killings there,'' she said. "I'm very happy because, as they kill and torture us, they are also killed and tortured.''