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VII.

Grounded Theory Analysis of Shared Themes of Terror Motives

In order to understand the motives behind terrorism, it is important to conduct quantitative research as well as qualitative research, the latter of which we will explore in this section. 35 interviews of terrorists, both in prison and out of prison were examined in order to find common themes between them in regard to their motives. The individuals interviewed varied from low-ranking to upper leadership and ranged in age from teens through 56 years old. All were males. Their roles were mostly bombers who ended up not going through with their suicide missions as well as recruiters, bomb builders and leadership. For this analysis, the grounded theory method was used in which cases were grouped together to find patterns, then grouped into concepts and categories.

The most common of all themes cited by those interviewed were justice and liberation of Palestine. Throughout all the age groups from 16-24 year olds through 40-59 year olds, this theme was cited first when asked about their motives in almost all of the cases. The other themes were defense against the West, pessimistic outlook on life, revenge, persecution, martyrdom, inability to leave, and the destruction of Israel. The theme of justice and liberation was also stated as justice and liberation of all Muslims, not just in Palestine in many of the cases. Despite the fact that terror groups in Palestine have very specific aims, the supreme ideology spoken about during these interviews overlapped with those of transnational terror groups.

When grouped by rank, low-ranking members would be considered bombers while high-ranking members would be considered bomb makers, recruiters, and leaders. Of the low-ranking as well as the high-ranking, justice and liberation of Palestine was the most common motivation for both groups with 50% of low-ranking and 100% of high-ranking responding with this motivation. This is clearly the end goal of all the violent groups in Palestine, which is discussed in greater detail in a later section. The second popular motivation across both categories is revenge. 50% of low-ranking members and 66% of high-ranking members cited this as a motivation. Phrases like “an eye for an eye” or “avenging for the deaths of Palestinians” were used by both groups. For the high-ranking, revenge is the second most common response.

Amongst the low-ranking members, the top motivation besides justice and liberation of Palestine and revenge, was martyrdom. 50% of low-ranking members cited this as a motive. The high-ranking members did not cite martyrdom as a motivation which correlates with the differences of roles they have versus low-ranking members who carry out suicide bomb attacks and thus persue martyrdom as their end goal. Other themes of low-ranking motivations were inability to leave (50% vs. 0% of high-ranking) and persecution, with 25%. Interestingly, high-ranking members did not mention persecution outright as a motivation for terrorism but the language used when discussing why the justice and liberation of Palestine suggests it is implied.

For high-ranking members the most popular motivation was the destruction of Israel which was mentioned by 33% of those interviewed versus 0% of low-ranking members. Just as martyrdom was cited by half of the low-ranking members in relation to their objectives, destruction of Israel being mentioned by higher-ranking individuals also speaks to their objectives. Considering they are not the ones who carry out suicide attacks and aren’t on the “front lines”, their long-term goals clearly influence their motivations.

The other two motivations which were patterns throughout the interviews were defense against the West and pessimistic outlook on life. Both of these motivations were close to equal between both groups with 25% of low-ranking and 33% of high-ranking mentioning defense against the West as a motivation and 25% of low-ranking and 33% of high-ranking mentioning pessimistic outlook on life. Interestingly, these results show that a pessimistic outlook on life was slightly more common for those in higher positions than the low-ranking members who were being groomed for suicide missions, which comes as a surprise to what would be expected from low-ranking members.

The most common age group in the low-ranking category was 16-24 years old with 67% of those interviewed falling into that category. As expected, the older age groups which were 25-39 year olds and 40-59 years olds made up most of the high-ranking positions. Those interviewed in those age groups were 11% and 22%, respectively. Since most of the low-ranking members are those who are carrying out suicide bomb attacks, when grouped by age this shows that the youth are the ones who are the most vulnerable to be recruited.