RT Article
T1 Interviews With, and Tests of, Palestinian Independent Assailants
JF Terrorism and political violence
VO 34
IS 8
SP 1595
OP 1616
A1 Merari, Ariel
A2 Ganor, Boaz
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1818088878
AB This study was designed to investigate the background, psychological characteristics and motivations of independent actors who carried out attacks in Israel. It also examined the antecedent factors that influenced their decision to carry out an attack, and their retrospective attitudes to the act. Forty-five Palestinians who had carried out attacks against Israeli targets on their own initiative were interviewed in prison about their background, motivations, circumstances and process of the attack. Thirty-nine of them were also interviewed by a clinical psychologist and took a battery of psychological tests. Twenty-six of these were diagnosed as suffering from one or more of the following: psychotic background, severe personality disorder, and suicidality. A considerable number of the participants described personal, family or social problems that influenced their decision to carry out the attack. Three dominant motives for carrying out an attack were identified: suicidality, a psychotic state, and an ideological national-religious motivation. The characteristics of the attack were influenced by the dominant type of motivation. The discussion compares the findings of this study with those of a study on suicide bombers and with studies on behavioral characteristics of independent actors in other countries.
K1 Palestinian terrorism
K1 terrorist motivation
K1 lone wolf
K1 terrorists’ psychology
K1 Lone actors’ terrorism
DO 10.1080/09546553.2020.1821668