[News] Jenin is Just the Start: Did Palestinians Finally Bury the Ghosts of the Past?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/14/jenin-is-just-the-start-did-palestinians-finally-bury-the-ghosts-of-the-past/>
Jenin is Just the Start: Did Palestinians Finally Bury the Ghosts of the
Past?
Ramzy Baroud - July 14, 2023
------------------------------

[image: Image of Palestine Flag.]

Image by Ömer Yıldız.

The deadly Israeli invasion of Jenin on July 3 was not a surprise.

Also, unsurprising is the fact that the killing of 12 Palestinians,
wounding of 120 more and the destruction of nearly 80 percent of the Jenin
Refugee Camp’s homes and infrastructure will not make an iota of a
difference.

Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his lofty promises
of destroying the “safe haven … of the terrorist enclave in Jenin”, must
have known that his bloody exercise was ultimately futile.

Indeed, as the Israeli military machine was toppling homes, smashing cars
and harvesting lives, several Palestinian retaliatory attacks were
reported, including in Tel Aviv
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/ten-hurt-suspected-palestinian-car-ramming-tel-aviv-israeli-media-2023-07-04/>,
on July 4, and in the Kedumim
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/6/shooting-attack-near-illegal-settlement-in-occupied-west-bank>
illegal settlement on July 6.

In fact, unlike the Israeli response to the Second Palestinian Uprising
(Intifada) of 2000, extreme violence will not weaken, but heighten
Palestinian Resistance and counter attacks.

Back then, the Palestinian Authority had a degree of control over
Palestinian groups and managed, although with great difficulties, to
contain the Palestinian street.

Now, the PA has no such leverage.

Indeed, when a delegation of PA officials visited Jenin on July 5, to show
‘solidarity’ and to promise help in the recovery efforts, Jenin residents
kicked
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinians-defiant-amid-damage-after-israel-ends-jenin-raid-2023-07-05/>
the officials out of their camp.

Thus, neither did Israel manage to regain any kind of control over Jenin,
nor did the PA succeed in reinventing itself as the savior of the people.

So, what was the point of all of this?

Writing in Haaretz, Zvi Bar’el linked
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-07-06/ty-article-opinion/.premium/netanyahus-jenin-op-was-a-sedative-for-the-settlers/00000189-27b3-d145-a1e9-37f7a5fe0000>
the whole Jenin operation, dubbed ‘House and Garden’, to Netanyahu’s “loss
of political control” over his government; in fact, the whole country.

It was “a showy operation”, Bar’el wrote, and “no sensible person in the
army or the Shin Bet security service, or even in the silent circles of the
right, actually believed that the operation would eradicate” the armed
resistance, not only in Jenin, but anywhere throughout the West Bank.

A ‘showy operation’, indeed, and the best proof of that is the language
emanating from official Israeli sources, lead among them Netanyahu himself.

The politically, but also legally embattled rightwing Israeli leader bragged
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/7/5/israel-assault-live-gaza-attacked-as-jenin-withdrawal-begins>
about his army’s “comprehensive action”, carried out in “very systemic way
… from the ground, from the air (and) with superb intelligence.”

He vowed to “return to Jenin” if “Jenin returns to terror”, and this “will
happen much faster and with much greater power than what people might
imagine.”

Tel Aviv’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, also spoke
<https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-748955> about the
military’s “success”, in “deal(ing) a heavy blow to the terror
organizations in Jenin”, and recording “impressive operational
achievements.”

But none of this hyped language is true. What Israel refers to as ‘terror
organizations’ in Jenin is part of a much larger phenomenon of armed
Resistance, itself an outcome of an even larger movement of popular
resistance that is felt in every corner of Occupied Palestine.

Quelling the rebellion is not a question of firepower. To the contrary,
Israel’s ‘impressive operational achievement’ has simply poured fuel on a
raging fire.

To distract from his mounting problems, and to keep his hardline coalitions
of far-right politicians and their popular base of illegal Jewish settlers
happy, Netanyahu has done the most foolish thing. He has simply turned a
potential armed rebellion in Palestine to an imminent West Bank-wide
revolution.

Unlike the Second Intifada, neither Israel nor the PA has any leverage over
the new generation of Palestinian resisters. They are neither moved by
false promises of a state, of jobs, of international funds, nor seem to
fear threats of detention, torture or even death.

To the contrary, the greater the violence Israel metes out against
Palestinians, the more emboldened they become.

Any examination of the political discourse of this new Palestinian
generation, including that of social media, demonstrates a degree of
fearlessness that is truly unprecedented.

This courage can be attributed in part to Gaza, whose ongoing resistance
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230504-why-did-israel-lose-deterrence-against-palestine-resistance-in-gaza/>,
despite the siege and horrific wars in the last two decades have greatly
impacted the youth of the West Bank.

And, while PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Palestinian enemies engaged
in a protracted charade of ‘national unity talks’ and ‘power sharing’, the
new generation operated entirely independent from these superficial and
insincere slogans.

Though they were mostly born or matured after the signing of the Oslo
accords
<https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/the-price-of-oslo.html> in
1993, they perceive the political language and culture of that era as alien
to them.

It is as if two different Palestines exist – one of Abbas, Fatah, factions,
Oslo, donors’ money, ‘peace process’ and dirty politics and another of
united Resistance
<https://www.newarab.com/analysis/lions-den-future-palestinian-resistance>
on the ground, *sumoud* (steadfastness), Gaza, Jenin, Nablus, Lions’ Den
and more.

Neither Netanyahu and Gallant, nor Abbas and his PA allies seem to
understand, nor are willing to understand this historical shift in
political discourses, cultures and language.

They are disinterested in the cultural shift simply because it does not
serve the status quo, which has served them well. Netanyahu wants to stay
in power as long as possible; Gallant wants to demonstrate his military
prowess – for the sake of running for a higher office in the future – and
Abbas wants to keep whatever share of power and money allocated to him.

Perhaps, at a deeper level, they all understand that what worked in the
past – more violence in the case of Israel and more financial bribes and
corruption in the case of the PA, will not work in the present.

Yet, they are likely to stay the course simply because they are weak,
desperate and have no long-term visions, let alone real understanding of
what is transpiring in Palestine now.

In some ways, it is a generational problem, and a conflict.

As soon as Israel invaded
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/03/palestinians-killed-israeli-strike-west-bank-jenin>
Jenin, all the traditional actors returned to the old script of previous
Israeli wars and invasions. They scurried into position, using the
ever-predictable language, approving, condemning, applauding and cautioning.

For the older generation, time has stood still. But it has not. The new
Palestinian generation has buried the ghosts of the past and moved on. And
now, they are ready to speak for themselves and to fight for themselves.
Jenin is just the start.

*Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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