In 1988, at the age of twenty, Souha Béchara attempted to assassinate General Lahad, chief of militia in charge of Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon. Immediately apprehended, interrogated, and tortured for weeks, she was sent to Khiam, a prison and death camp, regularly condemned by humanitarian organizations. She spent ten years there, without trial. Six years were in total isolation, in a six- by two- foot cell, with one meal per day and ten minutes to eat. After an intense Lebanese, European, and even Israeli campaign in her favor, she was released in 1998. In a time when special attention is being paid to the violent conflicts in the Middle East, and Americans despair of understanding what motivates Palestinian suicide bombers, the story of a secular Orthodox Christian leftist rebel risking her life to rid her country of occupying forces, will resonate with Americans looking to understand why young Palestinian girls blow themselves up in crowded Jerusalem markets. More and more young Palestinians,especially young women, talk about their struggle as a nationalist, rather than religious or messianic struggle. Finally a book appears which clarifies, in the most personal terms, why the conflict in Israel and Palestine continues unabated… Coming directly from the voice of a practitioner of armed struggle who was labeled a “terrorist,” Resistante: humanizes the most misunderstood side of the situation;
offers an insight into the roots of a complex social problem; and provides a personal memoir of resistance and oppression. Souha Bechara tells how her childhood, in a country mutilated by 15 years of civil war–a conflict manipulated by foreign powers-led to her resistance. She speaks of the internal flame that allowed her to endure the barbaric conditions of her imprisonment and tells of life at the limits of human endurance-and beyond.