[News] Is Uday Al-Tamimi the icon of the third intifada?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221025-is-uday-al-tamimi-the-icon-of-the-third-intifada/>
Is Uday Al-Tamimi the icon of the third intifada?
Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh - October 25, 2022
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

The last will of the young martyr Uday Al-Tamimi, written by hand after he
had managed to outfox the security system of a country that claims to be a
great state with an invincible army, was remarkably mature. "My
[resistance] operation at Shuafat Checkpoint was a drop in the stormy sea
of the struggle. I know that I will be martyred sooner or later, and I know
that I did not liberate Palestine through this operation, but I carried it
out with a goal in mind; for the operation to mobilise hundreds of young
men to carry arms after me."

This hero's exploits will pass into legend. He managed to break through a
checkpoint in Shuafat, north of Jerusalem, bypass the Israeli guards who
torture the Palestinians by making them stand for hours in queues to get
through, and give them a dose of humiliation and shame. His dignity did not
allow him to live under the humiliation of a brutal military occupation any
longer, so he aimed his gun at the soldiers, killing one and wounding three
others. Amazingly, he was able to get away.

The occupation authorities went crazy, spending 12 days searching for a
young man with a shaved head who attacked a sizeable group of Israeli
soldiers on his own. A tight siege was imposed on the Shuafat refugee camp
and surrounding areas. Young Palestinian men shaved their own heads in
solidarity, for which the barbers refused to take payment. They also burned
down the surveillance cameras and used Al-Tamimi's name in messages and
phone calls in an effort to mislead Israeli intelligence agents.

Uday Al-Tamimi did not lie low; he chased after the Israelis, attacking
them again near the illegal Ma'ale Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem. He
wounded an Israeli security guard before he clashed with heavily armed
soldiers and fought with rare valour until his last bullet and his last
breath.

*OPINION: 'We will stay here until Palestine is free,' says farmer beaten
by Jewish settlers
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221024-we-will-stay-here-until-palestine-is-free-says-farmer-beaten-by-jewish-settlers/>*

Videos online after his martyrdom showed him shooting even while bullets
rained down on him from every direction. When his gun was empty, he
reloaded, which is when he was shot in the face. With his last breath he
joined the ranks of heroic Palestinian martyrs who refused to accept any
more humiliation by the occupiers who seized their land. The ranks grow
every day, a human record of the great history of struggle, a totally
legitimate struggle for freedom. The world forgets this legitimacy, and
views events through the hateful Zionist lens that turns the oppressors
into victims, and the real victims into villains. This is a hypocritical
world with no conscience or moral compass.

Thousands of Palestinians flocked to Al-Tamimi's family home to pay their
respects; pride was mixed with sadness. They renewed their intention to
resist the occupation in the footsteps of Uday and the other martyrs before
him, until Palestine is liberated.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said that the old
[Palestinians] will die and the young will forget. She was wrong. Neither
Uday nor the other fine young people standing up for their rights today
knew pre-Nakba Palestine; they are all too young to have lived through the
talks that led to the disastrous Oslo Accords, although they have had to
live with the even more disastrous consequences. The old kept the keys to
the homes from which they were driven by the nascent Zionist state, and
have handed them down to the young people, along with their memories so
that the young will never forget. The process will continue until Palestine
is free from the river to the sea. The Zionists are deluded if they believe
that they will be safe in the land stolen from the Palestinians.

Uday Al-Tamimi was not affiliated with any Palestinian resistance faction;
nor were the five guerrillas who, a few months ago, carried out their
operations in the major cities of Israel, including the capital, Tel Aviv.
The guerrillas killed 14 Israelis and wounded at least 20 others. They
infiltrated the occupation state, thwarting the much-acclaimed Israeli
security, precisely because they were not part of any larger group or
resistance movement. They were individual initiatives reminiscent of the
first Palestinian intifada, hitting targets in the Palestinian territories
occupied in 1948 that Israel considers to be within its safe (yet never
declared) state borders.

It is significant that these fighters used automatic weapons, not explosive
vests as in the past. These were not indiscriminate "suicide" attacks. The
targets were serving soldiers, police and border guards, even though almost
all Israelis have weapons and are in the reserves as part of their
compulsory military service.

In the darkness of the Arab world, there is light emanating from Palestine,
from Jerusalem and the West Bank, from Shuafat to Jenin and Nablus, which

[image: What does the future look like for Palestine? - Cartoon
[Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]]

What does the future look like for Palestine? – Cartoon
[Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Israeli forces are still besieging as they look for the Lion's Den whose
members are responsible for many operations. We are witnessing a new kind
of resistance faction without a declared leadership; whose youth hang red
ribbons on the barrels of their guns to symbolise unity within the
Palestinian ranks. These young Palestinians have restored the national
liberation struggle; they are not interested in the lost cause of political
horse-trading in endless negotiations.

The Palestinian heart is still alive, beating with freedom; it has not
grown old, like the "leadership", and surrendered to the Zionist enemy.
Instead, the young people are determined to fight to liberate their land;
theirs is a different path. They are shaming the likes of Fatah and the
Popular and Democratic Fronts, which have faded into the background after
the signing of political and security agreements which see Palestinian
security forces employed solely to defend Israel and its occupation
interests.

It is apparent, therefore, that young Palestinians are ready to carry out
the wishes of Uday Al-Tamimi's last will; and that the struggle will
continue. He seems to have become, unwittingly perhaps, the icon of what
may well be the third intifada.

The Zionists in Israel and beyond fear this; they know what it means. The
soldiers and police deployed across the occupied West Bank will not protect
them. Senior military officers have admitted as much, with 55 per cent of
Israeli ground forces sent to the occupied territory to confront young
Palestinians in anticipation of a new intifada.

*WATCH: Palestinians shave heads to confuse Israeli soldiers
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221017-palestinians-shave-heads-to-confuse-israeli-soldiers/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=588848&relatedposts_position=1>*

Moreover, the collaborators in Ramallah will not protect them, because what
we are seeing is a spontaneous youth intifada with no clear leadership that
could bend under the pressure of military and financial brokers inside and
outside occupied Palestine. They are continuing in the footsteps of the
explosive resistance factions and embody the honourable national unity that
focuses on the legacy of the resistance, not on the legacy of the accursed
Oslo Accords, which have left a mark of disgrace in the history of the
determined Palestinian people.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20221026/d9da9f93/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1584372 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20221026/d9da9f93/attachment.png>