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News & Analysis

Changing Dynamics Of Struggle In Occupied Palestine

Ayman Ahmed

While speaking at the UN General Assembly, both US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid talked about a ‘two-state solution’ in Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas was not impressed. In his September 23 address to the General Assembly, the Palestinian Authority president lamented that he had “no partner for peace”.

“(Israel) is, through its premeditated and deliberate policies, destroying the two-state solution,” the Palestinian Authority president said in a speech to the UN General Assembly. “This proves unequivocally that Israel does not believe in peace. Therefore, we no longer have an Israeli partner to whom we can talk.”

In Occupied Palestine, meanwhile, hundreds of zionist marauders indulged in their customary provocations by storming the Masjid al Aqsa compound on September 25-26 in their inexorable push to annex Al-Quds/Jerusalem. The killing of Palestinians also continued with the latest murders carried out in Nablus (September 26) and Jenin on September 28 when scores of heavily-armed Israeli soldiers stormed the town.

In Jenin, four Palestinians, three of them belonging to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, were killed. Such murderous attacks have become so routine that the rest of the world pays scant attention to them. Palestinian lives are dispensable.

Also on September 25, at least 30 Palestinians, illegally imprisoned by Israel under what is referred to as “administrative detention”, went on an indefinite hunger strike to demand their release. In making the announcement, Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Support Network, said that 740 Palestinians were held under this draconian policy that has no basis in law.

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions and family members of the hunger strikers, including the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, read out a message from the hunger strikers at a press conference outside the Ofer military prison, where many ‘administrative detainees’ are held:

“The beings of this earth deserve life, and to the enemies of humanity, we say on this land that it is worth fighting so that we can live, and in the context of our continuous struggle, we embark today on an open hunger strike. Our demand is: clean air, a sky without bars, a space of freedom, and a family gathering around the table.

“The demand of the occupation is to separate us from our social reality and our national and humanitarian role, and turn us into dry fragments. Between our demand and their demand, the occupying power carries out the abhorrent policy of administrative detention.”

Against this backdrop, the situation for Palestinians may appear grim. At one level, it is since they have little protection from the heavily-armed Israeli soldiers and illegal zionist squatters (aka settlers). This is just as true of the West Bank as it is of the besieged Gaza Strip that is run by the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA) acts as collaborators for the zionist occupiers. It is run by Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies, all thoroughly corrupt, who are paid agents of the US and Israel. The main function of the PA is to spy on Palestinian activists and to facilitate Israeli crimes against them. This was even confirmed by Israel’s former head of military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, who said survival of the PA is an “Israeli security interest”. Not surprisingly, the PA and its so-called officials are hated by the Palestinians.

Grim as the situation may appear to be for the Palestinians, their biggest strength is that they have not given up resisting the occupiers. Far from it. With every Israeli brutality, they continue to improve their acts of resistance and defiance.

This is seen in how Jenin has emerged as the centre of resistance to zionist occupation. This sprawling town with warrens and alleyways affords great depth to the resistance. With Hamas pre-occupied in Gaza and the PA collaborators despised among all segments of the Palestinian society, this has opened up an opportunity for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to consolidate its position in Jenin. Unencumbered by the constraints of governance, PIJ is able to embark on actions that Hamas may find difficult to undertake.

Every zionist attempt to encroach on Jenin turns into a battle. Inspired by PIJ resistance, the inhabitants of Jenin are able to give as good an account of themselves as the zionists try to impose on them. It was outside Jenin that the zionists shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022.

It was a deliberate act of murder. The Israeli sniper knew exactly who she was. She had the word “PRESS” written large on her jacket. Further, the Israeli sniper aimed the bullet at that part of Shireen’s face which did not have bullet-proof protection. While initially denying responsibility, the zionist regime has now admitted its culpability but refuses to charge the sniper—a cold-blooded murderer.

This is not surprising. Israeli impunity, underwritten by western regimes is making the zionist occupiers even more bold. They will ultimately perish as a result of this murderous policy. Injustice cannot last forever.

The victims will organize, rise up and resist. This is what the Palestinians are doing in Occupied Palestine. The role of Islamic Jihad is growing across the occupied West Bank, especially in Jenin and now increasingly in Nablus as well.

Like Hamas, Islamic Jihad is also primarily based in Gaza. That besieged piece of land affords a degree of autonomy where the Islamic resistance movements can finesse their fighting skills as well as develop more effective weapons against the zionist occupiers.

Islamic Jihad, however, has not limited its activities to Gaza. Its members have made important inroads in the Occupied West Bank where there are more opportunities to confront the zionist enemy. Take the battle to the enemy rather than wait for it to attack, seems to be the new approach.

In Gaza, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad confront the zionist enemy across the arbitrarily drawn border. Hamas has increased its influence in East Jerusalem and for the defence of Masjid al Aqsa. Islamic Jihad has reached out to towns like Jenin and Nablus. More Palestinian towns must be brought into the equation to burn the ground from under the feet of the zionist occupiers.

The end of zionist racism is not far, in sha’Allah.


Article from

Crescent International Vol. 51, No. 8

Rabi' al-Awwal 05, 14442022-10-01


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