Film Depicting Human Side of Suicide Bombers Wins Golden Globe

A movie presenting the human(?) side of two Moslem suicide bombers with a mission to kill innocent Jews in Tel Aviv won a Golden Globe award Monday night for best foreign language film. The film, Paradise Now, depicts 48 hours in the lives of two young terrorists recruited to kill innocent Jews in Tel Aviv by blowing themselves up for the glory of Islam.

Paradise Now portrays what terrorists have to endure to prepare for a bombing: getting military haircuts, eating a last meal, videotaping their last words, and strapping their bodies with explosives.The film also presents the terrorists’ emotional anguish brought on in part by lingering doubts about the reward promised to martyrs in the afterlife. The main characters blame Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria and Shechem, the area’s largest city, for their motivation to carry out the attack.

Daniel Pipes, a commentator on Middle East affairs, called the movie “propagandistic,” saying it “whitewashes Palestinian suicide bombing.”

Hatred of Israel is also a dominant theme in the movie. As the action progresses, one of the characters decides not to carry out the attack. The other character, however, decides he must blow up Jews. His cites the “occupation” and the need to overcome his shame for having a father who was executed by Arabs for cooperating with Israel.